This week’s International Women’s Day gave us a brief space in time to step back and realise the achievements made in levelling the gender playing field.
It also highlighted the areas where more needs to be done to get women a fairer piece of the pie. This includes the long running uphill battle around the senior role of women in business.
While corporates continue to not have enough women in senior positions at large companies, we are seeing a sea of change thanks to a growing number of UK female entrepreneurs. Instead of trying to break someone else’s glass ceiling, these women are building their own ventures – ones that are not restricted by gender or any of the accompanying discriminating barriers (such as salary imbalance, inflexible work environments, boy’s boardroom clubs,etc).
The figures speak for themselves. The number of women starting their own business has grown 42% since 2010 and today a third of new businesses are founded by women. A report compiled by Founders4Schools this week also highlighted the growing economic contribution by women-led businesses to UK GDP. The average revenue of women-led businesses in the UK is £12million, £2.3million more than last year, and these business are growing on average 27.3%. It only stands to reason that, in the near future, we expect to see female entrepreneurs lead the way in business across multiple sectors, including the male-heavy industries of finance and technology.
High profile female business leaders, such as Anya Hindmarch (designer), Sherry Coutu (investor), Justine Roberts (mumsnet), Holly Tucker (notonthehighstreet) are celebrated publicly because they have successfully built notable ventures. Their success along with the UK’s 789 women-led companies with more than £1million revenue demonstrates that there is no room for bias in entrepreneurship. Your achievements are judged on the merit of your business, your ambition to succeed, your execution, the team you surround yourself with and how you persuade others to buy into your idea.
Entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted and is gender-blind. It brings with it a risk of failure, chaos and a hint of uncertainty and you have to be 100% confident you’ve got what it takes. But once you get going, then the rewards go beyond simple satisfaction and lends itself to a better work-life balance, lets you create a positive business culture for you and those you employ and eliminates salary ceilings.
The reality check
Don’t get me wrong; while we see a growing number of female CEOs and founders, I’m aware that there is still much to be done. Just look at the technology sector and its a heavy male presence. If you walk into any tech startup event, it is likely 90% of the room will be men. In fact, women currently occupy just 17% of tech jobs and make up only 3% of partners in venture capital firms. Fewer than one in ten of these women are in leadership positions within the sector. The example by Sheryl Sandberg at the start of her book “Lean In” perfectly describes this discrimination in real life circumstances. She speaks of the time when she was giving a presentation at a company when she asked where the women’s bathroom was. A senior partner couldn’t give her the answer, because she was the only woman to have pitched the company in his time there.
The entrepreneur and investor, Dale Murray, is quoted as saying “Everything good that has happened to me is because I said yes to something, when it would have been safer to say no.” The business-women we admire today are the ones who have said yes, been confident enough to jump into the unknown and, as a result, created something remarkable. We, as female entrepreneurial leaders, must take to heart this lesson. They have created a pathway for other women to embrace their passions, build businesses on their own terms and to change the world. We shouldn’t let one day a year remind of us of this fact, the momentum is there to level the playing field and each day we get a little closer.
Neeta Patel is CEO of the New Entrepreneurs Foundation, an organisation that nurtures the next generation of young entrepreneurs through a 12-month training and development programme. Neeta has more than 20 years of strategy and operational leadership experience in launching new ventures, business turnarounds and change and has a sharp focus on growth and revenues. She has a successful track record of turning ideas and concepts into tangible businesses. Her experience spans financial services, media & publishing, education, arts and the creative industries. She has also led two of her own start-up. Neeta’s passion for encouraging more women into business has seen her hold roles as a trustee for the Young Women’s Trust and a non-execuetive Dirctor of Go City Girl.
