4 ms·

Articles like these always make the same inference, and then lead to a similar conclusion: If a woman CEO gets rejected over and over, then it _must_ be sexism

by eplanit 17y ago

Articles like these always make the same inference, and then lead to a similar conclusion: If a woman CEO gets rejected over and over, then it _must_ be sexism (and/or racism); and, then a gender- (or race-) biased investment firm steps in to promote business based on the gender of the CEOS/Founders, and a moral transgression is set straight. The article asserts that the recession somehow makes investors stupid and frightened, wherein they think via 'templates' or some archetypal response. I think the word they apply is something more like 'scrutiny' -- at least I sure hope so. It's 2010 -- let's start focusing on merit. I don't care what letters the woman carries from name-brand institutions. It just might be possible that her business ideas don't attract investment. Has that been considered? How many males from these fine institutions also fail in business? I know the number isn't zero.

hassenben 17y ago
Did you just copy paste your comment from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1273711 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1273711?
- hugh3 17y ago
  Maybe he recomposed it, word by word, in a slightly different context. Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote, would be proud.
endtime 17y ago
I don't disagree with your premise, but I think you may have missed this part of the NYT article: >But when she was raising money for Crimson Hexagon, a start-up company she co-founded in 2007, she recalls one venture capitalist telling her that it didn’t matter that she didn’t have business cards, because all they would say was “Mom.” >Another potential backer invited her for a weekend yachting excursion by showing her a picture of himself on the boat — without clothes. When a third financier discovered that her husband was also a biking enthusiast, she says, he spent more time asking if riding affected her husband’s reproductive capabilities than he did focusing on her business plan. That sounds pretty, uh, sexist.

by eplanit 17y ago

hassenben 17y ago

Did you just copy paste your comment from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1273711 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1273711?

hugh3 17y ago
Maybe he recomposed it, word by word, in a slightly different context. Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote, would be proud.

endtime 17y ago

I don't disagree with your premise, but I think you may have missed this part of the NYT article: >But when she was raising money for Crimson Hexagon, a start-up company she co-founded in 2007, she recalls one venture capitalist telling her that it didn’t matter that she didn’t have business cards, because all they would say was “Mom.” >Another potential backer invited her for a weekend yachting excursion by showing her a picture of himself on the boat — without clothes. When a third financier discovered that her husband was also a biking enthusiast, she says, he spent more time asking if riding affected her husband’s reproductive capabilities than he did focusing on her business plan. That sounds pretty, uh, sexist.