Post by account_disabled on Mar 15, 2024 23:14:56 GMT -5
Women Does pandemic deter women from entrepreneurship? In August 2019, the World Economic Forum released a sobering statistic If trends at the time continued, it would take 208 years to close the gender gap in the US. As a leader of a prominent community of non-binary women and founders, and as a mother of two girls, the report felt personal. I remember thinking, “Wow. "This is really bad." Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that a little over a year later, gender equality would get much, much worse. Leslie Feinzaig, founder and executive director of the Female Founders Alliance. Seven months ago, our lives were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, we have clear evidence that women have borne the brunt of its economic impact in the United States. COVID-19. Does pandemic deter women from entrepreneurship? Last month, 865,000 women left the workforce, four times more than the equivalent number of men.
Venture funding for women-founded companies has historically been abysmal, with less than 3% of all venture capital invested. Last quarter it fell to a three-year low. To top off this bleak picture, new data from the Female Founders Alliance suggests that fewer women are starting companies due to the pandemic. Female Founders Alliance: the discouraging reality In September, a BYB Directory team from the Female Founders Alliance surveyed a diverse group of professional women and non-binary people who are highly likely to have entrepreneurial aspirations, including 38% people of color and 5% who use they/them pronouns. Before the pandemic, 87% were somewhat or very likely to start a business. Six months later, 51% of them have delayed or discarded these plans.
The main reason for this change is financial instability: 48% of those who changed their plans did so because they need fixed salaries; another 20% depend on ongoing corporate benefits, including health insurance. Thank you @geekwire for sharing these important findings!https://t.co/Vny7vApqJW — Leslie Feinzaig (@lesliefeinzaig) October 15, 2020 One of the respondents commented: I feel very unstable monetarily about the future. I'm approaching 32 and wanted to start a business with a friend in New York, buy a small house, and maybe plan a family with my partner. Now I'm going to focus on my contract work and forget about the company, stay in our apartment, NOT make plans for the kids, and see how things develop over the next year.
Venture funding for women-founded companies has historically been abysmal, with less than 3% of all venture capital invested. Last quarter it fell to a three-year low. To top off this bleak picture, new data from the Female Founders Alliance suggests that fewer women are starting companies due to the pandemic. Female Founders Alliance: the discouraging reality In September, a BYB Directory team from the Female Founders Alliance surveyed a diverse group of professional women and non-binary people who are highly likely to have entrepreneurial aspirations, including 38% people of color and 5% who use they/them pronouns. Before the pandemic, 87% were somewhat or very likely to start a business. Six months later, 51% of them have delayed or discarded these plans.
The main reason for this change is financial instability: 48% of those who changed their plans did so because they need fixed salaries; another 20% depend on ongoing corporate benefits, including health insurance. Thank you @geekwire for sharing these important findings!https://t.co/Vny7vApqJW — Leslie Feinzaig (@lesliefeinzaig) October 15, 2020 One of the respondents commented: I feel very unstable monetarily about the future. I'm approaching 32 and wanted to start a business with a friend in New York, buy a small house, and maybe plan a family with my partner. Now I'm going to focus on my contract work and forget about the company, stay in our apartment, NOT make plans for the kids, and see how things develop over the next year.