Who Wears the Pants(suit) Now?

I recently read a very insightful article on Bloomberg Businessweek, written by Karen E. Klein. Here are my thoughts...

Let't just come right out and acknowledge the ever present gender equality elephant in the room. Although it is the 21st century, and we like to consider our generation as being modern, there is still unequal pay amongst men and women. This is an unnecessary gender gap. It is also unwarranted and not reflective of the real facts.

Now, I must preface by stating I am not writing this while I am standing on my soapbox,  simultaneously burning my bras(I need my bras!) I am simply taking a closer look at the facts.

As far as private technology companies are concerned, those that are led by women earn 35% higher ROI. Also, when the VCs are brought into the equation, these women-led companies have a 12% higher revenue than tech companies owned by male counterparts. This new research was shared at a 
Women 2.0 conference hosted in San Francisco. So why do women's paychecks not reflect this?

However, Brava! It seems the ladies are catching up! These ladies aren't just successful, with expanding bank accounts, they are beginning their journeys to success younger. The average age of women entrepreneurs founding tech companies is now age 32, much lower than the previous average age of 41. This information is backed by the findings of research done by Credit Suisse Research Institute, and Down Jones VentureSource analysis.

Although women are now earning more than 50% of all bachelors and masters degrees, and nearly half of doctorate-level degrees, these same women are starting only 3% of technology companies.

The conference was led by Vivek Wadhwa. He believed that there were too many young men in the industry working on social apps with no greater good to come out of them than simple entertainment.(Although, who doesn't love Angry Birds, Instagram, and Fruit Ninja?!)  Wadhwa urged conference attendees to aim high, and to work towards solving bigger international problems like poverty, lack of clean water, health care, and harnessing internet data. These same women have now begun to do good, and make an impact on the world with their tech and business savvy skills.

I personally would have loved to hear Mr. Wadhwa speak. I am a big fan of the fact that he not only encourages women entrepreneurs, but is an advocate for inclusion as well as equality. It seems all too often, we revert back to the "separate but equal policy." It doesn't have to be that way. Men and women can work together to create a synergetic effect. After all, two heads are better than one, and what is preventing one of those heads from having super cute hair cut on top of her genius brain?