It’s no secret that in business, as in most aspects of society, women are still fighting for equality. Here are some statistics to make you depressed. In 2013, women's earnings were 78% of men's. Men own nearly twice as many businesses, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Owners Survey. There are only 24 female CEOs among all Fortune 500 companies. Should we really expect the women on Shark Tank to have it easier?
Hollywood still has its own problems when it comes to gender representation, and reality TV is probably the last place you'd want to look for groundbreaking content in the field ( The Bachelor/Bachelorette , anyone?). So making entertainment less than a business seems like it will break your feminist heart over and over again. but it is not the truth.
It would be too easy to say that Shark Tank has given female entrepreneurs a much-needed voice, or that Shark Tank continues to silence them. Believe it or not, Shark Tank is more nuanced than that and has a complicated relationship with gender, from the way it presents female entrepreneurs to the way it depicts female consumers to the way it ultimately actually closes the deal. One moment, Shark Tank will be championing women's business ambitions, and the next, it's reinforcing age-old stereotypes about what women should aspire to in life.
First, let's look at female representation on Shark Tank from a purely numerical perspective, based on some crunching I did after looking at all the trades for the 113 episodes that have aired since 2009. Of the 459 episodes that have appeared on "Shark Tank," 118 of the show's six seasons (about 26 percent) have been exclusively female. Unsurprisingly, the majority of pitches (nearly 60% of them) came from men, while the remainder came from entrepreneurial pairs or teams composed of men and women (just over 14%).
But here's the good news. While women may not appear on Shark Tank as often as men, when they do appear on the show, they are certainly valuable. Just over 53% of pitches from female entrepreneurs resulted in a deal, compared to 48% of pitches from male entrepreneurs. Mixed-gender partnerships and teams fared best, with more than 54% closing deals.
It turns out that much of the success of the female entrepreneurs on Shark Tank can be attributed to the only two female Sharks ever, Barbara Corcoran and Lori Greiner. Of the deals with female entrepreneurs they attended, Barbara and Lori closed nearly 49% and 44%, respectively (including deals with multiple Sharks co-investing), giving them the most money in investing in female entrepreneurs. Excellent rate of return. Any shark.
However, Robert Herjavec and Kevin O'Leary might be better in this department. They closed the fewest deals with female entrepreneurs, accounting for more than 11% and 6% of the deals for which they were eligible, respectively.
Below are full shark-by-shark details, showing how many deals were closed with women-owned businesses when each shark was present (blue) and how many deals the shark was involved in (red).
For comparison, here are the number of deals struck with male-owned businesses when each shark was present (blue) and the number of deals in which sharks invested (red).
As you can see, Barbara is more than twice as likely to invest in deals with female entrepreneurs than deals with male entrepreneurs. Robert and Kevin were also involved in significantly more deals involving male businesses than female businesses.
I want to start this off by pointing out that about 80% of the products showcased by women on Shark Tank fall into typically feminine categories such as home decor, cooking, cleaning, food, fashion, beauty, or products for kids that are often associated with mothers . Male entrepreneurs tend to market a more diverse range of products, spanning everything from technology to fashion to fitness to food. As a result, 44% of the products they market fall into categories traditionally considered feminine, while approximately 41% are considered typically masculine industries and nearly 15% are unisex products. It's unclear whether Shark Tank is trying to get women to work in these types of businesses, or if the women who audition tend to be in these types of businesses, which, by the way, are just as important as any other. ABC has not yet responded to Bustle's request for comment on Shark Tank 's efforts to cast female entrepreneurs.
Sharks tend to invest in products in which they have some kind of business acumen or area of expertise. So differences in the types of products male and female entrepreneurs market may help explain why some sharks invest more in female entrepreneurs than others. Many of the products Lori has invented over the years fall into the lifestyle category, not to mention she is a QVC queen, so of course she wants to invest in products that sell well on the platform, namely products in the fashion, beauty and home sectors. Daymond founded the FUBU clothing line, so it's natural that many of the fashion campaigns featured on "Shark Tank" are his specialty.
Robert, on the other hand, made his fortune through tech companies, so except for products involving sports or dogs, he usually notices them as Shark Tank products since he's also an active, puppy-loving person. Many female entrepreneurs are not marketing such products, even though we know there are many women creating tech-friendly products for investors. It is perfectly logical and sensible for Sharks to invest in businesses that they are interested in, have some knowledge of, and have connections with. So the fact that Robert doesn't make as many deals with women on Shark Tank as he does with men may not be personal. This is just business.
However, this reasoning does not apply to all sharks. Barbara is a well-known real estate mogul, so many of her investments have nothing to do with her business background. Mark's wealth comes from technology and sports, but his Shark Tank investments are all over the place. Kevin is involved in a range of business ventures, but he is best known for The Learning Company, which produces educational software for children. You might think that given this context, Kevin would be more enthusiastic about investing in kid-friendly products, and therefore female entrepreneurs pitching lifestyle products, even if "Mr. Fantastic" doesn't exactly inspire enthusiasm and fuzzy feelings.
But here's the thing about Kevin. In fact, he did extend a number of invitations to both male and female entrepreneurs. You might even say " another royal drama?" at least once per episode, given how often he makes the offer.
Barbara, on the other hand, often shows her support for female entrepreneurs through words of encouragement or defends male sharks when they say rude or potentially sexist things. Barbara told Nightline in 2013 that she and Lori "brought friendship to the women who walked on the set." In the same interview, Lori said she has "sympathy" for the female contestants because she knows what they are going through.
One of the best examples of this is Erin Bickley and Jenny Grier pitching their "Hold Your Haunches" line of shapewear to the sharks in season five, which Jezebel also pointed out as an example of the show's gender politics Obvious example. Before the women had a chance to tell the sharks anything about their sales or business model, Mark, Kevin, and Robert all backed out of the deal, saying they knew nothing about the product and therefore couldn't help it become a success. Kevin even called the shapewear "false advertising" and said he would "file lawsuits" against women who wore the product and then projected a completely different image in the bedroom.
Needless to say, Barbara and Lori were shocked that the male sharks didn't give the product a chance because it was aimed at women. So they teamed up and struck a deal with Erin and Jenny, set to Sister Sledge's "We Are Family." Well, that last part probably just happened in my head. But still. The feminism in the room was fierce.
However, while Barbara and Lori often team up, Shark Tank also falls into a trope that often arises when there's more than one woman involved in a problem: pitting them against each other. Barbara has been on the show since the beginning, and Lori joined as a guest shark on Shark Tank Season 3 before becoming a regular cast member. However, it wasn't until season five that the only "Shark Ladies" (as they and the other sharks are called on the show) appeared in the same episode.
Suffice it to say that, by and large, the Sharks grilled female entrepreneurs equally as much as male entrepreneurs about profits, revenue, and customer acquisition costs. Yes, in some cases, like "Hold Your Hips," they may not take the product as seriously as others, but for the most part, it does seem like the sharks are deciding whether or not to make a deal Just green.
However, bias always creeps in, whether we realize it or not. Sharks more frequently commented on the appearance of women entering the tank. For example, Robert asked Kiersten Hathcock if she wore the same clothes when she was handcrafting Modern Mom furniture in season two. When she said no, he complimented her on her "good looks," including a tool belt hanging from her outfit. In season three, Kevin complimented Nail Pak's Barbara Lampugnale for still looking beautiful after giving birth to six daughters, so much so that Robert jokingly questioned whether Kevin was looking for a date. Still a deal. Kookn' Kap's Juli Deveau and Ozma Khan received so much praise for their beauty in a Season 5 episode that it's hard to see the sharks being completely unimpressed by their product interest.
That's not to say male entrepreneurs never receive any comments from sharks about their appearance. Barbara loved booing Stacey Owen's fitness stride in season two, and she called magician Rick Smith "cute" in season three. But in general, when people judge these guys based on their appearance, it's usually in a comical way that mocks their intentionally weird-looking or ridiculous outfits. Male entrepreneurs are rarely sexualized in the same way that female entrepreneurs are encountered on tanks .
Of course, whenever we talk about women in business, the question of “having it all” comes up. Shark Tank is no exception. In a Season 3 episode, Mark asked Show No's Sheri Eller what she would do if a buyer wanted to meet her on the same day as her son's birthday. Of course, her two young sons helped her demonstrate the towel poncho, so the Sharks were aware of her family responsibilities. However, many male entrepreneurs did the same thing with Tanks and were not questioned in the same way.
Take Andrew Kavovit, played by BooBoo Goo in season five. His young daughter, Kiowa, was by his side as he promoted a new liquid bandage, but no one asked him how he planned to grow his business while caring for her. When Sharks worry that male entrepreneurs don't have enough focus to make their businesses successful, it's usually because they have too many career commitments at once, and they say the same thing about female entrepreneurs, too.
Even so, being a parent is so much more closely associated with the identities and businesses of the female entrepreneurs on Shark Tank that if they're moms, it's often the first thing we learn about them. These women are even called "entrepreneurial moms" by fans and the media. I haven't seen anyone use the word "dadtrepreneur" yet.
Shark Tank doesn't just have a problem with gender representation. The show is worse when it comes to racial diversity and probably not much better when it comes to sexual orientation diversity. Providing fairer representation for women and minorities is always a worthwhile investment.
In fact, the latest episode of Shark Tank gave me some hope. This is a special episode about entrepreneurs starting businesses while in college. At the top of the show, two women, Anna Stork and Andrea Sreshta of LuminAID, demonstrated an inflatable solar lamp designed for use in emergencies. Sharks don't call attention to their appearance. All five sharks gorge themselves on their offerings, and Anna and Andrea remain tough negotiators. And there’s no mention of their home life at all.
But then along came Taaluma Totes. After recent Virginia Tech graduates Jack Dufour and Alley Heffern explained how their summer trip to Uganda inspired their socially conscious luggage company, Robert asked Alley — and only Avery — how could her father let her travel to an East African country. I can't help but cringe, thinking about how far "Shark Tank" still has to go.
Photo: Michael Desmond/ABC; sharktankgifs/Tumblr (2); Laura Rosenfield/Hustle (2)
