Techcrunch today published a post "Women Don’t Want To Run Startups Because They’d Rather Have Children" . Well, though I sympathize with the woman in the post,I do not agree with the tone of the article.
She takes her experience and generalizes it to all women, which is just taking it to the extreme.
I think ultimately what she wants to say is that,
"Its tough to be a woman, and its tough to run a startup". Big deal.
Its tough to run a startup. Period. Does not matter whether you are a man or a woman.
And she seems to assume that bringing up a child is just the woman's job. It's not. And thats why we humans have created a family structure.So that both parents take care of the kid. If I start to write about how difficult it has been for me to both be a young dad as well as drive a startup, it would become a novel :)
Actually, in the middle of the post she writes "It’s hard to not be the center, but I want to be the center of my family."(emphasis mine). She wanted to be the center of her family and nothing else. Thats the choice she made and its the choices we make that define us.She can now be defined as a great mother and not a good entrepreneur, and thats just fine.Its actually OK to be just a great mother and nothing else. But not everyone has to make that choice. Some could actually choose to be the center of their family and also the center of their startup. Just work harder for the first years of the kid.
But I do agree that men certainly have an advantage in the startup world. In our work culture we have the concept of maternity leave, where we hold the job for a woman until she finishes her pregnancy and then she can come back and join the workforce and continue from where she left off. In the startup world, the world just moves on :)
Just had to put my thoughts out. Don't worry, next week we will be back to cloud telephony.
She takes her experience and generalizes it to all women, which is just taking it to the extreme.
I think ultimately what she wants to say is that,
"Its tough to be a woman, and its tough to run a startup". Big deal.
Its tough to run a startup. Period. Does not matter whether you are a man or a woman.
And she seems to assume that bringing up a child is just the woman's job. It's not. And thats why we humans have created a family structure.So that both parents take care of the kid. If I start to write about how difficult it has been for me to both be a young dad as well as drive a startup, it would become a novel :)
Actually, in the middle of the post she writes "It’s hard to not be the center, but I want to be the center of my family."(emphasis mine). She wanted to be the center of her family and nothing else. Thats the choice she made and its the choices we make that define us.She can now be defined as a great mother and not a good entrepreneur, and thats just fine.Its actually OK to be just a great mother and nothing else. But not everyone has to make that choice. Some could actually choose to be the center of their family and also the center of their startup. Just work harder for the first years of the kid.
But I do agree that men certainly have an advantage in the startup world. In our work culture we have the concept of maternity leave, where we hold the job for a woman until she finishes her pregnancy and then she can come back and join the workforce and continue from where she left off. In the startup world, the world just moves on :)
Just had to put my thoughts out. Don't worry, next week we will be back to cloud telephony.