Men are asked to win, women are asked not to lose
1 min read · February 21, 2025
New Power Labs
Male entrepreneurs are asked asset-based questions, while female entrepreneurs are asked liability-based questions.
Male entrepreneurs get asked aspirational questions, focusing on hopes, achievements, and aspirations. Female entrepreneurs get asked about the risks, security, and responsibility. (Kanze et al., 2018)
In other words, “we ask men to win, and women not to lose.”
As a result of disparities in the questions they receive, men are more likely to present the potential to grow their ventures, while women are more likely to present strategies to avoid failures. This perpetuates the bias with men’s answers reinforcing their association with wins, and women getting unconsciously associated with losses.
The bias cycle can be dismantled. During TechCrunch Disrupt New York, an annual startup funding competition, founders who are able to respond to risk-based questions with growth-based answers raise more funds ($7.9 million), compared to those with risk-based answers ($563,000) (Kanze et al., 2018).
There are two paths forward:
Supporting women: Research has shown that training can significantly improve women entrepreneurs’ ability to provide strategic answers to risk-based questions (Farrell, 2022).
Shifting investors: More consistent assessment of entrepreneurs could help investors overcome unconscious bias (Miller et al., 2024).
Narinder
New Power Labs
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