Commentary: Which came first – women investors or women entrepreneurs?

As a young girl, I knew I wanted a career, but I also wanted a family. I didn't see a lot of women doing both at once, which made me question whether my goals were possible. When I got older, I discovered the truth — women can have it all, but those of us who seek professional success in addition to family life face a steep uphill climb.

Men struggle to balance work and home life as well, but they face different challenges, especially when they decide to become entrepreneurs. While men can pitch their ideas to rooms full of male venture capitalists, women rarely get to solicit funding from other women. Venture capital remains a male-dominated field, and because venture capitalists fund men more frequently, women struggle to escape the closed loop of opportunity.

If women can't get funding, they can't start companies. If they can't start companies, they can't acquire capital. Without capital, women can't become funders, which means the women of the future must continue to seek funding from men, and the cycle continues.

When I first joined a venture capital firm out of college, I remember sitting in a room with about 70 other angel investors. Only two of us were women. We heard plenty of pitches, and after every pitch, the room would jointly ponder the merits of the deal.

After one such pitch by a female founder, the angel investors in the room turned to the other woman and me and asked us how we felt about this particular company. It was in that moment I realized what a disproportionate amount of power I had in this woman's life because there were so few women in the audience. That moment helped me understand the problem — it wasn't that these men maliciously overlooked the female founder, but they could not understand the value proposition of her company because they couldn't relate to the target consumer.

To correct this imbalance, I realized we needed more women in that room and rooms like it. When women earn more representation in funding circles, female entrepreneurs will finally be able to solicit funding from people who understand their perspectives and the problems they are solving.

Different genders and races experience life in different ways. Those differences create unique worldviews, which in turn allow people to see distinct problems and opportunities. It is also my experience that people tend to seek out employment at companies that share their passions and interests. Having diverse companies out there creates more work opportunities for more diverse people to feel passion and deep engagement in their work. Hopefully this can create not just more diversely led companies but more companies where different people with different interests want to work.

More diverse groups in entrepreneurship helps everyone. More people love their entrepreneurial dreams, more jobs are created that appeal to a variety of interests and passions, and more diverse people of wealth will fund the next generation of businesses. The only question is, how do we make that happen?

Correcting the gender imbalance in business will not happen overnight. To make progress, companies and funding firms should consider a few adjustments:

• Bring in women to listen to pitches. Male-dominated venture capital firms should bring in more women to listen to pitches. Even if those women do not control the funds, they can offer unique perspectives that rooms filled with men might not otherwise consider.

• Host events and contests through women's universities and organizations. Businesses and firms struggling to find women interested in entrepreneurship should get involved with universities and organizations where ambitious women congregate. By hosting entrepreneurship contests and inviting women to engage with, we can cultivate female leaders at an earlier stage.
• Model male participation at home. Most women opt out of ambitious career choices when they start building a family. Statistics like to point out that women make 79 cents for every dollar a man makes, but generally speaking, this is coming from women often choosing less profitable careers that might offer more flexibility and take on more responsibilities at home. If we begin to level the playing field of expectation by having men pick up the slack at home, we create an environment that allows women a better chance to thrive professionally.

Perhaps a few generations from now women will enjoy greater representation in executive boardrooms and at venture capital firms if we make small moves to create an environment that empowers women to realize their potential.

Ashley Merrill is principal at NaHCO3, a Los Angeles-based investment management firm. This content represents the views of the author. It was submitted and edited under Pensions & Investments guidelines, but is not a product of P&I's editorial team.