Former Triangle entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa, a U.S. citizen born in India, has fought for gender and cultural equality in the technology industry, over the past two decades. He takes his battle to a new level today with the release of a new book, “Innovating Women.” And his second book is already receiving critical praise.

A humbled Wadhwa is thankful for the support he as well as co-author Farai Chideya are receiving. Yet he remains angry.

“[F]riends have asked why I am fighting this battle…after all I have two sons,” he wrote in an email Monday night to friends and colleagues. “The interview below with Big Think—which is the TED of online conferences—explains why. If you watch the video, you will see my fury at the discrimination, and determination to do something about it.” (You can watch the video online.)

“It starts off with these sexist attitudes that men have,” Wadhwa says in the interview.

“It starts out with their sense of superiority. And then it’s also the upbringing the women have that from childhood they’re giving Barbie dolls, the guys are given masculine toys. And then women are discouraged from studying computing and science and engineering because those are guy’s things. And some of them do have enlightened parents who encourage them to achieve their potential and to change the world. And they go to school and they’re treated different because they happen to be interested in science and engineering and mathematics they’re called – women are considered geeks and nerds or worse they’re looked down at. And they get into college and they’re one of the very few women in it. They struggle, they defy the odds, they get into the workplace and guess what? It’s all male. And they’re one of the few women in their workplace and they’re treated differently. Even though they may be as competent, they may have better skills than the men do, they don’t get the same promotions. They get looked down at.

“And it’s even worse than that. I tell you, the type of stories I’ve heard really disturb me. Women being raped, groped, I mean just I don’t want to repeat it, it’s just sort of horrible the stories I’ve heard from women, heart wrenching stories of how women have been treated by men. This is just outrageous. It is not acceptable. I mean this is a civilized society we live in. How dare we treat the better half of our population like this.”

Among those writing support for the book is Megan Smith, who left Google to become chief technology officer of the U.S. as selected by President Obama. Smith penned positive words in The Washington Post through an excerpt from the book.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to help change the narrative and our actions — all of us, women and men working alongside one another, have an important role to play here,” the excerpt reads.

Wadhwa, who is a long-time and regulator contributor to WRAL TechWire, is among those leading the charge.

Obama’s message

“President Obama couldn’t have picked a better person—Megan is absolutely amazing,” Wadhwa wrote in his email. “Think about the powerful message this sends to the Silicon Valley Boys Club: women may not be good enough for your companies but they are certainly good enough to lead the nation’s technology. I know that Megan will do a lot to change things. She went out of her way to help me with this book.”

He describes Innovating Women as “crowd-created,” having received contributions from an international cadre of writers. Getting the book published was a victory in itself.

Whether the book wins awards as did his “The Immigrant Exodus” in 2012 (an Economist Book of the Year) remains to be seen. But more important to Wadhwa than sales (profits will be donated) or awards is the impact it will hopefully have on the diversity drive to reform technology. Wadhwa has been at the forefront of attacks on the “Silicon Valley Boys Club,” as he calls it. And if companies such as Google, Apple, Twitter as well as others follow through on commitments to diversify their work forces, Wadhwa should be given some of the credit for making that happen.

“It’s not just women [offering praise],” Wadhwa points out. “Legendary futurist Ray Kurzweil said: As someone whose family has been dedicated to advancing women’s careers for one and a half centuries (in 1868 my great-grandmother started the first school in Europe to provide higher education for girls and ran it with her daughter – my grandmother – for seventy years), I am excited by Vivek’s compelling book which shines a light on the remarkable achievements of brilliant and pioneering women in today’s world.”

Check out the Innovating Women website for more details.