Despite the fact that no one doubts that women do an excellent job with leadership roles, men are reluctant to let them into the world in which they are accustomed to dominate. Those few representatives of the fairer sex who break into important leadership positions are often forced to listen to dubious jokes and endure harassment.
The impact of women's neglect on investment attraction
There are several reasons why the innovation process may slow down:
- The negative perception of failure on the part of entrepreneurs and their environment, which inhibits the desire to create.
- Reluctance on the part of local investors who prefer to invest their wealth - colossal in international comparisons - to companies that have proven themselves and provide a safe return on their investments.
- Finally, the lack of political momentum for interest in financing the development of young companies.
These obstacles have been identified, they contribute to the exclusion of a startup in the worst-case scenarios, and in its worst - to eliminate it.
However, another factor of failure is less well-known - the low level of representation of women in decision-making circles. Researchers from the University of St. Gallen examined the situation with 428 young companies in the growth phase to determine the impact on business of various reasons in the decision-making functions.
Elite and dominant leadership environment for men
The study shows that the fact that there are too few women in startups helps preserve the networks of elite and dominant men. This club culture of boys is viewed on social networks.
In the short term, recruiting women due to the closeness of these groups can be difficult. But in the long run, male internal identity is much more harmful: it lures into the trap of an innovative ecosystem, where all the same entrepreneurs, customers and investors are spinning.
This dominance among men is especially noticeable in the “technology” segment: among about 400 startups last year, only 15% had female participants in the sector of advanced engineering, 19% in the sector of information technology, a little more in the field of biotechnology (24%) and medical equipment (38%). The problem is already rooted in the level of education: the share of female students in polytechnics in Switzerland is less than one third and drops to 15% at the level of teachers.
Men behave condescendingly with female colleagues and are not averse to pestering
The system is self-sufficient and sustainable, based on sexism and stereotypes. A study in 2017 involving thousands of students (40% of women) in twenty French computer schools found that seven out of ten women reported sexist activities during training: jokes, comments about their dubious skills, or even harassment.
Berta Sheil, one of the few women to succeed on the hacker scene, wrote about the climate that exists in the professional world. Her authority was systematically questioned. At that moment, when she changed her female pseudonym in the forums to male, tired of insults, the situation immediately changed.
An alternative network created by the woman herself allows her to work quietly
The atmosphere is not much better in the network industry, where the proportion of women is 27%.A woman working in a managerial position at a machine tool manufacturing company said that meetings and corporate parties are often held during kindergartens, and they have to take care of the children after work. She eventually created her own professional network with the help of casual acquaintances and friendly colleagues. Women still do most of the housework.
Such alternative networks created by women, according to sociologists, are social capital in the future. Attracting more women to leadership positions allows the company to benefit from this and thereby diversify its areas of activity and search for investors.
How many women should be in leadership positions?
Researchers believe that men will cease to be indulgent towards women in their culture of closed leadership clubs if the number of the latter is at least 30%.
Gone are the days when a man went hunting, and a woman studied at home with the children and waited for his return with prey. The outbreak and the children remained, and everyone goes for prey, regardless of gender. But if a woman is also educated and passionate about work, why should she obey the decisions emanating from the male groups of leaders?
However, while promoting women's rights in governance, Europeans, who are especially worried about gender inequality, should not forget that there are differences in perceptions of the world and way of thinking, ways of communication between the sexes that need to be taken into account. To consider that men and women can be equally effective in different spheres of production and business is not always true.