I read the blog-post, but it does not make clear to me why Jessica chose to offer the money to <i>women</i> only.<p>> "
Specifically, she can’t build the first version of her product and is forced to find a cofounder who can. Because she can't judge technical ability, she'll often choose the wrong person for the job. And in a startup, if you choose the wrong programmer or cofounder and have to replace them, the delay alone can be enough to kill the company.
…"<p>I have met a number of people who cannot program, but believe that they have a great idea (only if somebody could just build that app for them …).<p>Even random neighbors who learn that I write mobile apps just sort of assume,<p>that I do not have my own ideas -- and instead, just program somebody else's ideas into life (sort of like I am a typist, but an author of the novel, I am typing -- has to be somebody else).<p>All that gender-bias in recent, US, tech grants does, is re-enforces the stigma that women in US are 'special-needs', as far as it comes to technology.<p>This is not a good stigma to have, and it cannot be broken by appeal to a moral high.<p>As a parent, it is also difficult to explain to my son, why my daughter would qualify for such a generous grant, but he would not...
What explanation is there ?<p>As few on this thread, I think there are better way to identify people who born into (or became over time) into a very unfair and disadvantageous environment.<p>And giving those, the extra help, offering them generosity -- is nothing but heart warming. And deserves huge applauds and replication.<p>There are boys and girls from disadvantaged environments, some lost parents to cancer, to car accidents, to wars, to terrorist attacks.<p>Some are in different countries suffering from horrible illnesses (that were caused by environment catastrophes).<p>Some were unlucky to be born to drug abusing parents.<p>---<p>It does take more work, may be more passion, to reach out to those -- but I think it would better society more.