The Obstacles of Female Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley
Abstract
Women make up half of our society, yet they remain underrepresented in many fields, especially that of the tech world of Silicon Valley. This work explores the reasons behind this gender imbalance, drawing from history, personal accounts, and statistics to determine the lack of female tech workers and, more specifically, the lack of female tech entrepreneurs. From the very beginning of the Valley, women have been at a disadvantage due to its work-obsessed and male-dominant culture, a pattern that has only continued over the years to subtly discriminate against women. The following paper finds that because of their stereotype, women have negative workplace experiences, which discourage them from pursuing a tech career. It is possible that women are deterred from tech entrepreneurship because they are not interested in it, but perhaps they are not interested in it because they are already set in their ideas of what girls should be doing. Although there has been some progress made since the beginnings of the Valley, we are still nowhere near close to equal representation of men and women in tech. However, women can significantly impact tech businesses. Thus, this research has implications for our economy through possible growth, for technology through advancement, and for society through gender equality.
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