As someone who’s very familiar with online marketing, I completely understand the concept of link bait. It’s a great way to build buzz and generate traffic to one’s site. It’s effective, when done right. This was my initial impressions of the article posted on Tech Crunch earlier this week re: Penelope Trunk’s illogical manifesto about why we need to stop telling women to do startups.

As I was reading the article I felt a strong sense of anger coming from a dark place within me. I was pissed and the more I read it the angrier I got. I spent the next hour thinking bad thoughts. I was enraged and was about to use my personal site to air such frustration in a nasty and snarky way. But as a mature and wise 34 year old, I didn’t and I reflected on why I was so angry.

In my opinion, the sexist diatribe missed the mark. Stop telling anyone to do something is defeatist. Then again I’m guilty of telling people to chase their dreams and find their passion. Perhaps I should stop as well. You see, when you stop telling women to do startups, you create a culture where it’s ok for them not to do it. For me, that’s a problem. Just because some women prefer to pop out children and stay home with them does not mean all women want that lifestyle. There are also some women who want both.

Encouraging others to do a startup is a great way to expose a world of possibilities to a woman who never thought it was possible, much less a reality. I won’t beat a dead horse about how generalized and sexist Trunk’s article was with all the assumptions. I just want to take the core issue and shed light on why this is problematic as a whole. Many women don’t think entrepreneurship is an option. They were either not exposed to it as a lifestyle or not taught that it’s a valid career path. The only way to change this is by empowering them with knowledge and encouragement. It’s not nagging women to build a startup, it’s telling them “you can do it too.” I’m having a hard time seeing that as a negative message to send.

Sure the startup life is tough but for anyone who truly loves what they do, they will be the first ones to tell you that they wouldn’t have it any other way. Then again there are those bitter and disgruntled few who either lost their passion, burnt out or couldn’t hack it. Those are usually the ones who project their inadequacies by discouraging others to enter the startup world. Hmmm, I wonder why.

For more information on the context of this topic, read the articles below:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/11/stop-telling-women-to-do-startups/

http://www.women2.org/penelope-trunk%E2%80%99s-skewed-perceptions-of-the-world-part-2/

http://www.banane.com/2011/08/06/women-shouldnt-add-tech-to-their-blog-title/

http://www.women2.org/stfu-about-what-women-want/

http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/11/stop-telling-women-to-do-startups/

I’ve had this url for several years and it’s gone up and down in terms of what it stands for. Upon reading the articles about women and startups I decided to relaunch this site as a simple blog which offers commentaries and stories that spotlight the women who do decide to enter the world of entrepreneurship. Whenever there’s a problem we always have 2 choices: to do nothing or to do something. Complaining falls in the “nothing” family so I went the other route.