I'm all for more women founders and women hackers, and for making sure opportunities are available and doors are open, regardless of gender. But I'm not convinced that this would be doing a lot to address the underlying issue.
She says that number represents the applicant pool. That
is extremely troubling to me, and suggests that while Y
Combinator has done great things for technology,
something structurally, while unintended, is keeping
women out.
If women are being "kept out" that is a problem and should be addressed. But at they really being "kept out" or are they just not interested (at least not in the same proportions as men)?
Disclaimer: I'm a 37 year old male, and I could be totally offbase on this observation, but from where I'm sitting, it seems that women simply don't grow up wanting to be hackers, or startup founders, in the same numbers that men do. I think stats on enrollment in computer science / software engineering programs bear out at least the first part of that, at least in part. Certainly when I was in high-school I never knew even one girl who had any interest in programming computers, and even in college I don't remember any of my female friends being interested in that. So, is there something genetic going on, or is it just a cultural indoctrination thing, or what? If it's the former, maybe there isn't a problem at all. If it's the latter, then we certainly want to make sure that doors are open for the women who do want to get involved in this space... I believe ardently that opportunities should be gender neutral, personally. But I also don't accept that there's any particular reason why the numbers of men and women in any particular domain must be equal (or even near equal).
I haven't looked up the stats, but I'm near 100% sure that there are far more male underwater welders, oil-rig roughnecks, and auto mechanics... but you don't see blog posts and articles complaining "where are the women in welding?"
Now before the downvoting starts, let me reiterate.. I'm 100% FOR equality and being gender-blind in terms of giving people opportunities. I just think that we should focus on that, and not the raw numbers in the end. If women are being excluded from things, then that needs to be fixed, yes. But if they're not here simply because they're not interested, then we should question if that's an actual problem (I'm not saying it isn't, I just allowing that it's an open question).
Disclaimer: I'm a 37 year old male, and I could be totally offbase on this observation, but from where I'm sitting, it seems that women simply don't grow up wanting to be hackers, or startup founders, in the same numbers that men do. I think stats on enrollment in computer science / software engineering programs bear out at least the first part of that, at least in part. Certainly when I was in high-school I never knew even one girl who had any interest in programming computers, and even in college I don't remember any of my female friends being interested in that. So, is there something genetic going on, or is it just a cultural indoctrination thing, or what? If it's the former, maybe there isn't a problem at all. If it's the latter, then we certainly want to make sure that doors are open for the women who do want to get involved in this space... I believe ardently that opportunities should be gender neutral, personally. But I also don't accept that there's any particular reason why the numbers of men and women in any particular domain must be equal (or even near equal).
I haven't looked up the stats, but I'm near 100% sure that there are far more male underwater welders, oil-rig roughnecks, and auto mechanics... but you don't see blog posts and articles complaining "where are the women in welding?"
Now before the downvoting starts, let me reiterate.. I'm 100% FOR equality and being gender-blind in terms of giving people opportunities. I just think that we should focus on that, and not the raw numbers in the end. If women are being excluded from things, then that needs to be fixed, yes. But if they're not here simply because they're not interested, then we should question if that's an actual problem (I'm not saying it isn't, I just allowing that it's an open question).