Why are girls less likely to study engineering? To build startups? To become investors? This underrepresentation is the symptom of a complex, multifaceted problem which takes roots in hundreds of years of human history. It's a difficult problem to understand and I am not the most qualified person to discuss it. So I decided to gather a list of more 130+ resources from entrepreneurs and investors who share their own experiences, each of them being paradoxically both unique and universal, as well as academic researchers and journalists who are looking into the causes and effects of the current state of the industry. The goal is to help better understand the challenges faced by women in the startup ecosystem, both on the operating side (founders, operators) and on the financing side (VCs, angels).

⚠️ DISCLAIMER: I haven't updated this list in years - not sure if they are still relevant!

1 - From investors

  1. FundersClub shares thoughts from some of the women whom FC has funded on what’s challenged them in tech, and what and who has inspired them, along with their most cherished accomplishment in “Female Founders: A Growing Force”
  2. Joanne Wilson, an angel investor, expands on why the tech industry needs to be the leaders in closing the gender gap — not the leaders in “bro-culture” in “How We Can Close the Gender Gap Before 2086”
  3. Suzy Ryoo of Atom Factory offers some bold, everyday actions from multiple perspectives on how we can collectively move the gender gap needle in “”The only woman in the room” & How to Change That By 2186”
  4. Claire Burke and Kate Dwyer of Female Founders Fund reports that as the total number of Series A deals in the U.S. declined in 2016, NYC-based female CEOs 2016 represented 17% of total Series A’s raised in “2016 Review of Female Founders Raising Institutional Capital”
  5. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures recognizes the longer you wait to build a diverse team, the harder it gets, and highlights ways to start now in “Gender Diversity”
  6. Cadran Cowansage of Y Combinator surfaces a group of female engineers’ thoughts on what reasons may have prompted them to leave companies in the past, and what might motivate them to move out of a technical role in “How Can Managers Help Retain Technical Women on Their Team?”
  7. Brittney Riley of Village Capital reveals research on the traits of founding teams with the goal of reducing bias in the investment process and ultimately making better decisions around what makes founders “strong” in “How Do Investors Evaluate Founding Teams?”
  8. Francesca (Check) Warner, seed investor and co-founder Diversity VC, “International Women’s Day: Why tech VCs must reflect the diversity of the firms they fund” here
  9. Stephanie Manning of Lerer Hippeau Ventures hopes her insights serve as useful, tactical suggestions to help men avoid being that guy at work in “From a Woman in VC to Men Everywhere: 5 Things You Can Do Now to Avoid Being That Guy”
  10. Joanne Wilson, an angel investor, states that there should be repercussions for bad behavior and that the foundation for a power shift towards women in business has been built over the last ten years in “The Gig Is Up”
  11. Elizabeth Yin of 500 Startups finds that speaking up about sexual harassment is hard and recognizes we must start a new chapter in “We Have a Real and Undeniable Problem Here in Silicon Valley with Sexual Harassment”
  12. Brad Feld of Foundry Group vows, along with his partners, to be both more forceful and aggressive in their actions to stand up for the workplace ethics they believe in and have advocated for throughout their entire careers in “Our Zero Tolerance Policy On Sexual Harassment”
  13. Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures shares very specific advice to female founders who are looking to raise capital.
  14. Elizabeth Kraus of MergeLane wants venture capitalists, LPs, and entrepreneurs to actually believe that gender diversity produces better returns vs. seeing it as a “charitable thing to do” in “Dear Venture Capital, Thanks for your offer to “protect” me. I really just want you to value me.”
  15. Erica Brescia of Bitnami and XFactor Ventures gives background details on joining XFactor Ventures (Danielle Morrill, CEO of Mattermark is an investment partner) where they’ll write $100k checks to female-founded startups out of their $3M fund in “Making Money While Doing Good”
  16. Kara Egan of Emergence Capital offers five immediate ways to hire more women investors and invest in more women founders, but omits the broader LGBTQ perspective, in “VCs in the Land of the Redwoods Need to Stand Taller and Address Gender Inequality”
  17. Bethany Marz Crystal of Union Square Ventures details “The Creation Story of Women in VC”