🗞️ Breaking the cycle
While headlines around gender gap disparities and the lack of female funding in the startup ecosystem are important, they risk becoming self-perpetuating.
As International Women's Day (IWD) approaches, I've been reflecting on how the media reports on gender disparities in Australia's startup and VC sector.
The timing of the latest Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) data revealing a 19.1% gender pay gap across Australian startups seems deliberately aligned with IWD. It showed that the needle has barely moved on closing the gap, and it’s disheartening.
But there's a risk that the annual ritual of “omg it’s so bad!” headlines helps create a cycle that is self-perpetuating. When we repeatedly highlight stats like those seen in the WGEA data, or that only 4% of venture capital goes to women-founded startups, we risk unwittingly cementing the imbalance rather than improving it.
An example: a female investor recently confided that she had begun doubting whether to back women-led companies, because she was concerned they wouldn't secure future funding. It's a chilling example of how narratives can create the very inequalities they expose.
