1)I'm not necessarily negating you, rottendoubt, but I'd be curious to know what the women who have applied to YC and those who have been accepted think of marriage and kids. There may be no correlation at all. I personally think a large part of the discrepancy is our culture and can easily be changed, especially in the minds of the kids who are currently growing up.

2) As for dynamics...yeah, I'll agree with you on that. Women can be catty. That doesn't mean we are catty, but we can be. Where does that leave us though? It actually appears that we have to prove ourselves above and beyond. "I won't be catty, I won't go after my co-founder and hopefully he won't come after me, and I'm sorry I'm not a dude so I can't create an all male cohort." Doesn't mean it will stop me but it does make it more difficult.

3) Call me biased because I'm an educator, but I think a big obstacle is our science education in this country. Or lack thereof. Tech information is geared towards males, not females and it is a poor show at that. If more females became involved at a younger age, I think YC would have a hard time keeping the women out. :)