A disproportionately low percentage of female founders in IT/tech startups might be due to a lower number of female CS/engineering graduates and workers.
However, in biology and medicine, I believe women are now the majority of new graduates. Yet, the majority of biotech and pharma startup founders are men (and I believe the stats are that an even higher percentage of biotech startups have male founders than cs/internet startups!). Biotech startups are more capital intensive, and have an entirely different funding and exit profile, but I think this is a useful data point. Qualified women are still not starting startups at the rate one would predict; maybe they are rational in choosing not to, maybe there are artificial barriers which can be removed (even something as simple as lack of awareness that of founding startups as a possibility), but it's definitely an issue.
However, in biology and medicine, I believe women are now the majority of new graduates. Yet, the majority of biotech and pharma startup founders are men (and I believe the stats are that an even higher percentage of biotech startups have male founders than cs/internet startups!). Biotech startups are more capital intensive, and have an entirely different funding and exit profile, but I think this is a useful data point. Qualified women are still not starting startups at the rate one would predict; maybe they are rational in choosing not to, maybe there are artificial barriers which can be removed (even something as simple as lack of awareness that of founding startups as a possibility), but it's definitely an issue.