Investors Are More Likely To Give Money To Male Entrepreneurs Than Female Entrepreneurs

Women in business likely already knew that they face certain obstacles their male counterparts have never even worried about, but a recent study conducted by researchers over at Harvard, UPenn and MIT is particularly discouraging for female entrepreneurs.

Apparently investors are more likely to pledge money if the pitch is made by a male leader instead of a lady boss.

The survey team looked at three pitch competitions across the US and performed two controlled experiments to reach their conclusion — that investors seem to favor men when giving money, regardless of the contents of the company’s plan.

The study also found that the attractiveness of the male was particularly important to the investment decision (but weirdly enough had no influence when it came to the looks of the women working their pitch)… and all this applies even if the ideas presented are identical.

While this information is frustrating, it’s sadly not particularly new — a ThinkProgress article cites that startups with at least one female founder only scored 13 percent of all venture capital funding raised in 2013 (and even that’s hailed as a much greater share from years past).

With women already disadvantaged in getting their companies going, it’s probably no surprise that women make up less than 15 percent of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

Still, it would be nice to see investors judge strictly on content and quality, as opposed to basic manliness. Just a penny for my thoughts.

 H/T: ThinkProgress, Top Photo Credit: Shutterstock