Gender Equality and How Everybody in the Nordics Thinks That We’re Better Off Than We Really Are
By +SocialGood Connector Henriette Weber
The Nordic countries have quite a reputation when it comes to gender equality. Three out of four working age women are currently in paid employment. We support gender equality in homes as well as work, and we have moved earlier and faster at promoting it.
We are leaders on this issue, as well as on sustainability, and on the implementation of the SDGs. With all that progress, we should be good — right? Well, yes — and no.
One of the areas closest to my heart is supporting female founders and startups. In the Nordic region, we assume that they have equal access to power and the resources they need to help their businesses and startups grow.
With us leading on SDG 5 and implementing innovative initiatives around gender equality, it could look like the region is on the ‘cutting-edge’ of this issue. From the outside, it could look like startup girlbosses rule the Nordics, stemming all the way back to the Vikings and shield maidens.
However, if we look at this new report, the Nordics are lagging behind the United States in the number of female founded teams.
As a female entrepreneur, a woman in tech, and occasionally a part of different startups teams, I am puzzled by this. I have received awards for my work as a female entrepreneur. I have also created movements for female entrepreneurs and women who wanted to know more about technology. I have dedicated a large part of my corporate life to supporting women and gender equality (a huge driver for this was my ‘baby’ girl — who is now a climate activist at 15 year old).
I thought we had gotten further. No, actually I assumed that we had gotten further. When I read in the report that 88% of venture capital invested in the Nordic region in 2018 went to all all-male founder teams, I realized how far we still have to go. How far the whole world has to go. I think back to the days when I would be at tech conferences huddled up together with the few other women there. We all received awards for being ‘(female) role models in the tech/startup space.’ Sure, the celebration of female role models is important, but it shouldn’t stop there!
We need gender equality on boards and we need gender equality in startups. We need female entrepreneurs. We need female VC’s.
The thing that concerns me the most is not that the female founding teams have not received a lot of funding, but that they receive less per round, meaning that they will need to raise for more rounds than their male counterparts.
I think in my next business life, I will become a VC and work to leave no one behind in that way. We should be able to do than this better. I would like to urge every VC company to get two women on board as partners. Not one, but two.
I believe that the tech system cares. The venture capital system cares too— they just need to know what to do. I believe that having 2 female partners in a VC will change things up a bit — why only one?
