"Women account for just 6 percent of the chief executives
of the top 100 tech companies"
If there is one job role you don't want to use to point out gender disparity, it is the title of CEO. Most tech startup CEOs occupy that position because that person (irrespective of gender) went out and decided to start a company on their own or with colleagues. Before a company reaches series B, it is almost entirely unlikely that the CEO has been appointed to that position by that company's board of directors.
For post B-round companies, it's possible that some percentage of CEOs occupy that position because the board replaced the founding CEO and that a mostly male VC community is likely to appoint men to the position.
You could go on to point out that the low numbers of women as CEOs in pre-B-round companies is attributable to the difficulty women having raising money from a largely male VC community.
Moving on from there, you could then look at the ratio of men to women CEOs in the population of pre-funded startups so the only real bias you have left is selection bias. Yeah, a women is probably less likely to found a company because some may not see a path to funding because they think that as a women they are less investible by a largely male investment community.
With all that in mind if that 6% figure remains consistent for companies post-B, between seed and A and pre-investment, the only conclusion to make is that something else is holding them back than a glass ceiling. I don't know what that would be if this is the case, nor will I speculate. I just wanted to point out that CEO (and CTO for tech startups) are the only jobs in which your gender should be least relevant, especially in companies pre-funding.
5 comments
[ 5.9 ms ] story [ 23.2 ms ] threadMost women major in theatre, psychology, english....etc.
We keep dragging the chestnut of discrimination around...
Not saying that's the case; I'm saying that deciding there's no discrimination because women major in theatre is a non sequitur.
If it starts much earlier then it's some sort of social conditioning that is the fault of teachers, parents, television, etc.
For post B-round companies, it's possible that some percentage of CEOs occupy that position because the board replaced the founding CEO and that a mostly male VC community is likely to appoint men to the position.
You could go on to point out that the low numbers of women as CEOs in pre-B-round companies is attributable to the difficulty women having raising money from a largely male VC community.
Moving on from there, you could then look at the ratio of men to women CEOs in the population of pre-funded startups so the only real bias you have left is selection bias. Yeah, a women is probably less likely to found a company because some may not see a path to funding because they think that as a women they are less investible by a largely male investment community.
With all that in mind if that 6% figure remains consistent for companies post-B, between seed and A and pre-investment, the only conclusion to make is that something else is holding them back than a glass ceiling. I don't know what that would be if this is the case, nor will I speculate. I just wanted to point out that CEO (and CTO for tech startups) are the only jobs in which your gender should be least relevant, especially in companies pre-funding.