How To Break Out Of The Female Entrepreneur Trap
Dr. Shelley Prevost, co-founder of Lamp Post Group, a venture incubator in Chattanooga, Tennessee, writes:

Instead of talking, let's start acting.

Here's the profile of a female entrepreneur that I want to work with:

•She's never attended a women's symposium.

•She doesn't do panels as the "token female," not because she's against this well-meaning exploitation, but because she's just too damn busy.

•She's hustling, recruiting people, building things, creating a movement.

•Her urgency is palpable. She takes little thrill in small talk, walks fast, and thinks big.

I had a meeting this week with one of our female founders. She is the type of female entrepreneur that I just described. She isn't interested in talking about being a "female founder" because it isn't important to her. She's building a business and a team. She's landing multi-million dollar contracts. She's focused on her family and her kids. She has clear goals and is uncompromising in seeing them met. And she's equally passionate about bringing other good people along with her. As decisive as she is collaborative, she is creating huge momentum around herself and her start-up.

And here's why so many women get paid less -- because they're nice, compliant girls who don't ask for more. Who are afraid to ask for more.

Yeah, it's a tough job market. A a job generally doesn't go away because you try to negotiate your salary, unless you tell them you want $6 million as a post-doc, in which case you'll seem kinda nuts.

And for the record, I have never referred to myself or identified as a "female" anything, except on forms at the doctor's office, etc.

via @RealEvilHRLady