
Women entrepreneurs talk about sexism - M_Grey
http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/women-entrepreneurs-talk-about-sexism-in-silicon-valley.html
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dismantlethesun
> ‘My wife is a woman, she has a vagina, you have a vagina, let’s see if
> everything aligns.’ It’s so offensive.”

This sticks out to me, as a point requiring more of a story. At least one
example would be good.

For example if you're pitching integrated circuit technology, and the investor
mentions something about consulting his wife---then maybe this is a
wife/husband business duo (officially or unofficially, those kind of
relationships are common). This is something that would have occurred even if
the pitcher had been a man, but I have found that men tend to mention their
wives more when other women are present. I am not sure why in general, though
I could come up with some anecdotes.

If you're pitching something of interest _to women_ [1], then no matter
whatever research you have done personally, an investor may want to spot check
it with the nearest available woman. Now one may say that's unfair, you've
done research and data should win over anecdotes. However, many investment
decisions are partially made from gut and instinct, which is why one can be
turned down with a statement of "good luck, but I don't think this is the
right product/company for me". Usually the instincts questioned are your own,
but if the product specifically refers to your blind spot, then you may
question someone close to you who doesn't have that same blind spot.

Whilst I've never had a "hey let me mention this to my wife" moment, I have
had a lot of people give anecdotes about their foreign born friends (whom only
happen to be from the same continent as me), or mention they'll run an idea by
someone who happens to be from the same region I am from.

The funniest times are when someone guesses my background wrong, wants to
check with someone from the wrong background, then once corrected gets
confused about if its relevant at all.

[1] The article is about a Women's Products Company. This could be fashion,
which even men can have a passing interest in or it could be generally sex-
specific items (e.g. a husbands opinion on a 'good bra' is going to be very
different from his wife's; and he probably knows it).

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nojvek
"But it was always, ‘My wife is a woman, she has a vagina, you have a vagina,
let’s see if everything aligns.’ It’s so offensive.”

I think this is a big part of unconscious bias sexism

I'm a male so I have little idea what women have to go through but this was
educating. Thanks

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yathern
I actually think that this metaphorical quote is a misrepresentation of the
problem. Eariler in the paragraph it mentions that the pitch is a 'Womens
Product Company'.

In which case the comment of "I'll ask my wife" may not have been prompted
from the fact that the co-founder is a woman - but rather the lack of
knowledge about the product area and saying something to the extent of "I'll
have to do some research about this".

Granted it's a trivializing way to say it and has sexist overtones - but I
think it's not the same generalization as the quote implies.

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blackbear_
That's a good point. I think that quote also shows that some people tend to
see sexism (or racism, etc.) even when there is none

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mariusz79
Elizabeth Holmes from Theranos didn't seem to have any problem with getting
funding..

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AnonNo15
An equivalent of blind or double-blind testing for pitches would make an
improvement, I think.

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strictnein
But considering a lot of these investments are made because of the people and
not just the idea, how would that work?

