As Charles Hudson, a venture partner at SoftTechVC said yesterday on BloombergTV, investors feel safer making inherently risky bets on entrepreneurs who remind them of themselves. When the vast majority of venture firms are led by men, that’s where the money is going. Despite this, women are getting funded more often than ever before. They’re founding profitable companies which will have or have had successful exits.

She goes on to state that “Women don’t want to do startups because women want children”. She says startups are risky, require more time and women just don’t care about things like that.

Men want children just as much as women want children. This doesn’t seem to affect their career choices. As women are having children later and later in life, they have the opportunity to spend their twenties founding a startup. Even when they have children, if they have a partner who is willing to parent equally, they have the opportunity to spend their time founding a startup. Startups do require more time and risk, but women are just as free to take these chances. As more women are getting funding, the risk decreases as they can have a normal salary, benefits and many of the securities of working for a larger company.

She states that women in their twenties outearn men, so surely they can do whatever they want in their careers. Startups just aren’t for them.

Women often hit a glass ceiling in their late twenties/early thirties that their male peers don’t seem to hit. This, and not children alone, contributes to women leaving the workforce entirely or only working part time. When women don’t feel they are rewarded for their hard work – they leave. This is a problem that can and should be fixed. It is not a problem that is caused by women not caring about the work they do.