Women entrepreneurs talk about sexism

Women entrepreneurs talk about sexism(nymag.com)

28 points by M_Grey 9 years ago | 9 comments

> ‘My wife is a woman, she has a vagina, you have a vagina, let’s see if everything aligns.’ It’s so offensive.”

This sticks out to me, as a point requiring more of a story. At least one example would be good.

For example if you're pitching integrated circuit technology, and the investor mentions something about consulting his wife---then maybe this is a wife/husband business duo (officially or unofficially, those kind of relationships are common). This is something that would have occurred even if the pitcher had been a man, but I have found that men tend to mention their wives more when other women are present. I am not sure why in general, though I could come up with some anecdotes.

If you're pitching something of interest to women[1], then no matter whatever research you have done personally, an investor may want to spot check it with the nearest available woman. Now one may say that's unfair, you've done research and data should win over anecdotes. However, many investment decisions are partially made from gut and instinct, which is why one can be turned down with a statement of "good luck, but I don't think this is the right product/company for me". Usually the instincts questioned are your own, but if the product specifically refers to your blind spot, then you may question someone close to you who doesn't have that same blind spot.

Whilst I've never had a "hey let me mention this to my wife" moment, I have had a lot of people give anecdotes about their foreign born friends (whom only happen to be from the same continent as me), or mention they'll run an idea by someone who happens to be from the same region I am from.

The funniest times are when someone guesses my background wrong, wants to check with someone from the wrong background, then once corrected gets confused about if its relevant at all.

[1] The article is about a Women's Products Company. This could be fashion, which even men can have a passing interest in or it could be generally sex-specific items (e.g. a husbands opinion on a 'good bra' is going to be very different from his wife's; and he probably knows it).

nojvek 9 years ago |

"But it was always, ‘My wife is a woman, she has a vagina, you have a vagina, let’s see if everything aligns.’ It’s so offensive.”

I think this is a big part of unconscious bias sexism

I'm a male so I have little idea what women have to go through but this was educating. Thanks

yathern 9 years ago | |

I actually think that this metaphorical quote is a misrepresentation of the problem. Eariler in the paragraph it mentions that the pitch is a 'Womens Product Company'.

In which case the comment of "I'll ask my wife" may not have been prompted from the fact that the co-founder is a woman - but rather the lack of knowledge about the product area and saying something to the extent of "I'll have to do some research about this".

Granted it's a trivializing way to say it and has sexist overtones - but I think it's not the same generalization as the quote implies.

blackbear_ 9 years ago | | |

That's a good point. I think that quote also shows that some people tend to see sexism (or racism, etc.) even when there is none

ImSkeptical 9 years ago | |

If the target demographic for a startup is women, why is it sexist to talk the idea over with your wife?

mariusz79 9 years ago |

Elizabeth Holmes from Theranos didn't seem to have any problem with getting funding..

AnonNo15 9 years ago |

An equivalent of blind or double-blind testing for pitches would make an improvement, I think.

strictnein 9 years ago | |

But considering a lot of these investments are made because of the people and not just the idea, how would that work?

programminggeek 9 years ago | |

That's a useless idea. It's not a contest and fairness isn't the goal.

You are talking about PEOPLE whose job is to MAKE MONEY and they do it through IRRATIONALLY picking companies to invest in based on their FEELINGS about the deal.

If VC's picked based on numbers, they would invest using software and metrics only. But since they invest based on feelings about people, double blind pitches are an impossible and useless idea.

VC is people selling to people. Learn that game and the whole thing makes more sense.