Despite equality being brought into focus in many workplaces across the world, it seems there is still a strong gender split when it comes to entrepreneurship. Women run just 30% of businesses around the world, and with those women receiving only 3% of venture capital, it shows that there’s definitely more to be done.
We discovered more about this gender gap at Startups Magazine’s event last week, focusing on female founders and women in tech. In fact, their latest issue focuses on this subject in great detail. As an official Calmer partner, Calmer Founder Tania Diggory even penned an article in the issue exploring this subject further - and the ways we can support female entrepreneurs to excel in their own businesses.
Why are female founders less common?
While the sweeping statistics may show less women in entrepreneurial roles, the truth is that the number of female-founded businesses is steadily growing.
In the UK, over 125,000 businesses have been started by women each year since 2013. And in the US, women-owned firms grew at a rate 1.5 times more than other small businesses between 2001-2016.
However, with businesses being historically led by men, there’s still some way to go before we reach a level playing field. And that’s in terms of number of businesses, as well as the business practices that can cause barriers to women entering the field at all.
Barriers to entry for women CEOs
One trend in particular that we’ve noticed in recent years at Calmer, is a record high number of women choosing to set up their own businesses. Studies show the strongest motivations for this stem from a desire to follow their passions, achieve more flexibility and having the freedom to choose how they spend their time - especially when it comes to balancing family life with work.
However, with all the passion and drive that female founders have, there’s still change needed in the ways business is conducted to create real parity in leading business. Some of the barriers to entry that women may face when starting or leading a business include:
Unconscious bias against women
Lack of female investors or heads of business
Concern over women getting pregnant or needing childcare
Masculine culture around networking and socialising
In a 2015 report, the UK Government found that “there is still more to be done to close the gender gap between men and women” when it comes to entrepreneurship. Some of the recommendations for tapping into this talent, and reducing the above barriers, included:
Adopting inclusive thinking
Building an evidence base of well-performing individuals and businesses
Identifying “one size fits all policies” and adjusting these to be more inclusive
Highlighting programmes and support for female founders
Recognising the priorities of individual women, rather than making assumptions
Using inclusive language
Providing a diverse range of business support
How wellbeing support can support female founders
Moving away from bubble baths and early bedtimes, wellness is now being seen as a worthwhile investment across industries, including blue chip tech firms. And with workplace stress and burnout on the rise, implementing positive wellbeing support within workplaces is key.
One key demographic that particularly lacks wellness and stress management support is those working outside of a formal business structure, such as entrepreneurs, freelancers, and SME teams. Research has shown that over 60% of entrepreneurs in the UK are struggling with stress and burnout - and this includes many women who have jumped out of the traditional workplace, who may find it even harder to set up their business with the current barriers for female founders.
It’s why here at Calmer we provide free stress management and burnout training, through our Reignite Project course, as well as more in-depth support for entrepreneurs. By building our mental resilience and creating healthy workplace cultures, we can navigate these barriers in a better, more positive way.
This blog post draws on Tania Diggory’s article written for Startups Magazine’s Championing Womxn in Tech issue, which you can read here.