There was a guest post by Penelope Trunk on TechCrunch today. I already had low expectations when I saw the name; after all, this was the woman who encouraged other women to have a baby while unemployed. Today’s dose of Trunk: women don’t run startups because they want kids.
There are too many places to start on this, the most obvious being the application of her otherwise perfectly acceptable personal experiences to all women and calling that research. She assumes that all women in the startup world live the same experiences. All women want to have children. All women would rather raise their children themselves than let their husbands do it. (And note she always says “husband”, implying a male partner and not acknowledging an LGBT presence in the startup community.)
Oh, and her years of research? That’s a blog post outlining the perfect time to date and get married before having kids and concentrating on a career. That might work for you, Penelope, but that doesn’t generalize for every woman. Some of us actually want to think about our careers and other non-baby interests instead of obsessing over the perfect time to have a kid. Hint: It never comes, no matter how hard you plan.
You can stay on the farm, Penelope. I’m going to go out and have a career without worrying about the state of my lady parts. You should contact me to help out in that journey.