In the Women Leaders Talks series female social entrepreneurs, investors and researchers answer questions about economic empowerment of women, social entrepreneurship, structural barriers for female entrepreneurs and how best to over come them. By enhancing the voices of these women, the hope is to further engage people in the work towards economic inclusion of all women as well as highlight good practises and potential solutions.
Melissa Càrdenas Aponte is Women Director of international cooperation in GPDColombia. Melissa is MSc in social economics, with experience in the public and private sector, passionate about the issues of female empowerment and entrepreneurship. She has managed strategic development, implementing the Women’s Empowerment Principles in the area.
What structural barriers do you see for female social entrepreneurs? The main barriers for social entrepreneurs are gender bias – including the lack of credibility that exists to face negotiations; sociocultural prejudice from affective, cognitive and behavioural aspects; scarce access to economic and academic resources; and, of course, the limited vision for women in development as the head of a single parent family.
What reasons do you see for the unequal access to capital for men and women entrepreneurs?
The reasons are based on different gender stereotypes in investment evaluation – for example the belief that an investment may not yield a return; that men are more capable than women. Women are discouraged more often than men from applying for financial credit. There is a lack of confidence in women’s businesses and this reduces the possibilities of obtaining funds. It creates a gender gap, and leads to women having less experience in this type of sector and a lower credit score
Louise Hammarbäck is a lawyer with experience in the NGO, government and private sector, currently working as an in-house lawyer and data protection officer at The Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund. She’s also a passionate social entrepreneur – founder of the children’s rights organization PACS – Protection and Action for Children’s Rights in Sports. Her organisation educates children, coaches and associations in children’s rights and bodily integrity to activate the children’s rights convention in the sports movement and prevent sexual abuse.
What structural barriers do you see for female social entrepreneurs?
Only one percent of the venture capital goes to female founders and as a female social entrepreneur with main focus on children’s rights and preventing sexual abuse of children – soft values in a male industry – the chance of a grant is much less than that. My experience is that male social entrepreneurs get the bulk of the financial support and backing of men in leading positions. This is of course a problem for female social entrepreneurs.
Can you identify one thing that could be of help for a woman beginning her entrepreneurial journey?
You need to look within yourself and examine why you believe in your idea. Furthermore, you must be good at communicating your why and at the same time build a large network of contacts. You need to be prepared to fail more times than you succeed and when that happens you need to believe in yourself and remind yourself of your why.
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Nikoleta Popkostadinova – an experienced communicator and social entrepreneur, founder of Loveguide – an award-winning sexual health education project. Loveguide generates new original content weekly, and has had sex ed classes for 8K+ teens across Bulgaria. Their YouTube channel has 63K+ subscribers and 8.5MM+ views. We asked Nikoleta for her experience in gender equal distribution of investment capital.
Why is gender equal distribution of investment capital an important issue?
Because women have proved to be able to bring innovation, creativity, and diversity to any table they’ve been invited to. We carry with us new experiences, perspectives and know-how. I was surprised that only 1% of venture capital goes to female founders. But then I remembered that whenever I pitched LoveGuide to an Angels’ Club or other venture capital, my partner and I were the only female entrepreneurs in the room. And especially for social entrepreneurs – the vast majority being women, it’s crucial to have access to investment capital to start and develop their businesses.
Is the issue of gender equality in the business sector a hot topic in the context where you are active?
No, it’s not. It’s considered a non-essential matter.
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Catharina Ringborg – an energy entrepreneur and investor. Her investment company focuses on sustainability in the energy and forestry sector, investing in cutting-edge technology in the early stages. She also invests through Sustainable Energy Angels AB, where she is a board member. She is an advisor to the International Energy Agency in Paris and to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the United Nations Global Climate Fund.
What do you see are the structural problems for female social entrepreneurs?
The fundamental problem that remains is that women own less compared to men, regardless of what assets we talk about. In business real power comes with ownership. Female entrepreneurs in all sectors, social, industry and finance are underrepresented as owners and that is a global problem.
Why is gender equal distribution of investment capital an important issue?
Even though women have advanced to higher income levels in general and are also doing a lot of work in the start up sector, men most frequently, are the ones who reap the main benefit of that work. The capital income is still mostly earned by men and they account for an increasing share of the highest income levels. So, the gap is widening not only between rich and poor, but also between men and women.
What can be done on a political level to further include women in the economic sphere?
Female representation in public office is important, the main reason being that it will generate better decision making. With a more balanced mix of people with different backgrounds and experiences involved in the decision making process, more dimensions of complex problems are likely to be thoroughly considered, and that will lead to higher quality of the whole working process.
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Nancy Sumari – an inspiring social entrepreneur with a lot of experience in the media production industry. Nancy is the founder of The Jenga hub – a makerspace and learning lab whose vision is to build a community of children and youth leveraging technology to create value and transform lives.
What structural barriers do you see for female social entrepreneurs?
One barrier is that capital is limited for early stage social enterprises which, needless to say, affects female social entrepreneurs. Above all it is the cultural barriers that’s the main problem, which limits access to capital for women, minorities and indigenous social entrepreneurs all around the world.
What measures or efforts would counteract the structural barriers faced by women entrepreneurs?
One structural barrier is that the social entrepreneurial sector is not promoting enough innovation. Funding is almost exclusively favoring conservative impact metrics, which makes it hard for the social entrepreneurs to take risks. The sector needs to be encouraged to prioritize experimentation and innovation, that’s an effort that has not been incentivized enough.
What can be done on a political level to further include women in the economic sphere?
To develop a more sustainable and equal economy globally we need to include more women in leadership, business and social enterprise. Involving governments and policymakers is crucial because through leveraging their convening power we can break down the existing silos that prevent women from fully participating in the economic agenda.
Maya Doneva – a social entrepreneur, trainer, international consultant and lecturer on social innovations and active citizenship. Maya is the co-founder of The Social Teahouse, which supports youth raised in foster care, providing them mentorship and employment. Currently she is the CEO of ”Karin dom” fondation – one of the biggest social service providers for children with special needs in Bulgaria.
Can you identify one thing that could be of help for a woman beginning her entrepreneurial journey?
One key quality is to be persistent in your learning and sharing towards the community and the ability to not give up and look forward. I think this combination of behaviour, character and competences is a good start for a young woman’s entrepreneurial journey. I do believe that more and more girls feel empowered to start their own enterprises and that they don’t feel excluded from the community based on their gender.
What do you want to see more of moving forward?
I want to see more dignity in policy making and in business, and I see the role of social entrepreneurs in both. Value-based responsible businesses and community oriented policies can literally make the world a better place for many people, and I would like to see that happening during my lifetime
Anna Brantén – equality and sustainability advocate, co-founder of the Institute for Transition, which works to change the systems needed for us to cope with the climate crisis. Anna is also a system entrepreneur, business strategist and advisor to startups and management boards.
What can be done on a political level to further include women in the economic sphere?
The best policy makers can do now is to measure and follow up, not least in the public activities that distribute funds in forms of capital and support. If we don’t know how many women actually receive support today in their entrepreneurship, we won’t know what we have to work with and cannot measure the effects of the efforts that are being made.
Why is gender equal distribution of investment capital an important issue?
In addition to women having the same opportunities as men within influence and wealth formation, research also shows that equal companies perform better. This means that it’s a good and undervalued business to invest in companies founded by women.
What measures or efforts would counteract the structural barriers faced by women entrepreneurs?
Transparency about how the support and capital is actually distributed today and discussions about how future innovations and companies need to look like linked to the climate issue – dimensions that women have shown a greater interest in. The structures support an old view of entrepreneurship that needs to change.
Josephine Marie Godwyll – engineer, researcher, social entrepreneur. Josephine founded Young at Heart Ghana – an Ed-Tech social enterprise, which is making quality education affordable, engaging & accessible even in the remotest part of the world, by providing access to customized hardware and digital learning platforms and products.
What structural barriers do you see for female social entrepreneurs?
In many contexts gendered expectations stifle entrepreneurial success. Normalized expectations that tend to cast the role of females as having to take the back seat and dull their shine for a variety of ridiculous reasons, ranging from being approachable to not scaring off potential suitors, has negative effects on the work that female entrepreneurs do, and this is easy to overlook.
Can you identify one thing that could be of help for a woman beginning her entrepreneurial journey?
You need a sharpened sense of awareness. It’s important to be self-aware. Look within and dig deep, play to your strengths and strategize to mitigate your needs. You also need to have an awareness of your ecosystem in order to explore the support available and hack the barriers that stand in your way. You are made for this!
Jeaneth Johansson – Professor at Luleå University of Technology and Halmstad University, specializing in financial decision-making, accounting, entrepreneurship, and innovation – Prof. Johansson first came across inequalities in funding of SMEs and innovative companies in one of her studies 13 years ago. Since then she’s done several researches on how gender stereotypes and assumptions influence venture support decisions, and lead to the risk of female entrepreneurs receiving significantly less venture capital. She urges that we need to open our eyes and question not only the norms of what constitutes successful businesses, but also the norms on finance.
Why is gender equal distribution of investment capital an important issue?
Successful investments are about ensuring resources are effectively used, creating values and to bring forth companies with high potential. Allocating resources based on gender rather than business potential may directly cause inefficiency in investments, investing in lemons instead of flourishing business.
What structural barriers do you see for female social entrepreneurs?
Undercapitalisation is a severe hindrance. Small amounts of investments guide short term actions that may contradict the need of long-term strategic actions. Views of providing small amounts of investments for women owned/led businesses for supporting them, and increasing statistics of investments may receive severe consequences. Small amounts of short-term finance may directly be an obstacle for the social entrepreneurs in business development and business growth of their social businesses.
Tatiana Shalalvand – early stage investor, author and a real driving force of change – Tatiana is an Investment Director at Inventure. She is also a co-writer of the book: “The role models: The women who shape our future”, which aims to challenge the traditional picture of an entrepreneur, and inspire more women to become entrepreneurs.
What are the structural challenges for female social entrepreneurs?
Statistics show that investors distrust women’s ability to build large enterprises. Female investors are often perceived as having low self-esteem and lacking courage, but that is a way of writing off women’s experiences. This must be tackled by individual investors, by going beyond their networks, breaking this pattern and to meet women and minorities.
What do you think of common gender equality efforts such as separatist networks for women entrepreneurs?
Separatist networks are a valuable complement to forums that are open for both women and men. In the separatist room one can vent one’s worries and feel connected to others in the same position. When you belong to a minority, you need an understanding group and network that can confirm your experience. That security is important for growth. However, it should not be an alibi to exclude women from public forums. Gender equality must be worked on in the collective as such anyway. Men are still in decision-making positions and are not reached by the separatist networks.
What needs to be done moving forward?
There is a great need for more research on how women are approached by investors, female entrepreneurship generally and how women run businesses. Statistics and evaluation processes are based on men and the male experience. We need to develop strong proof of concept for investments in female entrepreneurs.
Mikaela Illanes – social entrepreneur –
Mikaela is passionate about making impact through technologies and design thinking. As a founder of Inicio for the last 4 years she has been helping teenagers choose the educational and career path that fits them best, widening their view of a tech career, and showing them the different roles that exist.
What challenges have you faced in your entrepreneurial journey?
When I have been presented by people in the business, my gender, ethnicity or where I come from has always been more important than the issue me and my team at Inicio are trying to solve. A structural challenge for female entrepreneurs is that we’re usually more recognised by the gender we have, instead of the work we have done and the success we have achieved.
What value have you found in support networks such as Reach for Change and SI She Entrepreneurs?
The best part of our partnership with Reach for Change is the passion we both have for making the world a better place for children. Especially because when you’re developing your own company, it’s easy to get lost from your core idea and it is hard to filter all the advice you usually get from everywhere. But the support from Reach for Change has been more than we could ever imagine.
Indra Sharma – engineer turned VC – long time member of the tech community in the Nordics. Indra is looking for ambitious entrepreneurs building the companies of the future, and writes about entrepreneurship and diversity.
Why is gender equal distribution of investment capital an important issue?
Access to capital is an important cornerstone to succeed in one’s entrepreneurship – Investments early on might make or break a newly founded enterprise. In Sweden, women’s ownership is less than men’s. Generally speaking, women make less money compared to men and therefore save and invest less than men.
That’s why funding from investors can play an even bigger part for women entrepreneurs.
Why is female entrepreneurship not promoted?
In society as a whole including the investor community, the trust in women’s ability to run a business is lower than the trust in men. Unfortunately there still exists prejudice against women entrepreneurs. This needs to become common knowledge and we need to change our view on who can become a successful entrepreneur.
Can you identify one thing that could be of help for a woman beginning her entrepreneurial journey?
Build your network. Many successful entrepreneurs say that their network has been the key to success and have had active mentors along the way that have supported them on their journey. Mentorship is a way of reproducing the know-how and encouraging a new generation of entrepreneurs. I think it’s important to remember that mentorship doesn’t have to be gendered, men also need to invest their time and capital in women entrepreneurs and their businesses.
Shirin Nozarian – social entrepreneur –
Shirin lives in Mashhad, Iran and is a marketing manager and graphic designer. She has a social entrepreneurship project as a side business, in which she promotes the quality of life for mentally challenged and hospitalized women by giving them small jobs that they can handle well. Research shows that this does not only uplift their self confidence, but helps them recover from their conditions.
What value have you found in support networks such as Reach for Change and SI She Entrepreneurs?
When a woman believes in herself she has the power to make a ripple effect of confidence. The feeling spreads and makes it easier for female entrepreneurs to take part in each other’s businesses, and that’s the most amazing part of having a supporting network of female entrepreneurs. You know that they’re going through similar challenges that you do on a daily basis.
What do you want to see more of moving forward?
I want to see more females in leading roles and entrepreneurial journeys. I want to see increased education about what female social entrepreneurship really is so that people will want to be a part of the change. I am sure that is what’s going to promote real change on gender equality in my society.
Julia Delin – CEO at SSE Business Lab – the startup incubator of Stockholm School of Economics. Julia is an experienced entrepreneur, mentor and angel investor. In her spare time, she writes about diversity & startups, and works for a more equal tech scene.
Why is there an unequal access to capital for men and women entrepreneurs?
One important factor that determines if an entrepreneur receives funding is the structure of their social networks. When it comes to investment funds, women are often hesitant to approach them whilst men get in touch and build relationships at a very early stage. Women’s hesitancy is often due to a lack of understanding of what kind of help can be given early to new enterprises. The relationship between entrepreneur and investor is important since it increases the possibility to receive funding.
What can investment funds do to attract more women?
With a more “human” approach the investment funds would attract more women. By showcasing a width of their services and making the process a bit easier to navigate, the threshold for women would be lowered. Again, networks are important, the investment funds need to actively meet more women and at the same time place higher demands on men to concretise their work.
What do you want to see more of in the future?
A determination from investors to diversify the industry – by actively promoting knowledge of the benefits of an inclusive business sector. Investors need to move outside of their own networks and work with inclusion in practice.
The campaign is a series of short interviews within the Women Leaders initiative and the reasoning emanates from the Women Leaders mapping of structural obstacles for female social entrepreneurs.
