Taryn Andersen answers the phone from Paris, she has just arrived at a meeting of investors in technology companies; a few days ago he was in Salamanca and a few weeks ago in Berlin, all for “business” reasons. His rhythm of life does not stop. In 2017, Andersen, along with other investors, decided to found Impulse4women, a platform that connects women-owned companies with potential investors from around the world. “We’re like a business tinder. The company uploads its profile on our platform and if its project matches the interests of the investors, we have a match,” he describes. Now this network aims to reach 1,500 investors with those of 11,000 companies specializing in innovation and technology from Africa, Europe, the United States and Latin America.
The Barcelona native, with 13 years of private banking experience, knows the difficulties that women entrepreneurs face when it comes to obtaining financing to boost their ventures. “This is still a masculinized sector and we have to learn to move within this dynamic to position ourselves,” she says. According to the United Nations for Education, 33% of researchers worldwide are women. In addition, if they decide to start their own business, only 2% get access to investment capital.
“And the gap gets bigger when we have great scientists and researchers who have no idea who to turn to or how to get funding.” For Andersen, a great scientific discovery has no impact on society without a good commercial , which positions them in the market. For this reason, his working model is to teach entrepreneurs what the investor needs, that is, to develop a sales strategy. “Women tend to be very cautious, feeling they need to have everything under control before they launch, even preferring to charge less than what they need to ensure they get funding. The investor and entrepreneur compares the different ways of doing business by gender because of the influence of culture. “Society teaches men to take risks, now we want to teach them that they can take risks, too,” he says.
For Andersen, investing with a gender lens allows one to see the limitations of the system. Despite the fact that investment figures show investors’ preference for working with male-led companies, research from Harvard Business Review magazine shows that companies led by women or with equal management teams have increased their profits from five to 20 percent increase %. According to the document, they accept change better and face fewer risks. “It has to do with networking and venture capital. Investors are choosing to work with well-established companies, many of which are male-led.” Knowing that the capitalized money is going back into the hands of investors is essential when choosing one company or another. “We want to get our money back in three or five years and we need all the commitment from the team we put our trust in.”
a toast to the sun
Although the leading indicators related to the empowerment of women entrepreneurs and workers show a progress of 4% compared to the previous year, the truth is that the United Nations (UN) announced in early September that women will achieve 140 years of real empowerment positions of power and decision-making. For market research professor Ruth Mateos de Cabo, the main problem for her in moving from holding positions of power to exercising them lies on corporate boards. “We believe it’s fair to have a woman in a position of power, but if she’s not listened to and her decisions aren’t taken into account, nothing changes.” Mateos calls this “the token,” meaning the female presence as a mere symbol of the Completion of the parity quota.
Although corporate engagement with issues related to gender equality is increasing each year, only 33% of the 2,682 companies in 117 countries analyzed have publicly reported the results of their actions, the report The Empowerment of Women and Business highlights. Trends and Opportunities 2022, prepared by the UN Global Compact and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Multilateral Investment Fund. “We need to move from saying to doing. This shouldn’t remain a toast to the sun,” demands Mateos, who at the same time states that the greater the presence of women in positions of power, the greater the opportunities to influence business policy with a focus on justice, parity and sustainability. “When there are more than two on a board, a miracle happens because the decisions are balanced. Parity is good business too.”
From the glass ceiling to the sticky floor
When companies practice an inclusive business culture, they are 63% likely to achieve higher profitability and productivity, in addition to a better business ability to gauge consumer interest and demand, according to the International’s Beyond the glass ceiling report Labor Organization. For Nerea Bilbao, who is responsible for working with the private sector at Oxfam, it is important to look at company hierarchies, but also at middle management. “It seems it is necessary to put aside personal life in order to fill a managerial position. That wouldn’t be a problem if they weren’t solely responsible for home care.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed this reality. In 2020 alone, almost half of the companies that went bankrupt were led by women. Of these, North America leads the highest rate with 14 points, followed by Latin America with 11 points and sub-Saharan Africa with seven points, according to the State of Small Businesses in the World Report by the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Facebook.
During her coordination work with funding projects for female-owned companies in countries like Burkina Faso, Senegal and Bolivia, Nerea Bilbao has identified the impact that both the glass ceiling and the sticky floor are having on her professional life.
Bilbao stresses that the glass ceiling is the unwritten rules that prevent women from making full use of their decision-making abilities; while the sticky ground, the coordinator defines, is the difficulty of moving from one step to the next. “If you leave work early because your children need you, that will be seen as a lack of commitment. Men are fathers too, they are children, they are brothers and they are also part of a home.
The problem is that they don’t have that responsibility,” claims Bilbao. She also insists that demanding parity from business hierarchies is a step forward, but it doesn’t always improve the situation for the rest of the women. “We can be part of the union and still enforce a macho business dynamic or replicate male behavior to be respected. The changes must also be felt in the bases, which make up the vast majority,” he concludes.
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