Putting women entrepreneurs in tech superpowers
Up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men. Women entrepreneurs can and should be at the forefront of UK ambitions to become a tech superpower by 2030. To achieve this, five critical technologies have been identified: Artificial Intelligence, engineering biology, future telecommunications, semiconductors and quantum technologies, a UK government taskforce says. The Taskforce aims to boost the number of women-led high-growth enterprises across all regions.
The taskforce notes that just 18% of high-growth enterprises include one or more women on the founding team – while all-male founding teams make up 82% of high-growth enterprises.
“Women are underrepresented compared to men in every sector. Even in the most equal sectors, Personal Services and Craft Industries, founding teams with at least one female founder constitute only 37% and 34% of total high-growth enterprises with gender data available. In other sectors, the picture is much worse.”
“Some barriers make it less likely that women will attempt to start a business in the first place, such as pervasive gender stereotypes and a lack of representation of female entrepreneurs and role models.”
“Women-led businesses receive less funding than their male-led counterparts and suffer from a lack of business focused networks.”
Among actions suggested:
- For a high-growth enterprise to be woman-led, the Taskforce believes that at least one woman should be in one of the top three positions in the organisation (CEO, CFO or CTO31) and that women must hold a fair proportion of founder and employee equity share (at least 25%). This ensures that the high-growth enterprise is truly “woman-led” and not just that there is a woman present, while leaving space for the proven value of gender diverse teams.
- Improving diversity in senior investment roles is a key driver in enhancing the funding pipeline for women-led, high-growth businesses. The Taskforce recommends that firms look to set their own ambitious voluntary targets for the number of women in senior investment professional roles and on investment committees.
- While investment firms will play an important role in improving the outlook for womenled businesses, there may also need to be changes made to regulation. Lack of funding creates a barrier to any high-growth business. If women-led highgrowth businesses are treated less favourably, it creates a significant missed opportunity.
- Eight out of ten young people are unable to name a single female entrepreneur and when they hear the word “entrepreneur” they are four times more likely to think of a man. To combat these stereotypes and inspire future female founders, the Taskforce recommends two initiatives:
- (A) Inspiring girls at school B) Showcasing success stories of female high-growth entrepreneurs in universities C) Celebrating the success of female high-growth entrepreneurs by for instance setting up a female entrepreneurship award.
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