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All this having been said, I think that the level of vitriol PG has been subjected to is completely unfounded. I think it's unclear whether YC is morally oblig

All this having been said, I think that the level of vitriol PG has been subjected to is completely unfounded. I think it's unclear whether YC is morally obligated to lower its standards for female applicants, or to make special efforts to encourage them to apply. The first is fraught, since it implicitly means you're selecting less-qualified people over more-qualified ones (the Ivy League universities do this for disadvantaged minorities, Caltech notably does not), the second would be nice (and I think basically all top-tier universities in the US do this for disadvantaged minorities), but it's not clear to me that it rises to the level of a moral responsibility.

abalone 13y ago
There are other ways of being proactive. I bet if you asked teachers and parents, they'd say 13 year old girls lack female hacker role models to look up to. They'd note how bro-y the hacker culture appears to be. So perhaps our industry could make a greater effort to spotlight and support our very best examples of female hackers, and put them in closer touch with 13 year old girls. And to dial down the bro-iness of events and startup office cultures. Those are examples of being proactive that have nothing to do with lowering standards. Pointing fingers elsewhere in the system is not that different from defending the status quo, because it's an interdependent system.
- jlees 13y ago
  There are initiatives doing both of those things, luckily. Little Miss Geek, Technovation, et al for the first; and various changes including anti-harassment policies for the second (though some companies/events remain quite "bro"-y). Not to say there shouldn't be more of them, or that more hacker role models aimed at all genders and demographics in the early teens aren't needed. There are also more visible female tech role models than there used to be, from Marissa Mayer to Sheryl Sandberg -- but that doesn't stop 15 year old girls drawing a spotty, overweight, badly-groomed man as their idea of a "technologist" when asked. (source; Little Miss Geek TEDx talk) I also want to point out on the lowering standards front, I'm a female hacker who's been coding since age 6, and I was rejected from YC. I'm actually proud of that fact in the light of this discussion. I'd hate the whole foundation of my startup to be the source of such rabid debate, and for folks to think I just got in because I'm a unicorn and we need more unicorns in tech.

abalone 13y ago

There are other ways of being proactive. I bet if you asked teachers and parents, they'd say 13 year old girls lack female hacker role models to look up to. They'd note how bro-y the hacker culture appears to be. So perhaps our industry could make a greater effort to spotlight and support our very best examples of female hackers, and put them in closer touch with 13 year old girls. And to dial down the bro-iness of events and startup office cultures. Those are examples of being proactive that have nothing to do with lowering standards. Pointing fingers elsewhere in the system is not that different from defending the status quo, because it's an interdependent system.

jlees 13y ago
There are initiatives doing both of those things, luckily. Little Miss Geek, Technovation, et al for the first; and various changes including anti-harassment policies for the second (though some companies/events remain quite "bro"-y). Not to say there shouldn't be more of them, or that more hacker role models aimed at all genders and demographics in the early teens aren't needed. There are also more visible female tech role models than there used to be, from Marissa Mayer to Sheryl Sandberg -- but that doesn't stop 15 year old girls drawing a spotty, overweight, badly-groomed man as their idea of a "technologist" when asked. (source; Little Miss Geek TEDx talk) I also want to point out on the lowering standards front, I'm a female hacker who's been coding since age 6, and I was rejected from YC. I'm actually proud of that fact in the light of this discussion. I'd hate the whole foundation of my startup to be the source of such rabid debate, and for folks to think I just got in because I'm a unicorn and we need more unicorns in tech.