[slyfocks]

This assumes venture capitalists don’t exhibit a bias towards male founders. Depending on the extent of bias (if any), female engineers would lose a bit of bargaining power with Google.

Also, empirically, women tend to be more risk-averse than men on average, so Google (and other companies) could be paying less knowing the chance they’d leave is lower than a man of similar skill.

[runevault]

It doesn't even have to be for the startup life. They could just leave to work at another established company. Though the rest of your point about being risk averse and so sticking with a job (and therefore being less of a flight risk) is more interesting and would be worth exploring.

[slavak]

This is an interesting thought!

If an employer pays people who are a flight-risk more (a-la "the squeaky wheel gets the grease"), and women are on average a lower flight risk because they are more risk-averse - is the resulting pay disparity a case of illegal discrimination?

My intuition says no, but I'm not sure everyone (including the legal system) necessarily agrees.

[intoverflow2]

Is venture capital a requirement to start a company?