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Because unfortunately gender matters when trying to raise money to start a business. Investors factor it in to their investment decisions. Sometimes they do it

Because unfortunately gender matters when trying to raise money to start a business. Investors factor it in to their investment decisions. Sometimes they do it on purpose (i.e. Are you going to have kids? Will men in ___ industry take you seriously to do deals with or want to join your team? If I give her money, will she sleep with me?) and sometimes they don't do it on purpose (i.e. Misgivings of whether she can "lead", "be tough", manage money, take risks. More doubts than a man with similar or lower credentials). Last I read something like 97% of venture funding goes to men. 57% of bachelors degrees are earned by women. So it's not like there is a lack of women who can set and accomplish long term goals and manage money.

seriousquestion 5y ago
That's all conjecture. If VCs get a sense that a male moonshot founder wants work life balance, for example, they are unlikely to invest. It's not about gender and discriminating on that kind of surface level. There are always exceptions of course, but it's not useful or reality based to extrapolate those into the rule. Some more stats to think about, which seem to avoid these kind of conspiracies about bias or patriarchy: 93% of prison inmates are men. 70% of homeless are men. 97% of preschool and kindergarten teachers are women. 1.9% of carpenters are women.
- dunnof 5y ago
  How does any of these numbers change the fact that 97 percent or venture capital goes to men?
  - ZephyrBlu 5y ago
    His point is that there may be a reason for that beyond biases. How many women want to grind away for years on a startup vs men? Probably far less.
- dang 5y ago
  Please don't take HN threads into generic gender flamewar. It's tedious and repetitive and inevitably nasty—not what this site is for. We want thoughtful, curious conversation about different things here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=generic%20ideolog%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
  - seriousquestion 5y ago
    Why is a defense of a sexist accusation considered a flamewar and flagged, but the accusation itself isn't?
    - dang 5y ago
      I'm not sure what you mean.
Thorentis 5y ago
Do VCs give women less money, or do women convince less VCs to give them money? Does personality play a role in your ability to convince somebody to give you large sums of money? Is there some kind of similarity between men that do not receive funding and women that do not receive funding? Interesting questions that would be worth investigating, instead of just accusing the majority of VCs of (even sub conscious) sexism.

seriousquestion 5y ago

That's all conjecture. If VCs get a sense that a male moonshot founder wants work life balance, for example, they are unlikely to invest. It's not about gender and discriminating on that kind of surface level. There are always exceptions of course, but it's not useful or reality based to extrapolate those into the rule. Some more stats to think about, which seem to avoid these kind of conspiracies about bias or patriarchy: 93% of prison inmates are men. 70% of homeless are men. 97% of preschool and kindergarten teachers are women. 1.9% of carpenters are women.

dunnof 5y ago
How does any of these numbers change the fact that 97 percent or venture capital goes to men?
- ZephyrBlu 5y ago
  His point is that there may be a reason for that beyond biases. How many women want to grind away for years on a startup vs men? Probably far less.
dang 5y ago
Please don't take HN threads into generic gender flamewar. It's tedious and repetitive and inevitably nasty—not what this site is for. We want thoughtful, curious conversation about different things here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=generic%20ideolog%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
- seriousquestion 5y ago
  Why is a defense of a sexist accusation considered a flamewar and flagged, but the accusation itself isn't?
  - dang 5y ago
    I'm not sure what you mean.

Thorentis 5y ago

Do VCs give women less money, or do women convince less VCs to give them money? Does personality play a role in your ability to convince somebody to give you large sums of money? Is there some kind of similarity between men that do not receive funding and women that do not receive funding? Interesting questions that would be worth investigating, instead of just accusing the majority of VCs of (even sub conscious) sexism.