Between 77 percent and 79 percent of venture capital firms have never employed a woman investor, according to new research presented by an expert witness hired by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in its defense against a lawsuit by former employee Ellen Pao.
Kleiner Perkins Has Best Record on Women, Testifies Harvard Professor
Some 78 percent of venture capital firms have never employed a woman investor, according to new research.
Courtroom sketch by Vicki Behringer.
Only 15 percent to 17 percent have one woman, and 6 percent have more than one, according to Paul Gompers, a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School.
That leaves Kleiner Perkins, which commissioned Gompers’ latest research, in the distinct minority with lots more than one woman.
Further, Gompers said, Kleiner is the only firm that has 10 different women sitting on portfolio company boards. In second place in this low-bar contest, there are three other unnamed venture capital firms with women on eight boards.
Gompers said this was based on looking at some 3,300 venture firms in 2013.
In previous research, Gompers said that female venture capitalists who work at larger, well-established firms with multiple women tend to perform just as well as men. In other situations, women venture capitalists underperform men.
Gompers, by the way, was paid $900 per hour for his contributions to the Kleiner Perkins case, a new high among the very well paid expert witnesses each side has hired.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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