Driven by the aspiration to accelerate this process and achieve real change the Vodafone Institute for Society and Communications launched F-LANE, the first international start-up accelerator which focuses on supporting early-stage social enterprises using digital solutions and technology to empower girls and women. Since 2016 F-LANE has supported more than 30 female-focused businesses from all over the world. There is no other corporate accelerator which combines the unique aspects of impact, tech and female.
As part of F-LANE 2020, F-LANE fellow Felicia Siegrist, conducted interviews with the participating social entrepreneurs and F-LANE alumni as well as experts on female entrepreneurship and gender lens investing to better understand the challenges and hurdles women entrepreneurs face when starting a business and to access promising trends for women in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. She completed these insights with existing research and statistics. Her report “Women entrepreneurs as a catalyst for sustainable growth – challenges and opportunities” shows that there is still a huge gender gap in entrepreneurship. Especially in tech women have to fight against unconscious biases and gender stereotypes.
The report identifies and discusses the following key challenges and opportunities:
Major challenges of women entrepreneurs:
- Limited access to funding
- Lack of an adequate support network
- Perceived lack of entrepreneurial and tech skills
- Socio-cultural barriers
- Covid-19
Pathways to change:
- Digital technologies
- Impact Accelerators
- Gender lens investing
Including women in entrepreneurship and in the workforce matters for the bottom-line because women are the current and future engines of economic growth. More than that, achieving gender equality constitutes a fundamental human right, essential to achieving sustainable development and peaceful societies in the longterm. Gender equality is not just a women’s issue but should also concern and engage men. Only together we can build a build a more inclusive system where everybody can thrive.
Read the full paper here.