Raising Money and Raising Kids: A Difficult Balancing Act
Tomorrow, I will moderate an event for British American Business (BABI) about the inequality of women in the workforce – a topic that has been beaten to death, but somehow the issue still exists.
It will be interesting to engage the panel which will include a female entrepreneur, an educator and a corporate female titan. How will they see the world differently?
I’ve been rather impressed by the musings of Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg on the subject. With $3 billion in her pocket, post IPO, she’s been a bit edgier and more honest on the topic than most. She says in a speech to TED that women are not getting to the top, in any country, anywhere in the world. Of the 190 heads of states, only nine are women. Among C-level executives, only 15 percent are women. Even in the non-profit world, only 20 percent of leaders are women.
The New York Times had an interesting angle on this well trodden story this past weekend about female technology entrepreneurs. It turns out, and it’s not surprising, female technology entrepreneurs are less numerous and raise less money than their male counterparts. Women make up 10 percent of the founders at high-growth tech companies and they raise 70 percent less money than men do because of their lack of access to capital. As a female entrepreneur myself, I'm intimately aware of all the reasons for these dynamics.
I look forward to sharing my honest struggles, triumphs and opinions with my BABI panel tomorrow. One thing is for sure - the more honest open dialogue we can have on the topic, the more progress we will make. 