It’s no secret that San Francisco and Silicon Valley’s tech demographics skew heavily on the side of men. Rather than continue quietly observing this cultural inequity, over the past few years, more voices have brought attention to the issue. Through increased publicity, thanks to speeches by leaders like Sheryl Sandberg and articles like this month’s feature in San Francisco magazine, the conversation around women entrepreneurs is beginning to change. Still, some of the discussion is going in the wrong direction – focusing only at those at the very top and at the biggest companies – founders, board members, CxO’s. When you look much closer, there are numerous women making waves as entrepreneurs, executives and investors. It’s just that they seem to be ignored because they’re not at Apple or Zynga.
Silicon Valley has its own version of celebrity culture, and the dazzling stars are not just attractive, but they’re brilliant, creative and usually nouveau riche. As with celebrity culture everywhere, the mainstream media often focuses solely on big names, big companies and big dollar signs. And the issue of women tends to be misunderstood. One way of learning the real story is to listen to the women entrepreneurs themselves, and that’s just what we did Thursday at Cisco headquarters in San Jose at the TEDx Bay Area Global Women Entrepreneurs conference. Eighteen speakers (15 women, 3 men) gave eighteen minute talks, sharing their statistics and stories.
