Inspire Inclusion: Breaking Barriers as Women Entrepreneurs

Women own a third of the world’s businesses, according to the World Bank. But if you think about the largest and most successful companies on the planet, most of those were founded by men. The truth is that while women often start their own businesses, they can struggle to scale them and transform them into the corporate behemoths that end up becoming household names.

Bias and discrimination can prevent women founders from accessing crucial funding and securing lucrative contracts. They can also hinder women’s ability to network, especially in male-dominated industries such as finance and technology. If they can’t network, women won’t necessarily make the invaluable connections that can help them become better businesspeople and take their companies to the next level.

Being a female entrepreneur can even be a disadvantage in the talent marketplace since prospective employees may use gender as a reason to question the competence and leadership qualities of a female founder.

All around, then, female entrepreneurs tend to face more barriers than their male counterparts. So, how can they overcome bias and discrimination to build successful businesses?

For my book, 21st Century Business Icons, I studied some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, including a number of well-known female founders. Here are three powerful lessons they can teach other women in business:

1. Don’t get mad, get even. Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of dating app Bumble, founded her business because she had experienced a barrage of online abuse after she sued her former employer, Tinder, for sexual harassment and discrimination. (She later received a settlement, although Tinder denied any wrongdoing).
   As a result of her experiences, Wolfe Herd wanted to build a more positive online world. She also had a vision of putting women in the driving seat when it came to the antiquated world of dating, giving them the power to make the first move on her app. The name of the app – Bumble – is inspired by the idea of queen bees and women being in charge. Wolfe Herd is a great believer in the idea that entrepreneurs should start businesses to solve a personal pain point. She herself has shown that women can become highly successful businesspeople by refusing to stand for bias and discrimination and instead confronting it head-on.
2. Build your credibility by clearly articulating your idea. Back in the 1970s, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw trained in malting and brewing at the University of Melbourne. But when she returned to her home country of India, she found that gender bias was preventing her from securing a management job in the male-dominated brewing industry. Her failure to break into the brewing industry was a major blow to Mazumdar-Shaw’s dreams. But she decided to put the knowledge of biotechnology and enzymes that she had gained from studying brewing to use in a different way: by starting her own biotech business.
   At that time, India’s biotech industry was still in its infancy and Mazumdar-Shaw has described herself as the “lone entrepreneur in the Indian biotech landscape”. She was just 25 when she founded her company, Biocon, and it was hard work getting the fledgling business off the ground. Mazumdar-Shaw had to overcome credibility barriers in relation to her gender, youth and lack of business experience. Furthermore, banks were unwilling to lend to her because she was seen as high risk and professionals were wary of working for her since they feared she would not be able to provide them with job security.
   Later, Mazumdar-Shaw wrote in her blog that when she started her company, “entrepreneurship was a new phenomenon that was only for daring men and certainly not a ‘career’ choice for women”. Nevertheless, she persisted with her entrepreneurial dream because she was driven by her “passion to pursue the road less taken and make a difference”. Eventually, she did find financial backers who believed in her, but to gain their support, she made sure that they saw her as someone worth investing in by clearly articulating what she had set out to do.
3. Forget about what other people think. This advice might be easier said than done, but it’s touted by a lot of successful women. Melanie Perkins, co-founder of graphic design platform Canva, has succeeded at becoming a tech billionaire despite not being male, not being white and not being based in Silicon Valley. So, she has a lot of experience of what it means to be ‘on the outside’ in business. Her top tip for surviving exclusion is not to worry about people who don’t like you. In a blog for SmartCompany, she wrote: “There are a number of people in this world who are archaic and small-minded — and there’s almost nothing we can do about it.”
   In her blog, Perkins went on to advise those who feel on the outside that they should focus on finding the nice people in the world “and don’t worry about those who aren’t”. She also underlined the importance of determination in business, saying: “One thing that has kept me going is the belief that if I work really hard, I can usually succeed at whatever I put my mind to – maybe not on the first try, but by the hundredth (or more) tries I’ll nail it.”

Inspiring role models

Wolfe Herd, Mazumdar-Shaw and Perkins are all inspiring role models for other female entrepreneurs. But even with role models like them in existence, it’s impossible to escape the fact that the world of business can be difficult for women to crack, particularly in markets where women are widely discriminated against. Unfortunately, there is still a huge gender gap in the world and the World Economic Forum predicts that women will not achieve parity with men until 2154 – beyond the lifespan of everyone reading this article.

Nevertheless, despite the associated challenges, entrepreneurship does present women with exciting opportunities to build the career they want, in the way they want, while making a difference to the world. There is also the possibility that founding their own company might result in them becoming rich beyond their wildest dreams.

As Wolfe Herd, Mazumdar-Shaw and Perkins all prove, it is entirely possible for female entrepreneurs to overcome bias and discrimination and build a successful business. There’s plenty of room in the world for more women billionaires.