As a female entrepreneur, the same things that the woman in the Forbes experienced, I have experienced in Silicon Valley by male venture capitalists e.g. real come-ons and real chauvinism. However, I refuse to be victimized by it. If you can't deal with this, you wont be able to deal with the fact that the more successful you are the more attractive you become. Fending off horny empowered men will be the easiest task you will do in the many misadventures of the entrepreneurship game.

As long as men control the venture capital sector, they will name the rules of the game. The only solution here is for women to enter the game in a real way, and to change the rules along the way. I personally believe that time will come, but meanwhile I refuse to be a victim.

There is a lot of sexism in the industries all around.

It is time, we recognize, identify, nurture 'women' leaders in the VC space.

I find that women in Finance industry at work place are lot more analytical, disciplined and easy to work with than some of my male CFOs, etc.,

Women contribution need to be recognized and the glass ceiling needs to be broken.

Roxxane Austin is one bright lady that ran DIRECTV business in 2000's and we need more of her caliber and we need to recognize that caliber talent.


Respectfully

This reminds me of an experince I had years ago. I pitched a product idea to a well-known publisher and was turned down for funding, even though I had a decent track record for making things that sell. I ended up funding the product myself, and upon release, it became very profitable. At an industry event, the CEO of the publishing company asked me why I hadn't requested funding help. I didn't have the heart to tell him that one of his underlings had turned down my company.

@A woman CEO in MV: You really should tell him. He needs to hear how his underlings work. If I was you, I would send him a note, or at least a copy of this article with the comments to him and his colleagues.

HI Jessica,
I'm a woman who has had offers of funding without the ability to move on them for lack of the right business partnerships/resources.

I think about where in life my ideas have taken flight, and it's been within my extended networks of one kind or another. In virtually any endeavor in life, it's really hard to "cold call" anyone in power with an innovation and expect to make inroads. I sometimes think the greatest value of a college education is just the personal linkages one makes to various communities which create opportunities. Like most people, I have many networks, including personal relationships that lead to confidence in my ideas to offers of funding, but unfortunately (being more steeped in tech circles) no business networks where I can find partners with complementary skills. It really feels like the latter is a greater challenge than finding the former, if one has no connections whatsoever, but perhaps I'm a little biased there because of my experience.

The negative element you bring up wouldn't be a concern in a world of VC diversity, then it would be possible to simply ignore it. But the worlds of certain kinds of business, or VC funding, are never likely to be as egalitarian or accessible as other personal networks.

Readers,

I love the discussion on this topic. Thank you for commenting! I'd like to believe that the hour has arrived when we can turn around this sector with an infusion of feminists (men and women alike). I don't want women entrepreneurs to be resigned to "the way things are." I suspect that one of the reasons that women feel powerless and victimized by these situations is that playing by the rules would mean compromising their values and integrity. Not something anyone should have to do in order to bring a promising business venture to life!

In Switzerland the kids learn the chocolate business in school. Why don't we teach our children the history and practice of manufacturing and entrepreneurship in this country?

@engr mom: We learned all about mfg, its historical roots, where the future may be and why in my high school, plus we had classes where we tried to start our own business from scratch.
The things you speak of are being taught in schools, maybe just not in PA district schools(?)

There was a lot of publicity recently about the first all-woman VC fund. Their first investment was in a babysitting startup. We've come a long way, baby.

Interesting that the anon author is so dropdead gorgeous that she had to work to try to downplay her looks. I would love to read a similar article written by a less attractive woman. If such a woman exists, since an ugly aspiring entrepreneur might not even be able to book a meeting with funders who prefer blondes and babes.

@Ironic - where in the article did she say she was especially attractive? I did not read the article as saying "woe is me, I look like a model, I get hit on all the time" but rather "I'm a woman & when I dress in a stereotypically feminine way [skirts, heels, hair down] people see me as a sex object." I thought the author was pretty clear that many, if not most, women founders she knows have experienced this and certainly it can't be the case that all women founders are significantly better-looking than the average woman.

I studied under Peter Drucker @ Claremont Graduate School.

He said that the US schools lack apprentice programs while the student are in High School; where that was not the case in Germany.

Our students both female and male have a lot of energy. Engaging them early while their genes are flowing with bright ideas would be a step up. We do have 16 year olds in grocery stores but not elsewhere.

I hope you agree our young are watching more TV than they need.

Respectfully

This might be a bit of a red herring (the figure of speech not tech trade pub) but are we supposed to not know Jessica T's actual name or full name? That she works for Google is practically a dare to search for an actual first and last name that fits her profile.

I would think the column is stronger with an actual or complete identity?

What does it say that she does not use her full name?

(This is in the context of a lot of people commenting recently that Palo Alto Weekly comments board basically breeds trolls. And there is a recent story in NY Times based on a study of "trolls'. I would say 80 percent of the comments on PAW are unsigned, or pseudonyms or not complete i.d's)

What do you think of recent media crush on Elizabeth Holmes? How much of the $9 B valuation of her company is due to her personal appearance? That is reverse sexism. Or am I a sexist commentator to even ask?

Mazel tov to the new T family. (sounds like a DNA term... AGCT and all that)

further, I think classism or income inequality is more significant than gender or ethnicity....Capital begets capital...

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