I just came across this article on Digg, about college students who monetized their great ideas into multi-million dollar companies (think Microsoft, Napster, etc.). It's an interesting article and inspires a definite "Just Do It" attitude, but one thing in particular struck me as I was scanning the bios: None of the companies in the article were founded by women.One could argue, I suppose, that the author simply opted not to mention any women, and that there are examples right and left of lady risk-takers. Take Wendy Kopp, for example, who founded Teach For America as her senior thesis at Princeton. Or Sara Blakely, who invented Spanx, the (magical, if not a little awkward in the boudoir) women's wardrobe staple, soon after her graduation from Florida State.
But despite these examples and my awareness as the daughter of a female executive, I can think of many more male entrepreneurs than female. So in the age of Katie Couric and Title IX and Hillary Clinton, why is it that women don't stick their necks out to risk it big in big business as often as the boys?
A male friend of mine recently started his own business. After coming up with a concept, pitching it to a few friends and doing some research into his market, he quit his full-time job to devote himself entirely to his newfound brainchild. All it took, he explained, was writing a business plan and getting together some investment from friends and family, and poof! -- he was self-employed. I was shocked at his confidence, but when I explained my confusion to a couple of my female friends, they told me that they had male friends -- boyfriends even -- who had done the exact same thing.
So why don't any of my female friends do something similar? My friend Maggie says, "It's inherent to [men] -- a reflection of the greater message of being a caretaker and being cocky. [Women are] typically self doubters. Look at relationships. It's basically a reflection of that." Point taken. But in many cases, hypothetically speaking, women these days have just as many (many?) -- if not more -- "balls" than men. So does it take actual, physical balls to risk it all?
Yours,
EL
(Note: I'm not talking about success here. I'm just talking about willingness to put it out there.)
3 comments:
Thanks for this wonderful post! I think it brings up a lot of great points. I think that women are perhaps not socialized as much as men to take big risks in business or pursue entrepreneurship. It takes a lot of confidence to put yourself out there and as someone who has done this herself, you are met with a lot of resistance.
I've also noticed a tendency for men to appoint themselves to the higher position if they have a partnership with a woman and she is often too nice to speak up about it. Exhibit A: http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/golden_globe_awards_committee_slights_slumdog_director
Women in leadership roles are often portrayed as "bitches" and who wants to be one of those?
I do believe there are lots of smart women starting their own businesses out there and I just hope in the future that they get the recognition they deserve!
Thank you for your response! I agree that they're out there -- I guess I'd just love to see more 20something women take some risks....It would be a breath of fresh air, (not to mention, I'd be interested to see how much more/less successful 20something female entrepreneurs might be than their male counterparts). My brother told me today that he read an article that mused that if London's financial district ("The City") were run by women, it would not be in the throes of a financial crisis. A hypothesis, only, but an interesting one.
Let's start a company! What can we do? I'll be the intern.
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