curators. were getting so much information that we really can't process it. >> today's 50 years and senator john mccain's capture vietnam. in the beginning of his time as a pow. we spoke some about his service, the president and the legacy of the vietnam war. you can watch starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern or listen to the c-span radio app. >> c-span's "washington journal", live every day with a some policy issues that impact you. on friday morning were devoting the program on sexual harassment. we'll look at the government's role in combating workplace sexual harassment. emily martin of the national women's law center will talk about private sector efforts to address the problem in jackson

of of violence and prevention strategy will discuss sexual harassment and an education program. watch "washington journal", live seven eastern on friday morning. joined the discussion. >> now, hearing on the impact of women leaders on the economy. from the senate small business committee, this is about one hour. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

[inaudible] >> i know you're having a good time and networking. and moving the enterprise forward. we really should get started. we have to vote starting at noon. we will be on the short string. that's not in anyway denigrate the importance of this hearing of the small business committee. but will do today is explore way's to help woman-owned businesses reach your full potential and grow the american economy. i want to thank my colleague for working together on this. this is a matter of great importance to a central america even though all america sometimes doesn't know it.

october is national women's small business month. it serves as a great reminder that female entrepreneurs own more than 11 million businesses in the country an employee for the 9 million workers. they contribute 1.6 trillion in sales and are capable of more is the fastest growing sector. a few weeks ago the administrator join me in my home state of idaho. we visited small businesses, my wife and i she traveled to some businesses and had the opportunity to meet with woman-owned businesses there. entrepreneurs and small business owners want time to devote to

growing their businesses. women entrepreneurs oftentimes are working to juggle more priorities than their male counterparts for obvious reasons. they're negatively impacted by the expense of time and resources it takes to comply with their complicated and burdensome tax code and other regulatory systems. it's for this reason tax reform can should be part of today's discussion. in fact we're asked to present untaxed reform because it's the most important issue to the hundreds of business with owners who belong to that organization. the president and board of directors were at this desk in this room a few weeks ago for bipartisan discussion centered on the need for tax reform with staff from my office in my colleague's office to participate. the hearing will touch on many issues affecting women not nurse. tax reform is a top mind issue on all of our parts.

thank you for being here and i look forward to a robust discussion. i would ask each panel member, first thank you for agreeing to come to the hearing today. presenting for us. i would ask you to stay with the five minutes and ask that you submit anything you want to in writing and we will included in the record. i like to yield to senator shaheen. >> i'm delighted were holding this hearing this morning. woman-owned firms are significant as we look at the future of employment in the country. they're growing five times faster than the national average.

but they still face headwinds. on average they are less than mail-in firms. they employ only 8% of the workforce of 4% of business revenues, share that has remained the same for the past 20 years. the question is why are the other statistics around woman-owned businesses not changing and that's what we will explore this morning. i look forward to hear the testimony of our witnesses and will submit my full statement for the record. >> thank you. i want to introduce our witnesses a first welcome ms. elizabeth gore, who is an entrepreneur in residence. never heard that title before. sure you will enlighten us. she drives initiatives to support dell's goals around helping small and medium business scale a prosper. i'm pleased to welcome tracy chadwell, founding partner of

1843 capital but also like to wreck recognize michelle richard who served as a executive director great lakes business council. that does great work and she's been there since its inception in 1984. thank you for coming in the score, will start with you. >> thank you. i'm pleased to be here. it's an honor to testify about what i think could be the greatest bipartisan opportunity this country has seen. as women entrepreneurs. this weekend been in san francisco, sioux falls, known d.c. i'm from northern california. women in all those areas have the most potential to succeed

but there facing barriers. while restarting businesses twice as fast as their male counterparts, we have a higher sale rate. only 2% of us are making over million dollars with her businesses. i think that's a 98% opportunity to improve. i hope none month you have the number seven is a favorite number. we are stuck on seven. women founders only get 7% of venture capital in this country, only 7% of venture capitalists are women. only 7% of stories in the business media are about women founders. we need to change that. over the last two and half years i have served to my home state of texas is no entrepreneur residence. i'm an entrepreneur myself and

the cofounder of alice, the first ever machine learning ai tool that helps women, minority founder helps find these reasons resources they need to scale. i found barriers really sit four pillars. access to capital, networks, technology, and talent. all-star with access to capital. that's number one issue facing women. weather in sioux falls whether going with silicon valley this is a major problem. we need to incentivize or venture capital friends to increase that 7% number. it's going down. i think the 2017 numbers will show a significant drop in venture capital.

bias and unconscious bias does exist. the me to movement is not just about hollywood. i want to encourage your sba to continue to strengthen. it's a critical part of our country. while women are fought times more likely to get an sba loan, the amounts they get her to have times lower than their male counterparts. another thing is certifications. proud to see continuing diversity programs woman-owned business certifications. one thing we need to change is the aa certification program with the u.s. sba is next line program. if you get venture funding and those are male, you are not considered women-owned anymore.

you cannot get the aa certification and be ventured back. i think this is something we can change through legislation. but it's my top recommendation for this year. let's continue to work with innovators and understanding sources of funding. supplier spent $4 billion a year on women owned businesses. crowdfunding is now supporting women more than men. what other innovative sources can we do. most women depend on banks for access to capital. ninety plus percentage of women are counting on bank loans. we came out to seeley 30% of companies owned by women were able to get bank loans in 2016. we don't golf as much as are generally counterparts do so one of those networks that we need to find other digital or accelerators, i love the grants

that have been going to accelerators, they are important. access to technology. every company is a technology company. women are less likely to utilize technology we need to move that forward. on behalf of the women entrepreneurs this is a time of opportunity, a time where were challenge but if we get the access to capital we need will bring 30 billions in gdp in this country in one year. thank you. >> thank you. that was terrific. good morning. thank you chairman and ranking member for the opportunity to

testify today before the committee. that's a pleasure and honor to introduce myself and give my perspective on how to strengthen the ecosystem for women. i'm an attorney who had my first exposure to private equity when i helped set up a fund to invest in china. i eventually became a partner of a capital fund. the last five years i've been investing exclusively in women founders of the technology area. i formed 1843 capital. my partners are incredible women, allison andrews is an operator and engineer who successfully built and sold her cyber security company. vanessa, operates a platform in seven cities delivering educational programming and networking for women founders, funders and community partners.

the good news is things are working. the accelerator program, mentorship and seed investors in the ecosystem allowing woman-owned businesses to thrive. the vendetta project sees over 2000 people companies per year. they been able to channel money to early-stage companies. nationwide businesses are growing up five times the national average. statistically women outperform as well. they -- it's organizations like the women's business organization councils have been a true catalyst.

by guaranteeing loans were getting the fuel they need to scale businesses. they're doing this without taxpayers subsidies. as a venture capitalist i've invested in world-class companies found by women that are both successful and do great things for the world. beauty counters a woman found a company that are free of toxic chemicals. revenues are much stronger than most of the unicorns out there and they employ 35000 consultants. silver nest is a company colorado these technology to match people over 50 with roommates. it helps them sell the problem of financial insecurity and loneliness. an algorithm -based wealth management platform helps banks and investment advisors democratize wealth management. everyone can save regardless of the size of their count. something unique is local user experience.

most people are intimidated by math and finance but margaret developed an interface that was visual and accessible to everyone. she knew to have the biggest impact the company had to have a foundation in design. as we move into the next chapter in technology dominate by artificial intelligence, the skills of coding will become commodities. level when his creativity, design and marketing. the most serious barrier is the lack of funding. women are able to create businesses not because the cost of starting a business has come down and they don't need outside investment to get started. the capital to scales and accessible. beauty counters one of the largest and fastest growing companies.

women founders as a group received 2.19% of venture capital dollars. many reasons is for this. woman found in venture capital firms are 28 out of 800 firms. one of the most impactful things you could do is to encourage your state pension funds to take a harder look at women managers and at diversifying their underlying portfolios. it's impossible to legislate against unconscious bias but you can't support and fund positive role models. thank you.

>> my name is michelle richard. executive director for great lakes women's business council. before i discuss the current system for women entrepreneurs want to share experience as an organization dedicated to supporting women business owners for the past 33 years. i had a chance to start this organization. since 1993 we made over 6.5 million loans with the average size of 20000. these have created 1700 jobs. in the early 19 '90s we became a women's business center. created stable funding for us to build a platform for training and counseling programs. we been able to serve the 10000 business owners. it also been a certifying partner for the women's business enterprise council also known as

we bank. we have 1120 certified business owners that generate 12.3 billion in revenue annually and employ 48500 u.s. workers. i'm proud of the efforts to revitalize detroit. our detroit loan program has provided 1.3 million loans creating 72 jobs and retaining more. for small businesses to succeed they need capacity, capital, and contracts. in my view they lack access to all three. access is the main barrier. our team is heard stories of the bias against women when they attempt to obtain business finance. was recently told to an established business owner that a bank lender came up and asked if their husband would be joining them. when she indicated he would not

be attending the lender immediately left. these anecdotes are backed by statistics compiled by this committee and the spa. women can obtain equal access to capital they can grow their business to full potential. women are highly represented in contracting. although the federal government met its goal of 45% of contracts woman-owned businesses in 2015, failed to reach the mark in 2016. market share needs to grow. federal contracting has a tremendous impact on woman-owned businesses. for example, katie bigelow, president of metal ops received her first contract for the air force for $80000 after two years of trying. that created past performance

needed when her most recent contract award for $9.1 million. finally women are able to access basic tools we need that we know work for them. they need training and coaching to grow their businesses become job creators. it's important to modernize and grow nationwide network for women entrepreneurs. as a business that are micro lender great lakes has experience to offer the committee's recommendations. first, we need to modernize the women's business center program. the house of representatives included the women business center legislation as part of fiscal year 18 national defense authorization act which would increase a 30-year-old cap.

we urge the senate to keep the provision in the nda a. encourage the committee to push sba on woman-owned small business third-party rules. we have over 500 certified women in our center. there should be a dedicated commitment to programs proven to provide capital to women business owners. congress should continue to support the small business micro loan program. chairman riche, ranking member and distinct senators, thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony. >> thank you to all three. you all three made reference to the capital situation and access to it. those figures are not pretty as far as the capital that is

received by women entrepreneurs. anybody was a passing knowledge of economics those access to capital is critical to the success of a family and business and indeed of a nation. that's why america stands out from others. barriers in that regard need to be knocked down. i note, ms. gore you're finding upon the federal system where woman-owned a certification is lost when they get in front of a male venture capital fund. be interesting to see what happen if they found out the banks woman-owned businesses were getting money from was run by an all-male board of directors which is the same situation.

working to take a run at this. federal government doesn't always and that's a result of your testimony with that, senator shaheen. >> thank you. i hope all members of the committee will join us in that effort. seems like that's a no-brainer that make a big difference in access to capital. hanukkah back to an issue that ms. richards referenced and i think you did as well this chat well in your discussion about venture capital. but now the country is having a very important conversation about sexual harassment in the workplace. fortunately people are coming forward and saying this is not right. unfortunately, we've seen that in terms of access to venture capital as well.

earlier this year several female entrepreneurs told the new york times about unwanted sexual advances made by influential venture capitalists. last week the founder of the -- runway talked about her experience. clearly this is something that exists in the venture capital industry as well. if you could talk about this and experiences like first commonplace and have you had ec trying to address the issue? >> i think experiences like this are commonplace in every industry. we've been seeing it in the

entertainment venture capital as of late but it systemic. issues like this will go away as we get closer to parity as we have more women ceos and more women venture managers. we have other issues were working on like equal pay and also maternity and family issues. a lot may not have to be legislative have women ceos. >> unconscious bias is so strong. there many formulas that have worked overtime. when your formulas working in your making money it takes leadership from folks like you to push those to think outside. when i was raising money i heard over and over that anything that's women focused is not a large large enough market. even though were 51% of the population and have 85% of consumer spending.

>> thank you. i want to go back to the access to capital as well. we have a chart that shows what you pointed out in terms of the situation with woman-owned businesses and access to capital. the blue columns majority woman-owned and all other firms of the orange column. you can see the difference in terms of venture capital funding, the total amount of business loans in the prime contractor words which is what all of you had to say that when he stayed on the chart it brings it home, the disadvantages of women-owned businesses take. this richards you told the story that reminded me of my own experience and entrepreneur turned away because her husband wasn't there.

when i was first applying for credit my husband had to sign the bank form to do that because we hadn't yet change the loss. how do we continue to address these issues and what other steps can we take to prevent incidents the biased by bank owners by women business owners. . . . . small business lending is common so many ways, the other bank lending because it is not solely numbers driven. there are so many elements of it and lenders decide if they want this business and the loan in

their portfolio. we need to start trading parameters and implementing the dodd frank act. >> thank you mr. german. >> senator ernst. >> thank you. the conversation has been striking this morning and even as a woman i shake my head when i hear about the lack of access that is available out there. i do want to go back to what the senator mentioned earlier in our conversation as we are focused on tax form. earlier this week a woman from hamilton county, iowa who owns a small business reached out to me about the importance of tax reform and like many of the small business owners that i

have had the opportunity to interact with and speak with my 99 counties were said the biggest to obstacles that she has for her small business are the high taxes in the regulations. so, really too burdensome areas for her. today her marginal tax rate and other tax rate business owners can get as high as 45% on a small businesses. the average small business owner spends over $12000 annually just in dealing with regulations. for all of you, our current tax policies hindering entrepreneurship and what impact would lower tax rates for small businesses have on strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem for women? any of you, if you could address that. >> thanks for the question, senator.

i would say no to lower taxes. men, women, no matter where we are. one thing i will flag is that we don't have it brought up today and there's discussion around child tax credits and so on but it is something very specific when you put a gender on is childcare. i have a three -year-old and a six-year-old and i have to make a very hard and strong decision as an entrepreneurial that is my number one cost and so i think anything we can do to release that burden for mothers and the majority of women entrepreneurs do have children and they are either doing children's care or caring for their community and it's a disproportionate thing about women. that is one area i wanted to bring up in response is that we need to be thoughtful and creative about how do we let women be great moms but also be killer entrepreneurial's. >> i love that. that is something we're having discussions about, as well. it is truly important especially as we want to get more women involved in smaller businesses

in other activities, as well. thank you. anyone else. >> in terms of regulation the tough thing i see is in the commerce space when tech companies are setting up and trying to set up across the country they have to register in each state separately and that is a big interest for both male and female companies. >> thank you. >> of course, we want to leave any pressure on our small businesses but since women cash is a consideration with the taxes, to. >> thank you. today my colleagues and senator and i will be introducing a printed act which is the strength and the voice of small businesses in the rulemaking process and improve the quality of agency certification and the malice that a rules impact on small businesses. do you think providing greater

accountability for agency certification would improve the rulemaking process and provide some regulatory relief for small businesses? any thoughts on that? >> one thing i will say is we are in a digital era. one of the things we can do is digital transformation around how we regulate and how we apply from everything from loans to certification to even local permitting. one of the things i would encourage is how we look at using digital for all these processes to speed things up because entrepreneurs are more time for than money poor and to lower those regulation barriers. i love the idea of having one registration rather than all 50. >> very important. use technology. >> yes. >> anything else to start with that, i yield that my time. >> before i turn to the senator, the issue you raise that we

haven't touched on i can assure you that matter is under serious consideration and as you know over the last few weeks we have been focused on tax reform and like my colleagues i have been to lots and lots of meetings and i can't think of one where that issue wasn't seriously put on the table and discussed as to how that piece of the puzzle would fit in and it would be a complicated puzzle to put together but it is seriously being discussed here. thank you so much. >> thank you chairman. thank you to all of our witnesses today testified about the range of ways in which we can and should be more strongly supporting women entrepreneurs. it is striking as graphically represented by senator shaheen in the chart about the disconnect between the very strong performance of women entrepreneurs and the significant structural challenges and access and

capital and in building out networks of mentors and advocates and in particular accessing federal contracting. as a senator and a local elected and in the local business community i have been struck at how capable strong women entrepreneurs are in my state and fulcrum pharmacy, for example, christie served in that and pounded in a woman from delaware is a specialty pharmacy 78 financing and played a key part in her taking the leap and being successful as a pharmacist and mountain consulting is in our state capital in dover and very successful minority and women owned business that does land survey and technical services. the first hub zone, certified small business in delaware benefit from sba loan progress and [inaudible] juice is the premium juice bar and one of my favorite and precluded by the many folks here like to go to

delaware speeches and they tell me that score consulting helps develop the business plan and do market research. i'm the ranking member of the appropriations subcommittee that funds the af [inaudible]. i'm particularly interested in hearing from the funds and in mentoring through scores and through sba offices and other let me touch on those. i have worked to increase the funding by 20% and -- i knew i get a file that and they're a very important network across the country that helps address access to capital and mental business planning. i'd be interested in hearing from you of what your views are on wbcs whether they are generally accessible or relevant or whether they are important and second, the networking that you speak to and the need for

mentorship, score does a great job in delaware but i'm not sure if that's a great thing not nationally and in delaware we have a we think partnership that provides year long mentoring for women entrepreneurial's to tackle the to balance family commitments and obligations and new markets and being a successful entrepreneur. i'd be interested in your comments from all three of you. >> yes, two key pieces. one is that the mentoring is critical and many of the women in the business centers do is use other women business owners because there is a real clear connect between them. that is the unique element of why you have a woman's business center. secondarily, the business women's business front is because we had a 30 year cap 30 years ago it was different funny. it was a different amount.

we basically are being squeezed to provide as many services and higher levels the same dollars that were 30 years ago. for the centers who are really excelling this is an opportunity for us to push forward the same kind of programming to more women. it's an opportunity for growth for this country. >> i know the woodsman business development in connecticut has been extremely successful in building community and mentorship and providing education for women. again, i see the real lack in capital and i know the ba has been very successful in providing debt funding for women and for some small businesses that is appropriate for some core businesses like consumer products that have capital and balance sheets is appropriate

but for the faster growing companies are the ones that are creating the most jobs in this country really the only viable form of financing is equity. i don't know if there is equity financing that is part of the sba or being complicated but i would highly recommend it because that's where the growth is. >> thank you, senator for the question. i'm an ardent believer in the sba. the first is, where there are local sba offices women seem to have a connection understanding sba more. the office was the local accelerator and people understood it more and had better relationships so i really think those local offices are quite powerful. the second is, if i could approve the sba, is that we have to streamline the process of application and make it easier and faster and like any other silicon valley startup how to use digital to make it more efficient that would probably save the sba money in the long term with deficiencies. the last is, as i said in the beginning of it is my, most loans are 2% lower for women

than men and i love to dig into that and see why because it is a critical source of capital for women in the last is the reputation. i really think the country could get a better understanding of the sba and its value and sometimes in new york in san fran and loan is seen as your company will not drive sometimes and i don't think that is the case. as we educate the masses more on the power of the sba and how to use it i think it will become more powerful. >> i thank you. i am out of time but i'm particularly passionate also about trying to make sure that we are transparently reporting on what is happening and that we are hitting the contract in cap and exceeding it and that we continue to engage community involvement in one of the most effective wpc affiliates is a cdf i in delaware. they make great lawns and

they're very engaged and very well known. thank you for the testimony i look forward to following up with you. >> thank you, senator kuhn. senator kennedy. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate your testimony, all three of you. in terms of the gender bias and access to capital, you mentioned conscious and unconscious. i would like to ask each of you what percentage roughly, do you think, is conscious and what percentage is unconscious. >> since the astros one last night, i'll be more [inaudible]. thank you for the. i actually think the majority and this is a personal opinion but it's unconscious. i'm an optimist in this world and i also have really spent time in the venture community and i think they are mostly good

people. however, the formula is to make money has worked in an old system and the systems are not cut up to the amount of women who are now pitching. i would say the majority is unconscious and there are ways that train around that. there is marked training that is incredible that catalyst does that i think if everyone sat through with the change. >> i think that is impossible to quantify. i know that it exists. probably the biggest issue is networks and having access. people who are comfortable doing business with they know and some people say we will invest in someone we don't already know but i do know there was a study done by harvard and mit together that had both a man and a woman% identical business plans and the woman was 40% less likely to get funded. with identical suspense. it does exist. >> i concur with your comments on it there. we can't quantify and there isn't a way to quantify which is

conscious and unconscious but what i think is critical is that if you have mechanisms to account the behaviors in the lending community gives us an opportunity to create some policies around goals and performance that help to change behaviors. that is the best we can hope to have happen. >> can you explain what you mean by that? >> certainly. if we had implemented 1071 dodd frank act and we collected a new definitively where only 4% of the loans were being given to women here here and here he said this is not representative of

the business community and population at large and theoretically it should be higher as you have with federal government contracts that at least 5% go to women and then programs are in place to ensure that policies come about to ensure that you at least meet these numbers so what it does is it takes it away from the individuals personal conscience. >> i proceeded. i want to follow up on senator shaheen's excellent questions. the three of you and i've looked at your resumes and you are obviously experienced successful, accomplished and a lot of success in life have you ever witnessed sexual harassment in the workplace? >> i not only have a witness but been a victim several times and made the decision to go forward in my work and to become a role model rather than stop and take a sidetrack but in some cases i regret that because maybe if i had spoken up at the time change could happen smartly.

>> either of you care to add to that? >> i would say the same. i have seen it with other women and i have had experiences myself. >> i have seen it but not experienced it but being there everyone experiences it. >> well, ms. chapelle mentioned it's limited to the entertainment industry and we just saw today the apparently well-known journalist mr. mark who is also a pig as well. five allegations that he has admitted to. do you think that is related to the access to capital at all. >> i think that whenever you mix power with women and men you have issues.

i think the most effective way to do this is to have both women and men sitting at the table making decisions about access to capital. >> thank you very much for your test way. i am delighted and appreciated. >> thank you, mr. chairman. senator kennedy i can tell you without any reservation that sexual harassment is not limited to just the entertainment industry most women who have been doing anything in the workplace or otherwise in school have based these issues. i have been particularly interested in stem for women and this is a question for you this chadwell. i spoke at the innovation alliance event on closing the patent gender gap where we are

fighting from the research review of the alarmingly low women patent in the us and in 2010 women only 18.8% of all patents and [inaudible] at the current rate of progress the iw pr projects that gender inequality among patent holder not occur until 75 years from now the year 2092 and most of us will not be around then. in your destiny, you mentioned that entrepreneurial's with a background in artificial intelligence, coding, algorithms and analysis of competitive advantage in the coming years so, how can we expand opportunities for women and minorities include minorities because they are also vastly underrepresented in these and other science engineering fields and a system of attaining patents and the more particular you are in specific you are as to what we can do the better.

>> first of all, there is good news and bad news. the bad news is that the numbers are going down in terms of -- >> and they drop off from the stem arena at all levels including really early on and beyond. >> absolutely. this is back to messaging which talks about earlier. i think it also, another thing i did mention is that with coding and outcomes becoming more commoditized that we are going to be reaching into things that women are traditionally have been in the past not as a total group but some members are very effective in innovation and effective at design and very effective at sales and marketing. i think those could be places where women will have advantages. also, in terms of patents i like to say i don't back patentable technology anymore.

what i like to back is innovation. and the ability to indicate over and over and over again because the time you get a patent with a lot of software it is already irrelevant so what we need to continue to do is to teach our children to be creative and intimate. >> well, those what are specific ways we can teach women to be creative and innovate? any models out there of where there has been success in encouraging more women and minorities to go into these fields and to stay in these fields? you are not in your head, we like to respond to? >> senator, one of the things i'm optimistic about is what are already established girls organizations. i may for each kid, girl scouts are actually putting the stem into their programs and it's hard in these days and is to create a whole new organization so those that are already out there including public education having a stem programs very early, third, fourth, sixth grade and for that seventh grade drop happens is what i love. you see there is now a stem badge for the girl scouts which

i love and i think those are critically important so let's get them into institutions that are already driving at large and ensure that this is part of the vernacular. >> that is great but not everyone gets to be a gross. i certainly wasn't but i am looking at where arenas where the kids are there, i.e. in our school, what are we doing in our schools in terms of curriculum that support minorities and women girls smart. >> thank you. we have to have, first of all, we have to have wi-fi in our schools and access broadband access particularly in rural communities, in smaller states. there is no good programs that is out there if you don't have kids that have access to what they need to see. second is the technology in those arenas. is there something the children are touching, working on early

on to learn to cope, to learn to do these things. i think that is the baseline, frankly, before we then can start look in at the best. >> with the two of you agree that technology in our systems and there are a lot of elementary schools all across our country public schools that do not have access to this kind of technology, would you agree? >> technology is critical and mentors are also critical and we need to see women and minorities and those fields and as role models so they can desire to achieve those goals. >> i did introduce legislation that would encourage through grants et cetera mentorship and other program ways and institutionalization seen on women and minority and stem and technology area and i hope you'll take a look at that. the whole question and particularly women can be considered a minority but within

that category there are minority women who pays more challenges in terms of access to capital and all the other challenges that women generally face and multiply probably several times over for minority women and i would be appreciative of any information that you have that relates to support for minority. >> that is no question. in fact, women's access to capital at the minority level is .02% of total venture capital dollars. with the more severe thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. as we talk about how we get young women excited about stem subjects robotics competitions and the out of school competitions that focus on stem is another great way to do that and it reaches not only young women but also office minorities in a way that they may not be

reached in school. i want to follow up on both the mentor piece and the comment you made, missed chadwell, about the media not covering women success stories. what can we do to those reporters actual the media and the news is another place where women are underrepresented. how do we get attention to those female success stories with a business for any of you -- >> one of the biggest success stories we see right now is a story on the ipo of the company stitch pics which has a female founder and ironically for technology company this company has [inaudible] which is wonderful. the more we can elevate women into these positions where they can be role models and obviously

representing really terrific companies i think the more attention will get from the media. >> to either of you or other past have any ideas -- >> i think for the 12 major business publications to fortune and force could collectively make a commitment publicly and i encourage them on the record to do so that at least 40% of their stories have some type of women founder in them. >> that is a great idea. >> it is great content and then we as women have to do better at raising her hands and boasting about those successes but there is no longer the lack of great companies which is exciting. i would encourage that level of commitment. >> i would agree with that and say that we have to remember that we are the consumers and part of it is that we have to

send the message of what we want to consume from our media. we need to stop using it as being the one token and the female who has done this because there are many great stories. >> thank you. that may be a place where the committee could weigh in and what do you think, senator mark where can we send the suggestion on behalf of the hearing today to a member of those publications. >> i think that is something to talk about. >> thank you all very much. >> thank you. this is we sift through lots of hearings and panels and i can tell you that this was an impressive panel and we sincerely appreciate the time that you have taken to come and talk with us and every one of us runs for public office because want to make life better for our constituents in americans and these are the kind of things actually help us forward in that goal. we have come away with some really good pragmatic suggestions that we can move

forward. notwithstanding what you hear congress decide to do occasionally do something. >> and we do it together. particularly on this committee. with that, first of all, madam, formerly madam chair. [laughter] the chart that you had here. i think we ought to put that in the record. would you agree smart. >> i think that is a great idea. >> sadly, i will declare the record will be open for two weeks until 5:00 p.m. on thursday, november 9 for anyone to submit any relevant information toward the hearing and again, thank you. that the committee is adjourned. [background noises]

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[background noises] [background noises] >> tonight on c-span2 immigration officials discuss the refugee admissions process. a senate hearing on the state of free speech on college campuses. senators debate the budget and tax reform. later, a cato institute forum on republican tax form proposals. at this house hearing, federal officials discussed how refug