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Poll: Male or female?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Male or female?

#61

Post by [deleted] »

jlees wrote: post #58
SwellJoe wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YC may consider diversity in their portfolio a positive trait. They may also consider the PR value of female startup founders (which is worth considering...it is quite high). And, they may consider their reputation as a forward-thinking, out on the edge of progress, sort of investor. Maybe it's a trend, and maybe they want to be ahead of it. I don't think one needs to look at what good could come of it in the future…

Well, quite frankly, I'm glad YC look at other criteria. Positive discrimination is a terrible thing. Imagine being a woman funded by an investor making an effort to focus on female-led startups. The world knows you were only funded because of your chromosomes. Self-esteem is a big enough problem as it is!

[deleted]

Re: Poll: Male or female?

#62

Post by SwellJoe »

zain wrote: post #51
SwellJoe wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YC may consider diversity in their portfolio a positive trait. They may also consider the PR value of female startup founders (which is worth considering...it is quite high). And, they may consider their reputation as a forward-thinking, out on the edge of progress, sort of investor. Maybe it's a trend, and maybe they want to be ahead of it. I don't think one needs to look at what good could come of it in the future…

What exactly is "forward thinking" about funding startups based on biological traits of the founders instead of their skills, aptitudes, and achievements?

Who said "instead of"?

Re: Poll: Male or female?

#64

Post by whatusername »

tokenadult wrote: post #44

The parenting networks that I hang out on even more than I hang out on HN reliably have female majorities in their posters and their readers. Men are quite conspicuous on such groups, so much so that I tend to assume everyone is female, even if the screen name sounds very male, until I'm told otherwise. I've asked before http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=553145 if any of you know of online discussion sites with a m…

I can think of two small targeted communities that had a pretty good m/f ratio.. Probably only EDIT: Just remembered a site I stumbled upon one time.. Don't know the full details but seems to be pretty evenly split: http://www.themarriagebed.com/boards/

Re: Poll: Male or female?

#65

Post by diN0bot »

[deleted] wrote: post #53
pg wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do. People often ask about the number of female founders we fund. It would be interesting to know whether it's low because of something about startups, or just a reflection of the larger pool from which they're drawn.

[deleted]

i believe tolerance and respect require concerted attention to counteract cultural ignorance and bias. treating differences with equality is not about not caring or not thinking about differences--many racial and gender prejudices result from not questioning or investigating preconceived notions. it takes work to sufficiently care about ones interactions with others and thus conscientiously react to and surmount differences.

it may be that you know as many or more female hackers, founders and entrepreneurs as male, and that your cultural norm is completely surprised by the notion of gender inequality in this context. in that case: cool. your experience validates the irrelevance of gender in these roles.

or it may be that you are ignorant to inequality. whenever i want to blurt out "who cares" or "why do people care", i try to stop and think about other people's perspectives. i guess the short answer is: equality is often useful.

Re: Poll: Male or female?

#66

Post by Alex3917 »

tokenadult wrote: post #44

The parenting networks that I hang out on even more than I hang out on HN reliably have female majorities in their posters and their readers. Men are quite conspicuous on such groups, so much so that I tend to assume everyone is female, even if the screen name sounds very male, until I'm told otherwise. I've asked before http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=553145 if any of you know of online discussion sites with a m…

My guess is that some of the various Yahoo! communities are pretty well balanced (certain mailing lists, flickr groups, etc.), but I don't participate in any of them so I have no idea.

Re: Poll: Male or female?

#67

Post by tptacek »

axod wrote: post #39
mkyc wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said that I would recommend this site, not that I would attempt genetic modification. The linked article is descriptive, not normative. If women might, due to genetic differences, be missing out on a lot of great information because of a 'male' or risky (startups?) or socially transient (discussions only last one day?) climate, then we should try to remedy this.

Sure, I'd definitely recommend it to women who are into hacking, but the number of women who are into hacking is low. Success rate is probably going to be similar to women recommending a site about fashion to male friends. I agree with making sure people are aware what they can do, what is possible etc, but trying to make everything a 50/50 split between sexes is an unachievable waste of time IMHO. Lets embrace and c…

Attentiveness to fashion is a cultural difference, not a gender difference. "Celebrating" the gender gap in engineering is a very bad idea.

Re: Poll: Male or female?

#68

Post by gambling8nt »

SwellJoe wrote: post #62
zain wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is "forward thinking" about funding startups based on biological traits of the founders instead of their skills, aptitudes, and achievements?

Who said "instead of"?

Simultaneous optimization of multiple functions is impossible in the general case. But if there is one function being optimized, then there is some trade-off being made, so that--to some extent--one parameter is being selected for instead of another.

Re: Poll: Male or female?

#69

Post by SwellJoe »

gambling8nt wrote: post #68
SwellJoe wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said "instead of"?

Simultaneous optimization of multiple functions is impossible in the general case. But if there is one function being optimized, then there is some trade-off being made, so that--to some extent--one parameter is being selected for instead of another.

pg has said they fund as many great groups as they can find. So, if that's correct, then giving an additional point or two for being female founded, while assuming some base level of competence and dedication, is not "instead of" it is "in addition to".

Note that we're all speculating here. We don't actually really know anything about YC and female founded companies (except that the number of female founders amongst YC companies is strikingly low, but is representative of the applicant pool).

Re: Poll: Male or female?

#70

Post by srn »

Since we're here, if there are women in the SF bay area who want to get together for a bring-your-project-and-work-on-it afternoon/evening, contact me.
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