Women usually account for “less than 10 percent of founders” for high growth firms, according to the study Sources of Economic Hope by the Kauffman Foundation. Only 4 per cent of fortune 500 companies are run by women. In Silicon Valley, women earn only 49 cents to a man’s dollar and get less than 10% of all VC funding. According to a Babson College study, 96 percent of venture capitalists are men, and they control the majority of the money going into startups. The numbers are indeed changing, but not fast enough.
For women to play such a minor role in an industry that has become so prevalent in our lives, it would seem we are losing out on a lot of potential.
Especially since women entrepreneurs tend to create businesses with a higher social impact and reinvest in their communities a lot more, as shown in a study published in the Harvard Business Review.
Moreover, high growth firms, the ones likely to create the most jobs, as reported by the Kauffman Foundation, tend to be built around new science and technology, where women are vastly absent.
How do we try to change this?
We are two filmmakers on a mission for change. The film project was started in April 2013 and we launched the She Started It movement in June 2013 with our first Indiegogo campaign.
Our goal is to reach one million women & girls with this film in 2017 and show them that if you fall, you can get back up. We want girls who will see the film to know that they can take risks, that failure is okay and that it is worth trying something you are passionate about.
The women of SHE STARTED IT are smart, resourceful and relatable, offering viewers powerful examples of female entrepreneurship while revealing the challenges faced by women-led companies. Their stories urge educators, parents, investors and business leaders to support women entrepreneurs and to contribute to a culture in which girls and women are able to envision, fund and lead their own enterprises. In collaboration with Black Girls Code; 500 Startups ; Girls In Tech & more, the SHE STARTED IT Impact Screening Tour creates a forum for dialogue, skill-building and corporate culture training among young girls, parents, educators, employers and funders.
