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I don't think they post that stat every year. In 2015 it was about 12%: https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/yc-demographics

But that doesn't really help answer my bigger question, which is why is that number so low?

I did find one stat showing about 20% of US businesses with employees are female-owned, which is itself troubling and leads to more "why?".

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Looks like about 20% of comp sci grads in the US are women. Seems like the very simple "why". As for that why... idk probably need to change how kids grow up en-masse. My guess, which probably isn't worth much, is it'll happen slowly, but will probably take a generation or two.

There's probably also some genetically encoded differences on risk-averseness (another guess). FAANG is a great gig and is much more predictable and stable.

Cultural factors consistently swamp genetic explanations for things which aren't obvious morphology and biology.

Consistently is a big word without any proof. After all scientists have found many of gender norm in nearest animals and completely isolated human tribes.

Testosterone is a known causative factor for aggression and risk taking. Men have more testosterone than women.

Another potential difference could be prioritization of work-life balance, which would generally be better at a FAANG company than a startup.

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