Women proceed to face barriers to entrepreneurship, including: only 17 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses in Canada are owned by women.
To solve this problem, the Canadian government introduced Women’s entrepreneurship strategy. This strategy goals to handle gender disparities and biases in Canada’s enterprise capital system.
However, our understanding of the challenges women face in the startup ecosystem is restricted. Previous research has focused on overt phenomena negative sexist attitudes that query women’s competences and suitability for entrepreneurship.
This view ignores the existence of more subtle but pervasive and socially acceptable sexist attitudes that always go unnoticed. Given the huge number of individuals interested in or working in startupsfrom investors to suppliers to job applicants, the effects of those subtle types of sexism can accumulate across a big and diverse group of decision-makers.
For initiatives to handle gender inequality in entrepreneurship to be effective, we want to higher understand the effects of those subtle biases that women entrepreneurs face.
Benevolent sexism in entrepreneurship
Benevolent sexism it’s a type of prejudice that appears positive towards women, but ultimately reinforces gender roles and deepens inequality.
Unlike overtly hostile types of discrimination, benevolent sexism manifests itself in seemingly harmless beliefs. This sort of sexism often portrays women as fragile or in need of protection, while men are seen as providers and protectors.
Because benevolent sexism is commonly expressed in ways in which seem positive, it is never questioned by men and women. It may serve to keep up traditional gender dynamics, creating the illusion of support for women while limiting their autonomy.
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In particular, research shows that benevolent sexism weakens women’s position at work and causes them to carry fewer positions of power in organizations. The startup ecosystem is a very fertile ground for this kind of sexism to manifest and deepen over time.
From women are less underrepresented in entrepreneurship than in traditional organizationsstartup evaluators are careful to not act on overtly sexist attitudes. This, in turn, creates room for more subtle types of bias to emerge.
Benevolent sexism favors men
Our latest research article examined how benevolent sexism influences evaluators’ evaluation of startups run by women and men.
We initially theorized that startup evaluators with benevolent, sexist views can be more more likely to rate women-led startups as less profitable (i.e., more more likely to fail). We didn’t expect this to affect their evaluation of male startups in any respect.
To test this hypothesis, we conducted three studies in which participants were tasked with evaluating a hypothetical early-stage startup founded by either a person or a girl. Both entrepreneurs in our scenarios had an identical qualifications and startup ideas.
The results of all three studies showed that the more evaluators endorsed benevolent sexist beliefs, the more positively they evaluated male-led startups. This had no impact on the assessment of startups run by women. This result was the same no matter whether the raters themselves were men or women in two of the three studies.
Solving the problem of unjustified benefits
Our findings require a fundamental rethinking of what achieving true equality entails. It is just not enough to remove unfair barriers that hold women back; we must also confront the unfair privileges that push men forward.
This suggests that collective solutions to gender inequality aren’t sufficient. They focus mainly on the barriers women face, ignoring the undue benefits afforded to men. Such common solutions include specializing in women’s education, mentoring and networking.
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To effectively address the gender gap in entrepreneurship, we must raise awareness of the hidden effects of benevolent sexism. This will be done through education and training of entrepreneurs, mentors and investors. Such interventions could communicate to those stakeholders that while benevolent sexism appears positive, it’s in fact harmful.
Additionally, we want to revamp the startup evaluation process. The current ambiguous and unstructured conditions in which start-ups operate allow for the emergence of subtle biases.
To solve this problem, we want clearly defined and transparent criteria for evaluating startups. Indeed, previous research shows that creation clear structure, transparency and accountability in assessment processes are crucial to reducing biased decision-making.
Fix the system, not the women
Our research challenges traditional interventions that only address overt sexist attitudes toward women. Many interventions suggest that women need change.
For example, it is suggested for women change your communication and negotiation style. They are also advised to enterprise into more male and better profile industries.
This advice ignores the advantages that men receive. As our research shows, even when women have an identical qualifications and concepts, startups run by men are perceived as more promising. Moreover, well-intentioned initiatives geared toward closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship can they backfire because they signal that women need assistance, which promotes a benevolent, sexist tone.
It’s calling to repair the system, not to repair women. We need to handle gender inequality by examining and changing the attitudes and behaviors of evaluators, slightly than encouraging women to vary.