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Silicon Valley VCs and the Gender Gap
fysdt writes with this excerpt from TechCrunch:
"An analysis of Dunn and Bradstreet data shows that of the 237,843 firms founded in 2004, only 19% had women as primary owners. And only 3% of tech firms and 1% of high-tech firms (as in Silicon Valley) were founded by women. Look at the executive teams of any of the Valley's tech firms — minus a couple of exceptions like Padmasree Warrior of Cisco — you won't find any women CTOs. Look at the management teams of companies like Apple — not even one woman. It's the same with the VC firms — male dominated. You'll find some CFOs and HR heads, but women VCs are a rare commodity in venture capital. And with the recent venture bloodbath, the proportion of women in the VC numbers is declining further. It's no coincidence that only one of the 84 VCs on the 2009 TheFunded list of top VCs was a woman. ... Additionally, it is harder for women to obtain funding than for men. ... historically, women-led companies have received less than 9% of venture capital investments; in 2007, the proportion of funded female CEOs dropped to 3%."
I'm a man, I don't have venture capital, so I don't care. If women want more venture capital, its not my issue.
This is my sig.
Women control the majority of money in the US. It seems that that is true simply because they survive longer due to their husbands working their fannies into an early grave. But having money and power in the declining years does not bless them with nimble minds at that age. So if we get a bunch of bright young women willing to dedicate themselves totally to tech in the fanatical way that young males often do we may see women getting more funding. I guess they will have to give up on the baby making, long nails, and endless shopping.
Mmmmm. You *might have* phrased your second sentence differently. I got kind of hung up on "prefer horizontal relations". It took a small effort to understand what your point was. ;^)
But, your point is valid. I seldom take much notice of the competition between women, but, yes, it is there. And, you're right - it is the risk taking that separates the genders, more than any level of competition.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Why don't we see articles about a lack of male nurses or male kindergarten teachers? I would bet there are far fewer male kindergarten teachers compared to female kindergarten teachers than there is male vs female VC.