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I know HN has many times debated the reasons for the high ratio of men to women in the entire startup field, but I think it's important to point out yet again t

I know HN has many times debated the reasons for the high ratio of men to women in the entire startup field, but I think it's important to point out yet again that sexism does play a role in preventing more women from joining the field. This article is especially interesting because it takes the concerns one step higher and sheds light on how few women are even working at the VC layer. I concede that not every industry needs to have a perfect 50/50 split. But I don't think it's fair to dismiss sexism with the argument that women are simply "less risk taking". Perhaps they're not willing to take risks in this area because they don't see their chances of being rewarded as very good -- e.g., they feel they won't be allowed to be a managing partner, or won't have access to the best investment opportunities.

jacquesm 17y ago
> Perhaps they're not willing to take risks in this area because they don't see their chances of being rewarded as very good -- e.g., they feel they won't be allowed to be a managing partner, or won't have access to the best investment opportunities. How does that change from the point I made ? The chances of being rewarded are minimal, even for the best of the best. If they won't be allowed to be a managing partner then that's between a particular VC and a particular person. That's nothing to do with the general case. If very few women are getting in at the top of the funnel it stands to reason that even fewer will come out at the bottom. To change this you have to change the relationships at the top, the rest will follow. If I would approach the females in my environment with the proposition of starting a business on a shoestring budget with a potential pay off in 3 to 5 years and a very high chance of failure most of them - if not all of them - will decline, but they'll be happy to be employees. For males, using the exact same proposition the situation would be much different. As long as that's the case this situation will persist. You can't make people want to be entrepreneurs and risk takers, everybody makes their own decisions. Those women that I know that are successful in business are probably better at what they do than the men, still, none of them would ever think of joining a fund or funding seed stage start-ups. The risk does not match their profile. They want to control the businesses they invest in. Gambling does not seem to be something that they wish to pursue. And it seems to work well for them, they appear to be much less under pressure than their male counterparts in the same lines of business. They won't make the millions in one go, but they'll steadily clock up hundreds of thousands per year.

jacquesm 17y ago

> Perhaps they're not willing to take risks in this area because they don't see their chances of being rewarded as very good -- e.g., they feel they won't be allowed to be a managing partner, or won't have access to the best investment opportunities. How does that change from the point I made ? The chances of being rewarded are minimal, even for the best of the best. If they won't be allowed to be a managing partner then that's between a particular VC and a particular person. That's nothing to do with the general case. If very few women are getting in at the top of the funnel it stands to reason that even fewer will come out at the bottom. To change this you have to change the relationships at the top, the rest will follow. If I would approach the females in my environment with the proposition of starting a business on a shoestring budget with a potential pay off in 3 to 5 years and a very high chance of failure most of them - if not all of them - will decline, but they'll be happy to be employees. For males, using the exact same proposition the situation would be much different. As long as that's the case this situation will persist. You can't make people want to be entrepreneurs and risk takers, everybody makes their own decisions. Those women that I know that are successful in business are probably better at what they do than the men, still, none of them would ever think of joining a fund or funding seed stage start-ups. The risk does not match their profile. They want to control the businesses they invest in. Gambling does not seem to be something that they wish to pursue. And it seems to work well for them, they appear to be much less under pressure than their male counterparts in the same lines of business. They won't make the millions in one go, but they'll steadily clock up hundreds of thousands per year.