By Eoin O’Carroll

Other barriers women face are an absence of supportive social networks and implicit bias on the part of venture capitalists. “They tend to ask women more difficult questions to try and put them on the spot and figure out how they’re going to manage disaster,” says Jessica Milli, an economist with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, of venture capitalists. “Whereas men, they tend to ask questions about their growth aspirations.”

In her research, Dr. Milli estimated that at the current rate of change, it would take 75 years before women and men are granted an equal number of patents. But in 2018, she sees signs of a cultural transformation that could accelerate the process.

“People are calling out sexism left and right,” she says. “We are seeing some of that societal shift happen. And I am definitely hoping that it will continue.”

>>Read more