

Freud explains why there aren't more women entrepreneurs - bpang
http://bpang.posterous.com/freud-explains-why-there-arent-more-women-ent
Fred Wilson wrote a blog a few weeks ago called "XX Combinator," commenting on Teresa's earlier blog which proposes the founding of "XX Combinator" to support women entrepreneurs. The answer is very obvious. Freud is right, sex is the ultimate driver to explain most human behaviors.
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elbrodeur
Interesting take on things, especially from a woman. Typically, this stance:

"How can we make more women successful? Without fundamental changes in how men
and women perceive attractiveness, it will be difficult to change the status
quo. ... what about making the next "Carrie Bradshaw" a hardworking tech
entrepreneur?"

is taken by men.

I think that the "reason" that there are fewer female entrepreneurs and
hackers than men is because of this psuedo-sexist ideology.

Why must it be attractive for a female to be powerful in order for her to
succeed? Screw how good you look. Do what you love and you'll be surrounded by
people who appreciate you and what you do.

Personally, I believe the disparity lies not in social overtones of
popularity, attractiveness and potential as a mate; I believe that the
disparity is primarily due to lack of mentorship, education and people telling
women, specifically in this case, that they can excel as an entrepreneur if
they choose.

My guess, though, is that this disparity is not going to last very long.
Gender differences continue to grow smaller in other fields and instances; why
not starting companies? Or, at least, it is my very sincere hope that this is
the case. Partially because it makes me sad every time 100 guys on HN try and
figure out what's wrong with women.

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kiba
I will just say the politically incorrect things:

Women are in general more interested in having babies than men.

Women are also just different than men in some way, not just physically, but
socially.

We should close gender gap where possible, but we shouldn't insist on equal
gender balance if women really don't like to go into the same career that men
goes into.

~~~
elbrodeur
What do you mean by "more interested in having babies than men"?

Do you mean that, because women are capable of carrying a child to term that
they are more interested in copulating?

Do you mean to say that women want to have and raise children more than men?

I'm not sure I understand your point.

As to "Women are also just different than men in some way, not just
physically, but socially", all I can say is this was much more true 50 years
ago than it is today, but that doesn't mean that it's not true now. What I (as
well as the author of the article) was trying to address is: Why?

"We should close gender gap where possible, but we shouldn't insist on equal
gender balance if women really don't like to go into the same career that men
goes into."

Who is advocating forcing people to do things?

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kiba
_Who is advocating forcing people to do things?_

I felt like that there is an assumption of male sexist bias against women or
something. So I feel something like "assumption of female ability in all area,
regardless of reality".

I also feel the ideas of "males are sexists and evil and the like".

Then they forget that males are disproportional one of the most violent
offenders, but also overachievers.

So I spoke the truth as I see it.

Don't be so offended, I would like a hacker woman to marry and love. I wish
there were more of them around and I wish I have the skills to date them.
However, I also recognized, that women are women, and there will never be a
50% split gender tech population.

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petercooper
I listen to a BBC medical podcast (Medical Matters - it's really good) and
recently they were at a critical injuries unit in London. The reporter asked
the head of the unit why 90% of the patients there were men. The blunt answer
given was that men take more extreme risks and are, therefore, more likely to
need emergency medical attention. I could hear the PC brigade warming up their
pens to correct that observation as sexist and not based in reality, though.

~~~
rbanffy
If the same number of women engaged in the same kind of risky activities as
the men injured in this specific hospital, the lack of women could be
explained by men being less competent in these risky activities. It would be
as sexist as the above answer. Could also be that men are more fragile.

~~~
petercooper
I agree it _could_ be any of those things. Observationally, though, I concur
with the doctor based merely on the lack of women I see running across the
road in front of my car, skateboarding, BMX biking, base jumping, or generally
pratting about in public compared to men.

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rbanffy
My point is that the statement of a fact cannot be considered sexist. My own
observations confirm your observations. Among my friends who parachute there
are about 20 men and 2 women. This ratio is much higher than the overall ratio
of men to women among my friends.

More observation than ours should be made before we conclude men have a higher
probability to engage in physically dangerous forms of entertainment, but I
would say it's a good bet they do.

At least in our society.

How much of it is nature and how much is nurture is what seems controversial.

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houseabsolute
Considering Freud's theories have never been proven to have a basis in
reality, and considering this woman is an entrepreneur and has no apparent
expertise in the field she's commenting on, I'd advise you not to give her
conjecture much weight.

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Groxx
How about the unconscious mind? Psychiatric therapy?

Freud wasn't just "sexsexsexsexsex".

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ZeroGravitas
The unconscious mind is a millenia old idea and psychiatric medicine is
roughly as effective as having a chat with a random untrained person.

His work on curing heroin addiction was interesting, even took the remedy
himself and found it really perked him up. Cocaine really is a wonder drug.

~~~
ahinds
I'm a psychiatrist. This statement is obviously not true. Please substantiate
with literature reference.

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dtf
This is (pop) evolutionary psychology, not psychoanalysis. Freud's reasoning
on why men are driven to become entrepreneurs, magnates, architects, artists
is that the boy, sensing that he has been robbed of the organs required to
procreate internally, is driven to create externally to assuage his loss. It's
the male equivalent of Freud's theory of "penis envy".

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DaniFong
It wasn't genetic change that prompted the development of civilization from
our ancestors. It was memetic change. Culture and the spread of ideas is what
makes us human.

The drive to have and raising children is a powerful force in the human
psyche. Yet surely the desire to shape and guide those children, or to spread
out thoughts and feelings and philosophies among family, friends and foes
alike, must be at least as strong -- and sometimes more so.

How else might one explain the all too common act of disowning, shaming,
beating, or even killing one's children for disobeying religious precepts,
cultural taboos against who to love or marry, for failing to fit cultural or
gender norms. Or the vast religious wars that have waged across our
continents. Or this very debate?

\---

For what it is worth, from my vantage point the number of women founding
venture backed clean/green tech companies is rapidly growing.

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rbanffy
I don't see much of a drive for more firewomen, female dock workers or, BTW,
more male kindergarten teachers. Let's close those gaps too...

Or we can face the fact we are different and cherish it.

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dmor
I don't ever want to take funding from something like XX Combinator, its just
insulting to think I'd be getting money because of something I have no control
over like my gender.

I want to earn my success because of the things I _can_ control and what I
create with my own mind and hands and hard work.

Btw ladies, there are men out there who admire a woman who is strong and
successful - and they're worth searching for. Some of them even work for
startups, too

~~~
saulhoward
Perhaps it's worth pointing out that Americans receiving funding are already
"getting money because of something [they] have no control over", like their
nationality.

I am assuming here that an investor would be more likely to invest in an
entrepreneur with a green card. They would certainly be saving money by doing
so.

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satishmreddy
I don't think guys do startups to get girls. There are much easier paths to
get there. :)

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abalashov
For the most part, overly serious psychological inquiry into this question
misses the point. At the end of the day, this kind of anecdotal testament is
the most valuable insight of all.

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ScotterC
I feel that this it ignores the greater purpose that mankind has. Greater then
finding a mate. Creating and building. That is universal and is gender
neutral.

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anamax
> I feel that this it ignores the greater purpose that mankind has. Greater
> then finding a mate. Creating and building. That is universal and is gender
> neutral.

Mankind doesn't have that purpose and may not even have any purposes. Many
people value certain things, but that's very different.

Don't confuse what survival often selects for with purpose.

~~~
ScotterC
Looks like we're headed down a path that reflects our philosophical outlook
more then anything else. To each his own.

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hakl
Good article. But I have to admit I was a little disappointed: with Freud in
the title I was expecting, at the very least, something involving penises.

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sprout
Curious that xkcd commented on this sort of thinking just Wednesday:
<http://www.xkcd.com/775/>

Though most of the article remains very relevant when you take it out of the
"this is the way it has been for thousands of years" mold which doesn't really
have incredibly ironclad evidence and recognize that our present society does
present these barriers for women.

But I do think that overcoming our perceptions is not a matter of overcoming
hardwired notions, but societally reinforced norms which can seem awfully
hardwired.

~~~
hakl
A Freudian explanation isn't the same as an based on "evolutionary histories".
Her last paragraph is about changing perceptions of attractiveness.

~~~
sprout
I realize her argument was not a cut-and-dry evo-psych narrative, but she came
close, and this paragraph in particular felt suspect:

>For thousands of years, men look for beautiful and young-looking women to
bear their children and women look for powerful men who can well protect
themselves and their children. Such an instinct has been imprinted into our
unconsciousness.

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Mz
I think it boils down to the economics of having children: Most women (about
90%) have them sooner or later. It helps to have two parents to provide for
the kid(s). Lots of other stuff grows out of this basic fact, including the
typical female emphasis on "attractiveness" -- because that is (theoretically)
how you get a man.

Short version of a lot of reading I have done over the years: European women
put a lot of emphasis on getting assistance from society and government with
the burden of bearing and rearing children. This has helped narrow the gender-
gap on income, generally without pushing up the divorce rate to American
levels. But in America, women generally have taken the political position of
"Don't tread on me" and "Get the fuck out my way and I will show you what I
can do, damnit!", which is a historical American political position dating
back to the American Revolution. This works fairly well -- until you have
kids. Women who are unmarried and childless make about 98% of what men make,
given similar experience and education. But, overall, American women make
about 2/3 what men make, the same figure listed somewhere in the bible as
their difference in value (ie from about 2000 years or so ago).

Some of the most frustrated, baffled women I have known are women who thought
they could make it on a man's terms in a man's world and did quite well for
themselves -- that is _until they had children_. Then it all fell apart and
they couldn't figure out wtf happened or how the hell to fix it. I think I am
still alive and doing better than I "should" be because I never tried to make
it in a man's world on a man's terms. I followed a female path of success. So
having kids unexpectedly early derailed my immediate career plans but did not
derail my life unrecoverably.

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rtomayko
That's fucking ridiculous and the stupidest thing I've ever heard of in my
life.

