A recent study conducted by scholars from Babson College revealed that more than 90 percent of the partners in venture-capital firms are male. So Ms. Tariyal and Mr. Gire often sat across the table from a man, trying to sell him on a tampon machine.
“Someone told us that the product would only help women, and women are only half the population — so what was the point?” Ms. Tariyal said. Other potential funders wanted to reimagine their technology as a product for men: Was there some way to re-engineer it so that it would measure testosterone? And one guy suggested they develop a machine that a man could use to covertly test the health of his sexual partners, because “women are liars” who spread venereal diseases.
This is a fucking MANDATORY must-read about how the patent process screws over women inventors, how crucial advances in women’s reproductive health are shortchanged and blocked by male venture capitalists and research institution, and a goddamn groundbreaking medical advance - a new way to test for diseases using menstrual blood - that almost never made it off the ground because boys think tampons are gross.
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