Female leadership lacking at Farrell’s firm

Supervisor Mark Farrell made quite a splash last week with his legislation calling for women to reach 30 percent representation in the public sphere by 2020, the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women nationwide the right to vote. From corporate boards to the names of city streets, he wants women represented far more than they are now.

The most attention-grabbing piece of Farrell’s legislation was the revelation that the city has 87 public monuments and — but only two depict real-life women. Those are the bust of Dianne Feinstein at City Hall and a statue of Florence Nightingale outside Laguna Honda Hospital. Farrell’s legislation proposes erecting a statue of the late writer Maya Angelou outside the Main Library and adding more statues of real women after that.

Written in the legislation are words about the private sector, too: “Women are severely underrepresented in private sector leadership roles, commemorials

prising only 20 percent of technology executive teams and only 4 percent of Fortune 500 company heads.”

Perhaps Farrell should start by looking at his own company.

While Farrell makes $121,606 a year as a supervisor, he supplements it — a lot — as a venture capitalist. His most recent statement of economic interest shows he makes more than $100,000 a year as a managing director for Thayer Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in tech companies related to the hospitality and tourism sectors. City financial disclosure forms don’t require officials to report their exact salaries, but here’s guessing his is far higher than $100,000.

Guess how many of Farrell’s three partners are women? None. Guess how many of the more than 40 members of the firm’s board of advisers are women? Fewer than 10 percent.

Farrell also reported that his company has invested more than $1 million apiece in five tech companies. Guess how many women serve on their boards of directors, according to their websites or Crunchbase listings? Yup, zero.

So what gives, Mr. Supervisor? Or is that Mr. Venture Capitalist?

“It’s something we’ve bemoaned for years,” Farrell said of the lack of women in leadership roles in Silicon Valley. “The bottom line is that whether it’s in the public sector or the private sector, there needs to be a greater push for women representation.”

Farrell said he happened to found Thayer Ventures with three men, but if the firm grows to the point it can take on another partner, he hopes it’s a woman.

By the way, supervisors are allowed to have side jobs, but mayors aren’t. Farrell, still debating whether to run for the city’s top job in 2019, would have to give up his VC work if he ever sits in Room 200.

An offshoot of Farrell’s push for a Maya Angelou statue that is just great? Kids around the city are becoming fundraisers for the project. The statue would cost $500,000 — Farrell has asked that the city pay half and pledged to raise the rest privately.

When Shannon O’Neill, a mom of two kids who lives in the Jordan Park neighborhood, read my column about the effort, she had a stroke of genius. Why not have kids promise to read a certain number of pages this summer and be sponsored by their friends and family? She’s calling it Reading for Representation, and there’s a link on Farrell’s fundraising page to participate .

O’Neill’s 11-year-old daughter, Olivia, has pledged to read 750 pages this summer and seeks to raise $750.

“It’s important for them to say, ‘Just because I’m a kid, it doesn’t mean I can’t make a difference and help be an active part of the change,’ ” O’Neill said.

Bravo, Olivia. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Tuesdays and Fridays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf