Stop Telling Women To Do Startups
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Stop Telling Women To Do Startups
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Re: Stop Telling Women To Do Startups
#2I love Penelope Trunk and her political incorrectness. Her advice may always be controversial, but she's never afraid to speak her mind. And she's right too about women. Their natural imperative is to raise children and nurture them - not to do startups. Most also want the social companionship from friends/family as they raise children (which is missing today as most people don't live near extended family), but they don't need to go the extreme of climbing the corporate ladder, or starting a venture.
If anyone wants career advice that makes sense from a human perspective, her blog is a must-read. You just can't dish out career advice without considering human happiness and human nature as a whole.
Re: Stop Telling Women To Do Startups
#3http://croak.eu/vm5Tjy
#whyAllTheMen?!
Re: Stop Telling Women To Do Startups
#4I think she made some very good points. It was a bit ranty, and self contradictory at times:
>On top of that there is evidence that the members of the VC community go out of their way to attract women. Of course, this makes sense. VCs look for underserved markets. Women are likely to address different markets than men, and since there are so few women founders compared to men founders, it’s likely that women are addressing an underserved market.
and then this:
>Whoever started the TED Women’s conference is pathetic.
Uh, ok. Right on TED Women's webpage they say that "Over the past several years, a flood of fascinating data from the worlds of education, microfinance and more has shown an essential link between investing in women and girls and economic growth, public health, political stability."
And it goes on to state that TEDW wants to explore those 'underserved markets' to borrow the author's words, in greater detail, -behavior that she just got finished praising.
But whatever, I'm nitpicking. I think the general thrust of most of her arguments have merit. Women often choose to disengage from the business world to realize life goals that make them happier than what business success can offer them. What guy hasn't had this dream? To be sure, it's probably a different dream. For women, it may involve having children and raising a family for some. For me, it might be throwing caution to the wind and traveling the world. Bottom line is that I think there are some very basic 'non-business' aspirational lifestyles that humans of all walks of life wish they could engage in at different times. Biology and culture have conspired to offer women one of them up on a silver platter if they so choose. Many do, and there's nothing wrong with that.
EDIT: I don't know how scientific this is, but just an ironic post I came across browsing just now. Check out #2 on the list:
http://www.rense.com/general95/regrets.htm
I think this would be an interesting study to formalize and conduct, don't you?
Re: Stop Telling Women To Do Startups
#5In a roundabout way, the author points out that because of differences in preferences between groups, equal access to opportunities don't lead to equal outcomes.
However, the 'equal opportunities don't lead to equal outcomes' argument is often used as an excuse to ignore inequality - if we all pretend we've all got perfectly equal access to opportunities, we can attribute any difference in outcomes between groups to group preferences and call it a day.
Yes, I'd expect that in a world where access to opportunity was truly equal, the gender balance of founders would still be skewed. But that doesn't imply that there's equal access to opportunity in tech today, and it certainly doesn't mean we can say 'no gender problem here' and stop thinking about the ways we inadvertently discourage women from doing what we do.
Re: Stop Telling Women To Do Startups
#6I love Penelope Trunk and her political incorrectness. Her advice may always be controversial, but she's never afraid to speak her mind. And she's right too about women. Their natural imperative is to raise children and nurture them - not to do startups. Most also want the social companionship from friends/family as they raise children (which is missing today as most people don't live near extended family), but they…
If women's natural imperative is to raise children and nurture them, why is Penelope Trunk running a start-up?
I really thought that this kind of overly-simplistic "men do X, women do Y" was in the past now, but of course such things never die.
There was a time where it was generally believed women should stay at home and worry about the children rather than go to school, or vote. I am sure we will look back on this kind of advice in the same way.
I hope you see the irony in thinking that there is nothing stopping women from running startups, but they shouldn't want to, as women want to stay at home and look after the children.
Re: Stop Telling Women To Do Startups
#7I think it makes sense to encourage women to consider doing a start up - yes for some women raising a family is the fulfillment that they want. But for those that do want to focus on a career, it's very possible to feel left out. Although (intellectually) you know that there's no reason why if this guy or that guy can do it, you can't - there's something somewhat sobering and potentially disheartening about almost everyone being "different" than you. As the years start adding, up its the same thing with age - I /know/ that I can do it, but there's that seed of doubt for one reason or another.
So I think it's a good thing to encourage anyone who doesn't meet the standard expected start up founder profile - whether it's women, or people who have been around the block a couple of times. They (we :)), might have good ideas, we might need to be reminded that can be done - and to be pointed in the right direction.
Re: Stop Telling Women To Do Startups
#8I love Penelope Trunk and her political incorrectness. Her advice may always be controversial, but she's never afraid to speak her mind. And she's right too about women. Their natural imperative is to raise children and nurture them - not to do startups. Most also want the social companionship from friends/family as they raise children (which is missing today as most people don't live near extended family), but they…
If women's natural imperative is to raise children and nurture them, why is Penelope Trunk running a start-up? I really thought that this kind of overly-simplistic "men do X, women do Y" was in the past now, but of course such things never die. There was a time where it was generally believed women should stay at home and worry about the children rather than go to school, or vote. I am sure we will look back on this…
Oh for crying out loud... Everyone on the internet now has to include a disclaimer every time they write a general statement that doesn't apply to 100% of people, but is pretty much true . The majority of women don't do startups - that's empirical evidence right there. There's nothing stopping them of course, and I'm not saying they shouldn't do startups. I'm just observing why I think most don't.
Re: Stop Telling Women To Do Startups
#9I love Penelope Trunk and her political incorrectness. Her advice may always be controversial, but she's never afraid to speak her mind. And she's right too about women. Their natural imperative is to raise children and nurture them - not to do startups. Most also want the social companionship from friends/family as they raise children (which is missing today as most people don't live near extended family), but they…
If women's natural imperative is to raise children and nurture them, why is Penelope Trunk running a start-up? I really thought that this kind of overly-simplistic "men do X, women do Y" was in the past now, but of course such things never die. There was a time where it was generally believed women should stay at home and worry about the children rather than go to school, or vote. I am sure we will look back on this…
If women's natural imperative is to raise children and nurture them, why is Penelope Trunk running a start-up?
Unless something changed since October, she is living on a farm raising her kids.
http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/24/how-to-know-when-to-leave-...
Re: Stop Telling Women To Do Startups
#10I love Penelope Trunk and her political incorrectness. Her advice may always be controversial, but she's never afraid to speak her mind. And she's right too about women. Their natural imperative is to raise children and nurture them - not to do startups. Most also want the social companionship from friends/family as they raise children (which is missing today as most people don't live near extended family), but they…
If women's natural imperative is to raise children and nurture them, why is Penelope Trunk running a start-up? I really thought that this kind of overly-simplistic "men do X, women do Y" was in the past now, but of course such things never die. There was a time where it was generally believed women should stay at home and worry about the children rather than go to school, or vote. I am sure we will look back on this…
Her point was that women have a choice, and by nature, women have different options than men. She did not say that all women should just sit at home having kids.