[493579620678]

I think the possibility that YC is discriminating against women is worthy of discussing. If they are, it would be beneficial for both YC and the world at large if they did something to address it. If they are not, it's still interesting and possibly valuable to attempt to figure out why the list looks like it does.

[manholio]

Sure, it's worth discussing. But it's just a bullet point on a very, very long list of arbitrary things accelerators discriminate for. Just look at those faces. Where are the New York mechanic or soccer mom types, or people with visible tattoos? What in God's name have they done with the elderly, tuned them into Soylent green?

You can see from a glance that is NOT a representative sample of the population, and that's based on looks alone. Let's not even mention things like the way you talk and present yourself, educational and employment background. God forbid you are one of those neurodivergent people - Google even has a cute word for those poor undesirables: lacking googliness.

Bottom line, entrepreneurship is just anohter political occupation that relates to power over other people. It cannot function otherwise than as an extension of power relations in society, because those relationships permeate the market and affect the businesses` ability to make money. Startup survivorship is so low and the pool of qualified applicants so inexhaustible, that an accelerator cannot but work to enforce those stereotypes and power structures: why waste capital on a militant atheist founder in a devout society if there is even the slightest chance some parts of the public will boycott their products?

And having a 80% of a full chance on account of gender is in this context a minor problem compared with a 0% chance of anybody that does not talk the talk investors expect for purely cultural reasons.