Marc Andreessen Says This Harvard Report Holds The Key To Solving The Gender Pay Gap

Famed Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen spoke earlier today at WSJD Live.

At the end of his sessions, someone from the audience asked him how his firm, Andreessen Horowitz, is working to fix some of the gender inequality issues in the technology industry - specifically the pay gap.

Andreessen says he derived his current views on the topic from a report written by Harvard economist Claudia Goldin.

He said that, according to Goldin's report, the pay gap has almost completely closed in terms of getting paid the same for having the same skills.

The pay gap remains because there is a gap in industries where there's not flexible time for women.

For example, said Andreessen, in the pharmacy business, your particular hours don't matter. Any hour you're at work, you are productive. In that industry, the pay gap is non-existent.

In contrast, in law, it matters which hours you are able to work. You can't meet with clients after the kids are in bed.

In that industry, the gap is wider.

Andreessen said the solution is for more companies to allow the women who work for them to work schedule's like Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's.

Sandberg leaves Facebook every day at 5 P.M. sharp. She goes home and takes care of her kids for a few hours. Then, in the evening, she gets back online and hammers out a few more hours of work.

"It's easy for Sheryl to [do] that because she's in charge," said Andreessen. "We need to have that same capability available for everyone."

Click this link to download a .PDF of Claudia Goldin's report.

And here's a speech she gave just a couple days ago:

Disclosure: Marc Andreessen is an investor in Business Insider.