“I would not be caught dead in a pink suit now,” says Susan Perry, the founder of SpeechMED, a startup that translates complex medical information into language patients can understand.
Research: Investors Punish Entrepreneurs for Stereotypically Feminine Behaviors
In a pitch competition, judges reacted poorly to warmth and expressiveness.
October 19, 2018
Francesco Carta fotografo/Getty Images
Summary.
In an elevator pitch competition, investors were less likely to select as finalists entrepreneurs who demonstrated stereotypically feminine behaviors like warmth and expressiveness. Interestingly, this was true regardless of their gender. For example, men who showed “feminine” traits like warmth were less likely to be selected. Women were rewarded when they adopted more “masculine” behaviors. This runs counter to other research, which has found that women in management roles are penalized for adopting “male” behaviors like assertiveness or risk-taking. This new study suggests that, in entrepreneurship at least, this double-bind may not apply.