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Women in venture capital or VC are investors who provide venture capital funding to startups. Women make up a small (usually less than 10%) fraction of the venture capital private equity workforce. A widely used source for tracking the number of women in venture capital is the Midas List which has been published by Forbes since 2001. Research from Women in VC, a global community of women venture investors, shows that the percentage of female VC partners is just shy of 5 percent.[1]
One of the first women to make the list, Annette Campbell-White, has been cited as an example of discrimination in venture capital. She was mentioned in the Midas List for three consecutive years, from 2005 to 2007.[2] She claimed that a number of firms in the 1980s ignored her senior management experience in Hambrecht & Quist.[3][4] In addition to finding that women make up the majority of early technology adopters,[5] Harvard Business School Professor Paul Gompers has stated that female venture capitalists consistently perform as well as males at large firms that have more than one woman.[6]
Questions about how to increase the number of VC opportunities for women have been brought to the forefront by several events. One of them is a lawsuit by Ellen Pao against her former employer Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Another is Elephant in the Valley, a survey aiming to expose discrimination started by several women in business including Tracy Vassallo, a former partner of the same firm.[7] Expressing criticism of existing funds, a number of women since 2007 have begun to start their own.[8]
- ^ "Women and minority investors are taking matters into their own hands". Chicago Booth Review. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
- ^ "#24 Annette Campbell-White - Forbes.com". www.Forbes.com. 2007. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
- ^ Emert, Carol (May 12, 2002). "PROFILE / Annette Campbell-White / Trail-blazing venture capitalist does it her way / Startup specialist has carved out a niche in health care, biotech". SF Gate. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
- ^ Miller, Claire (January 25, 2007). "Where Are The Women Venture Capitalists?". Forbes. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
- ^ Bornstein, Julie (May 21, 2013). "Sephora CMO debunks a major stereotype about women and tech". Business Insider. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
- ^ Alba, Davey (March 20, 2015). "The gender problem in venture capital is really, really bad". Wired. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
- ^ Ziv, Stat (January 15, 2016). "The 'Elephant in the Valley': A new survey looks at the experiences of women working in tech". Newsweek. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
- ^ Claire Cain Miller (April 1, 2015). "Female-Run Venture Capital Funds Alter the Status Quo" (Dealbook blog). The New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2015.
"We're in the middle of a shifting trend where there are newly wealthy women putting their money to work, and similarly we're starting to have a larger number of experienced investors,"