Information matters. One of the problems with studying the issues and details of women in technology is that information about their experience is hard to find. While a great deal of data about the tech industry is available, almost all of it is genderless. That is, the source simply didn’t consider the idea that women work in technology. Correcting this false assumption is a necessary step toward gender equality.

To gain some understanding of efforts to fix this problem, Rebecca Knight (@knightrm), host of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, visited the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference in Houston, TX. There, she spoke to Kathryn Finney, general partner at the Harriet Fund and managing director of digitalundivided.

Venture funding and getting the data

Digging up starting money is always a problem for new businesses, but those headed by women share an extra burden. Finney described how her research showed that women, and especially black women, received only a fraction of the venture funding granted to male-led businesses. She mentioned that even the most talented black women raised only a portion of what the worst male-led startups pulled in.

This research started with a revelation. Finney explained how she noticed that at thousand-person tech conferences, she was usually the only black woman, and often the only woman. Knowing that women engage online at higher rates than men, that didn’t make much sense. She soon discovered that no one had done the research on women in technology, and so decided to start her own project.

Accelerating equality and providing capital

It soon became apparent there were three reasons why women-led companies were rare. Finney stated it came down to a lack of training, a lack of net-worth and a lack of capital. These were problems that could be solved. Finney joined in starting an accelerator program, digitalundivided, that finds, trains and supports women of color entrepreneurs.

Among other support, the program offers startup companies equity-based investment for those going through the accelerator. The program also brings Finney to the Grace Hopper convention. She related how she enjoyed the conference because gender isn’t a factor there.

“I can be smart and brilliant, and all that other stuff is just left outside,” she said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the Anita Borg Institute’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.

Photo by SiliconANGLE