WTF Wednesday #1
The SheEO team has been encouraging me to start a regular WTF Wednesday's post. I tend to rant in silence or in the office, in a car, to my husband, to friends, uhm, I rant a LOT, I guess, but I rarely do it out loud.
When Emily, our new Comms person joined the team she scheduled an hour of "smash the patriarchy" into my calendar each week.
As a woman of a different "vintage" than most of my team I feel truly blessed to have their encouragement and their reminder to step outside my comfort zone. So here goes.
WTF Wednesday #1
I am constantly doing 15 minute check-ins with female entrepreneurs all over the world. Recently, I was checking in with an entrepreneur in Canada. She's growing her business every day with a clear focus and drive that is truly inspiring. She's in need of more capital so she pitched to an angel group. She got up, did a powerful pitch (she is a goddess saleswoman) and then the first question came.
"Are you single?...
WTAF?
I raged inside as she relayed this story. You obnoxious, out-of-touch, cluelessly unaware, condescending...it makes me crazy that women continue to get comments like this from non-thinking men. This will NOT continue to happen on our watch.
SheEO Is going to launch an angel fund before the end of the year to do follow-on funding for our ventures because this s* needs to stop.
You are now on our list, unnamed angel group. We will tell everyone in our network to stay away from you. Right now women have very little choice where to get funded. That is going to change, much faster than you think. Disruption never looks like you think it does and it happens much quicker than you can ever imagine.
As we build a pipeline of thousands of world-changing ventures supported by millions of kick-ass, connected women we can't wait until our ventures never have to stand in front of you again.
All of you out-of-date misogynists are about to be left out in the cold.
UX/UI Designer & Developer
6 年Out of curiosity, how did she respond to that question? I wouldn't know what to do in that situation, lol.
Speaker on Realizing Energy Democracy through Regenerative Business Practices | Social Entrepreneur | (GLI Thesis/Advocate)
7 年WTF Wednesdays is Brilliant! nice work millenials on getting our vintage woman to share her trove of real world insights into the barriers we still face in 2017. I too am noticing a growing number of our female leaders demonstrating a level of discernment around what money they accept. It seems alignment is actually 'A THING'.
Independent Board member & Executive getting the world from Idea to Impact: Innovation~Sustainability~Risk
7 年To play devil's advocate... start-ups take incredible amounts of time, energy, and unforseen going-beyond umph... things that "single" people often have more of than those who (also) have a myriad of relationships to focus on, respond to, and grow, in addition to their start-up... Therefore, I would have responded, "Interesting question, why do you want to know?" to get further insight before jumping to a (perhaps misperceived) negative conclusion and writing-off a potential funding source. To ascertain bias... would she have reacted the same way if the questioner were female???
YWCA Woman of Distinction Award Recipient - Values-led Strategist - Engagement Specialist - Change Maker
7 年Thank you for sharing. Love WTF Wednesdays! I'll be looking forward to these every week!
Digital Transformation Consultant??Smart Asset Advisor??DeFi/ReFi Analyst ??LoverLifer
7 年Love this post. Definitely something I'd say I experience within the financial industry.