5 ms·

Has anyone considered that women just aren't as interested in tech entrepreneurship as men are?

by truebecomefalse 14y ago

saiko-chriskun 14y ago
Not by this wide a margin, no.
- antonID 14y ago
  So what are you saying? YC is sexist and isn't accepting women into Startup School?
  - ruby_on_rails 14y ago
    YC is sexist and isn't providing enough kitchen space for more women to attend.
matthewowen 14y ago
The problem with that attitude is thus: People think "women aren't interested in this", which leads them to think "well, since women aren't interested, we don't have to try to be inclusive at all", which leads to them behaving in ways that mean women don't feel welcome and hence aren't interested in participating. I'm not saying you're guilty of that process - but the "women aren't interested" trope can be rather pernicious.
KMinshew 14y ago
Totally agree with matthewowen's comment above. Also, as a woman in tech, I hear all the time that "women just aren't as interested in computer science as men are," yet in my experience that's not at all the case. In India (where CS is not seen as something that predominantly boys do) 55% of CS degrees go to women. In the 1960s people said, "women just aren't as good at playing instruments as men because they don't have the lung power;" when blind auditions were introduced the number of women accepted into major orchestras tripled overnight. There are a lot of examples of people assuming women "just aren't interested" and that changing very rapidly when cultural barriers and discrimination is removed.
jlees 14y ago
It's an intersection of (people interested in tech) & (people interested in entrepreneurship), both are male dominant though one could argue for a close to equal balance in the latter if you consider any side business entrepreneurship - many women silently start lifestyle businesses and never get recognition for doing so the way rockstar CEOs do. Thinking about it YC's focus on hacker-founders adds another % into the mix too, the percentage of women programmers - I think it's simply math, multiply through and you get the absurd weighting seen at SUS.
perfectbeauty 14y ago
i highly disagree that women aren't "as interested". I, myself with many of my girlfriends, read techcrunch, hackernews, pandodaily, etc. consistently and find us fascinated with this information. However, it's hard to "fit in" with a group of hacker guys. It's like writing with your left hand if you're right handed. Is it doable? yes. but everything feels more awkward and uncomfortable because the community isn't what you're used to. i'm not sure what it's going to take for women to feel more welcome, but understand, that women control more than 1/2 of the purse strings in families, are the social media addicts, and generally like to shop. if you don't create products that cater towards this population, you are missing out on a great market. but it's not different from being a minority in any other situation. you're going to have to work twice as hard to prove yourself, and there's going to be twice as much pressure to be that 'role model' for others.

Has anyone considered that women just aren't as interested in tech entrepreneurship as men are?

saiko-chriskun 14y ago

Not by this wide a margin, no.

antonID 14y ago
So what are you saying? YC is sexist and isn't accepting women into Startup School?
- ruby_on_rails 14y ago
  YC is sexist and isn't providing enough kitchen space for more women to attend.

matthewowen 14y ago

The problem with that attitude is thus: People think "women aren't interested in this", which leads them to think "well, since women aren't interested, we don't have to try to be inclusive at all", which leads to them behaving in ways that mean women don't feel welcome and hence aren't interested in participating. I'm not saying you're guilty of that process - but the "women aren't interested" trope can be rather pernicious.

KMinshew 14y ago

Totally agree with matthewowen's comment above. Also, as a woman in tech, I hear all the time that "women just aren't as interested in computer science as men are," yet in my experience that's not at all the case. In India (where CS is not seen as something that predominantly boys do) 55% of CS degrees go to women. In the 1960s people said, "women just aren't as good at playing instruments as men because they don't have the lung power;" when blind auditions were introduced the number of women accepted into major orchestras tripled overnight. There are a lot of examples of people assuming women "just aren't interested" and that changing very rapidly when cultural barriers and discrimination is removed.

jlees 14y ago

It's an intersection of (people interested in tech) & (people interested in entrepreneurship), both are male dominant though one could argue for a close to equal balance in the latter if you consider any side business entrepreneurship - many women silently start lifestyle businesses and never get recognition for doing so the way rockstar CEOs do. Thinking about it YC's focus on hacker-founders adds another % into the mix too, the percentage of women programmers - I think it's simply math, multiply through and you get the absurd weighting seen at SUS.

perfectbeauty 14y ago

i highly disagree that women aren't "as interested". I, myself with many of my girlfriends, read techcrunch, hackernews, pandodaily, etc. consistently and find us fascinated with this information. However, it's hard to "fit in" with a group of hacker guys. It's like writing with your left hand if you're right handed. Is it doable? yes. but everything feels more awkward and uncomfortable because the community isn't what you're used to. i'm not sure what it's going to take for women to feel more welcome, but understand, that women control more than 1/2 of the purse strings in families, are the social media addicts, and generally like to shop. if you don't create products that cater towards this population, you are missing out on a great market. but it's not different from being a minority in any other situation. you're going to have to work twice as hard to prove yourself, and there's going to be twice as much pressure to be that 'role model' for others.