Bright Spots - Part 2

Paving the Way to Gender Equality

Now that we’ve explored the state of women-led businesses (WLBs), the funding challenges they face, and their potential, it’s important to look at how we can pave the way to gender equality. Three steps for investors and organizations to help reduce the funding gap for women-led businesses:

1. Decide to change – When organizations choose to become more inclusive and opt for a holistic and quota-free approach to increasing diversity, they can do so without sacrificing rigor, quality, or reputation (academia has shown how this is possible).
2. Take the focus off of gender – In the world of entrepreneurial finance, crowdfunding and equity crowdfunding are introducing gender-neutralizing filters. As a result, a surprising number of women are raising capital and running successful campaigns (e.g. CircleUp, which has helped companies raise more than $30 million in growth capital, recently reported that 42 percent of companies on its platform are WLBs).
3. Diversify the judges – Some incubators such as the PayPal Start Tank in Boston are approaching their selection process differently. Through a blind evaluation and a diverse selection committee, the result is more companies with women founders.

For more information on the current state of WLBs and how we can help promote gender equality, download the full white paper.