Women Do Want to Do Startups.
The other day in class we discussed the topic of “entrepreneurship”. It led me to reflect on my own ambitions and my desire to start up a company myself. Hence, when I stumbled upon Penelope Trunk’s blog post, “Women Don’t Want to Do Startups. They want children.”, I immediately disagreed with her statement. In short, she believes having children can be a barrier to having a startup. Therefore after thoroughly reading her post, I realized my view was somewhat naive. If I don’t end up starting a business until 25 years old, there definitely will be an increased chance of my personal life interfering with my business. However, a UK poll shows that out of approximately 1,000 women entrepreneurs, over half setting up their own business are parents as well. Thus, I remain optimistic. But, how can women manage their ambitions along with their children?
In Penelope’s entry, she describes being a parent whilst being an entrepreneur as “absolutely untenable”. So, to cope with being a simultaneous entrepreneur and parent, I would first stabilize one startup company, building a successful business with a reliable team of managers, to reduce the impact of my personal life on my business. Why have three “average” businesses, when you could focus on having a great one? Perhaps more startups could happen once the children get older. Furthermore, Penelope could have started up a company with women who are in a similar situation as her, this would ease her stress as she would have people to relate to. Overall, I believe that with a high degree of passion, women can find a balance between personal life and work life.