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The Depressing Gender Gap at the Nation’s Top 71 Venture Capital Firms

16 points by Ataub24 14y ago

tjic 14y ago
Why is a gender gap considered "depressing" ? Women have a bellcurve of capabilities, inclinations and skills. So do men. So do people born inside Route 128. So do left-handed people. Ideally any given person with skill set X should be allowed and encouraged by society to participate in career field Y. ...but the average height of people born in New York is not the same as the average height as is found in Tokyo. The average amount of fast twitch muscle fiber in Kenya is different than that in Chicago. The average enjoyment of sales calls is different among introverts than extroverts. The average enthusiasm for long hours is different for men and for women. If a woman has the skills and desire to be a VC, great. ...but why should I be depressed if this is not the case? There's an implicit unspoken axiom behind all of these sorts of arguments, that all demographics are identical in the distribution of traits. That's false.
- RyanIyengar 14y ago
  Speaking of implicit assumptions, your "not the case" is contrasted with your statement of "skills and desire", so you're basically implying that you wouldn't be depressed since this is just a normal occurrence, some women just don't measure up. That's cool. But that's not what gender gaps talk about. No one is fighting for a female domination over any particular industry. What is being claimed, at least in the suit, has more to do with claims of sexual harassment, and a continuation of sexism and oppression that really was around and quite common until recently. It's less common now, but that doesn't make it any less important to be aware and cognizant of, so you don't fall into the easy trap of assuming that women aren't in positions of power just because they don't want to.
tomp 14y ago
What about the depressing Gender Gap in the Olympic Boxing competitions?!? Some people just don't get it, that men and women have different interests (some of which are most definitely caused by nature, not society, e.g. different hormonal levels in our bodies), and therefore choose different options in life.
rscale 14y ago
Flagged because nothing good will come of this discussion and it won't help anybody launch anything today.
jilebedev 14y ago
What a poor article. That there exists an unequal amount of men and women in a certain profession means nothing on its own. That there exists a systematic bias against a group of people in an industry, wherein the defining quality of that group has no relevance to success within the said industry, is something worth discussing.
chollida1 14y ago
> If you think gender diversity is important, a low FEM is bad and a high FEM is good. This is just plain wrong. If you think gender diversity is a good thing then a FEM of around 50 would be good.
- RyanIyengar 14y ago
  Which compared to the highest percentage cited at 24%, is quite high.

16 points by Ataub24 14y ago

tjic 14y ago

Why is a gender gap considered "depressing" ? Women have a bellcurve of capabilities, inclinations and skills. So do men. So do people born inside Route 128. So do left-handed people. Ideally any given person with skill set X should be allowed and encouraged by society to participate in career field Y. ...but the average height of people born in New York is not the same as the average height as is found in Tokyo. The average amount of fast twitch muscle fiber in Kenya is different than that in Chicago. The average enjoyment of sales calls is different among introverts than extroverts. The average enthusiasm for long hours is different for men and for women. If a woman has the skills and desire to be a VC, great. ...but why should I be depressed if this is not the case? There's an implicit unspoken axiom behind all of these sorts of arguments, that all demographics are identical in the distribution of traits. That's false.

RyanIyengar 14y ago
Speaking of implicit assumptions, your "not the case" is contrasted with your statement of "skills and desire", so you're basically implying that you wouldn't be depressed since this is just a normal occurrence, some women just don't measure up. That's cool. But that's not what gender gaps talk about. No one is fighting for a female domination over any particular industry. What is being claimed, at least in the suit, has more to do with claims of sexual harassment, and a continuation of sexism and oppression that really was around and quite common until recently. It's less common now, but that doesn't make it any less important to be aware and cognizant of, so you don't fall into the easy trap of assuming that women aren't in positions of power just because they don't want to.

tomp 14y ago

What about the depressing Gender Gap in the Olympic Boxing competitions?!? Some people just don't get it, that men and women have different interests (some of which are most definitely caused by nature, not society, e.g. different hormonal levels in our bodies), and therefore choose different options in life.

rscale 14y ago

Flagged because nothing good will come of this discussion and it won't help anybody launch anything today.

jilebedev 14y ago

What a poor article. That there exists an unequal amount of men and women in a certain profession means nothing on its own. That there exists a systematic bias against a group of people in an industry, wherein the defining quality of that group has no relevance to success within the said industry, is something worth discussing.

chollida1 14y ago

> If you think gender diversity is important, a low FEM is bad and a high FEM is good. This is just plain wrong. If you think gender diversity is a good thing then a FEM of around 50 would be good.

RyanIyengar 14y ago
Which compared to the highest percentage cited at 24%, is quite high.