Ask YC: Have any girls applied to YC? Any get in?
There must be some Caterina Fakes and Sandy Lerners in there, right?
I hope more women will apply for funding this fall!
I'm sure we all have the best intentions, but face it, we're a bunch of chauvinistic bastards. I hope more women apply and serve as counter examples to an outdated stereotype.
Help us correct our stereotypes.
It would almost certainly be a positive thing to have a well-qualified woman involved early in a startups life, as there are definitely some differences in the sexes, and some balance would probably be valuable. But, as someone else pointed out, the number of women in the hard sciences is very low, and probably lowest in computer science. Design is better represented, but even in that, there is a much lower number of women involved than men.
I suspect the goal should be (if there is a goal to be found in all of this) to get more girls interested in the hard sciences early. Being equipped to build a technology business is something that starts young.
Maybe a YC for women would work better to attract female founders.
Another difference I find is that women tend to gather more information before making a decision on something, maybe a YC that was better focused on this would help women cross the gap?
Women take less risks than men, and are less motivated by money and status.
you need to go out and meet some women
the post is somewhat rough, preachy, and jumps around a little bit. I would probably write it differently now after a year of start-up-ing. Also, feel free to make fun of me for using LiveJournal.
Hey, I just resisted the urge to say something crude.
people usually found companies with their friends peoples friends are usually of the same sex less women in technology thus the number of founders will be around that small percentage squared
I forget what PG essay this is from, anyone?
Marie from heysan! was the only girl in the winter program 2007
And groups of women do refer to wanting to find more "boys" -- the terms "men" and "women" both seem to connote some kind of stodginess, probably because most people's models for what men and women are, growing up, is parents, teachers, and other authority figures, all of whom are tragically unhip.
First, you are referring to informal situations. But, this is (supposed to be) a professional setting, and the rules are much different in a professional setting. Generally, you want to refer to the femininity of women as little as possible in a professional setting, and when you do have to refer to their femininity, you must be extra formal.
Here is the rule I go by: never call a woman a girl in a situation where it would be inappropriate to call her a bitch (she better be a good friend). And, never call a black man a boy because it is almost as bad as "nigger."
If you don't understand the reasoning behind these rules then you should find a good friend to explain them to you very carefully.
In order for "girl" to be insulting, you must subscribe to the notion that there is something wrong with being young and female. Accepting that premise is to unwittingly agree with perpetuating a worldview in which the very notion of female-ness is disempowering. "Girl Power" actually challenges the establishment; suppression of any reference to femininity reinforces the older male status quo.
That so many people are programmed to think "girl" is insulting just shows how far society still needs to go to free itself from counterproductive paradigms.
> never call a woman a girl in a situation where it would be inappropriate to call her a bitch
Your implication of equivalence is loony, and of course more evidence for the informality of Hacker News. Your post also suggests to me a useful reason to use the terms "girls" and "boys" -- to smoke out people who get offended so easily or are stuck with such old paradigms that they clearly lack the flexibility needed to work in a start-up. Valuable co-founders aren't stuck with old thinking, are hard to offend and easy to joke around with.
Italian has ragazzo/a, which can be used both formally, and informally, for anyone from their teens to early thirties. It's far superior to the dichotomy that English forces upon us, but be that as it may, "girls" is probably left to women to use amongst themselves as they see fit.
don't remember anyone else though. maybe shoutfit had a girl founder too.
At the risk of sounding desperate, I often wonder if I will ever get it right!
/ the more you know