Women Don't Want To Run Startups Because They'd Rather Have Children
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Re: Women Don't Want To Run Startups Because They'd Rather Have Children
#2The author points out that women who want to have kids can't wait very long, generally don't have time to do a startup first, and that you'd have to be crazy to try to do a startup and raise young kids at the same time.
I'm not sure that I believe her arguments about men, though:
For men it’s different. We all know that men do not search all over town finding the perfect ballet teacher. Men are more likely to settle when it comes to raising kids. The kids are fine. Men are more likely than women to think they themselves are doing a good job parenting. This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. Men have to trust that the kids will be okay so that they can leave and go get food or make more kids.
It seems to me that she's ignoring the most important factor: Men have more time to do a startup before having children because men are usually older than their wives. The average age difference is 2 years, but I wouldn't be surprised if the gap increases with education and income.
(Then again, maybe this is just wishful thinking from a single 29 year old who still hopes to get married and have 2.5 children some day.)
Re: Women Don't Want To Run Startups Because They'd Rather Have Children
#3As a woman (and someone who is friends with the Brazen peeps) this is highly insulting. It assumes that all women want to have children, that men are mostly absent/dismissive in their children's lives (if they have them), and insinuates that women just aren't biologically fit to run a company. I know Penelope has kind of made a name for herself in saying things that shock people, so I wouldn't doubt that this is in the same vein. I run a company, work ridiculous hours, and the other devs on my team are male. I don't think any of us puts it fewer hours or energy based on the number of ovaries each has.
Re: Women Don't Want To Run Startups Because They'd Rather Have Children
#4As a woman (and someone who is friends with the Brazen peeps) this is highly insulting. It assumes that all women want to have children, that men are mostly absent/dismissive in their children's lives (if they have them), and insinuates that women just aren't biologically fit to run a company. I know Penelope has kind of made a name for herself in saying things that shock people, so I wouldn't doubt that this is in t…
It assumes that all women want to have children
Headlines omit qualifiers. If you read the headline as "Fewer women than men want to run startups because many of them would rather have children", I think it's entirely accurate. Sure, there are women who don't want children, just like there are men who want nothing more than to be stay-at-home dads -- but they're the exception, not the rule.
Re: Women Don't Want To Run Startups Because They'd Rather Have Children
#5This model of doing business is broken. It can be fixed.
Re: Women Don't Want To Run Startups Because They'd Rather Have Children
#6As a woman (and someone who is friends with the Brazen peeps) this is highly insulting. It assumes that all women want to have children, that men are mostly absent/dismissive in their children's lives (if they have them), and insinuates that women just aren't biologically fit to run a company. I know Penelope has kind of made a name for herself in saying things that shock people, so I wouldn't doubt that this is in t…
Evolutionary pressure in our society will tend toward women that have children, not women who don't have children.
If women all run business, go to wars, and the like. All of which implies that women won't have time to have children because it take 9 months to make a baby as well the maternity leave that come with it. It will be a population disaster if that were ever to happen. Pretty soon, you won't have a self-sustaining population.
In time, women like you will be the exception or already is an exception. Sad, but true.
Re: Women Don't Want To Run Startups Because They'd Rather Have Children
#7As a woman (and someone who is friends with the Brazen peeps) this is highly insulting. It assumes that all women want to have children, that men are mostly absent/dismissive in their children's lives (if they have them), and insinuates that women just aren't biologically fit to run a company. I know Penelope has kind of made a name for herself in saying things that shock people, so I wouldn't doubt that this is in t…
It assumes that all women want to have children Headlines omit qualifiers. If you read the headline as " Fewer women than men want to run startups because many of them would rather have children", I think it's entirely accurate. Sure, there are women who don't want children, just like there are men who want nothing more than to be stay-at-home dads -- but they're the exception, not the rule.
I know tons of successful women who run businesses who are fine without having children; I also know quite a few who have children and are still able to run a business.
This whole argument goes back to the beginning of the feminist movement and people not being willing to hire women because they should be making some man sandwiches and popping out babies.
The trend is leaning towards more women having fewer children, if they are having them at all (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8...).
Re: Women Don't Want To Run Startups Because They'd Rather Have Children
#8As a woman (and someone who is friends with the Brazen peeps) this is highly insulting. It assumes that all women want to have children, that men are mostly absent/dismissive in their children's lives (if they have them), and insinuates that women just aren't biologically fit to run a company. I know Penelope has kind of made a name for herself in saying things that shock people, so I wouldn't doubt that this is in t…
Apparently it only took 16 minutes for the take-offense-out-of-context strawman to rear its ugly head. Did you even read beyond the headline?
The author doesn't say "all women" to the point that a single counterexample disproves the hypothesis. Not only does the auther qualify statements such as "fewer women" but any such analysis is a statistical study of a group. It says something about a group and similar groups but nothing about a specific individual (in a definitive non-probabilistic sense at least).
It's a bit like arguing that the research into the ill-health effects of smoking are nonsense because your Uncle Jack smoked 3 packs a day for 80 years and died at age 95 when hit by a bus (ie not lung cancer).
Re: Women Don't Want To Run Startups Because They'd Rather Have Children
#9This model of doing business is broken. It can be fixed.
Exactly. Working smarter/slower at first, and focusing on a well thought out minimal viable product, then scaling up makes more sense than working insane hours to bang out something fast then burn out.
I figure I have about 60-80 good hours of applied, useful thought a week (not all of which is spent on work related items).
Re: Women Don't Want To Run Startups Because They'd Rather Have Children
#10I think this post is skipping the crucial factor in all this. It's not about children--at least not directly. It's about risk.
Several years ago I read an article that analyzed the work preferences of the genders. It demonstrably showed that:
- Men are more likely to do riskier jobs;
- Men are more likely to travel further to work (including internationally);
- Women tend to choose that are closer to home.
Basically it came down to risk-aversion. Women are, on the whole, more averse to risk than men.
A startup, compared to any salaried job, is far riskier. You can work for years on substandard pay and much longer hours and end up nothing. Of course you could also end up a millionaire (or even a billionaire).
Obviously children will be a factor for some (both men and women but more women than men, on the whole) and you can argue that the risk aversion is a product of the child factor but I think you see these same traits in women who are childless (so you then have to stretch the child factor to women who may one day have children, which applies to pretty much any women under 40 so is really a non-argument).
Tech Crunch had a post about this a few months ago. The tech press wants to write stories about women entrepreneurs. Companies and business schools have diversity policies the result of which is that the entrance requirement for women are generally lower than their male counterparts.
Equality isn't the same thing as being identical. If less than 50% of entrepreneurs or programmers are women is not a failure of equal opportunity. Nowadays there aren't any barriers preventing women from taking these paths (quite the opposite, actually). It's simply that less women choose these routes.