One female VC partner is tokenism. Two actually shift the conversation.
8 mars 2026
06:00
One female partner is unlikely to shift the balance of power in a venture capital firm. Two or more is when you see real change, argues Doreen Rietentiet, CEO and founder, Elevate2Impact.
Venture capital likes to think of itself as the business of the future. Yet on gender, it still reflects the past.
Despite two decades of conversation about diversity, women remain dramatically underrepresented at the partner level in VC firms globally. In the United States, women make up roughly 15–18% of decision-making partners at venture firms, according to PitchBook data. In Europe, the figure hovers around 15–20%, depending on the market. In many funds, that translates to exactly one woman at the table, if any. And that structural reality has measurable consequences.