Accelerate Action Towards Gender Equality with an Entrepreneurial Approach
- FutureFounder Team
- Mar 27
- 5 min read
In light of this year’s Women’s Day, let’s take a chance to celebrate how far we’ve come regarding women’s rights and how we can contribute going forward.
International Women’s Day has been around for over a hundred years with a different theme every year. The theme for this year is “Accelerate Action,”. On Women’s Day we celebrate women’s achievements and we raise awareness about the discrimination that still takes place today.
In the last few decades there has been a lot of improvement for women’s rights, but even with all this progress there is still a long way to go. If no acceleration takes place, it will take until the year 2158 to achieve full gender parity. In this blog we will explore the evolution of women’s rights, the impact that diversity has in businesses and how an entrepreneurial mindset can empower women and get us closer to achieving gender parity.
If no acceleration takes place, it will take until the year 2158
to achieve full gender parity.
Women’s Evolution in Society in Numbers
Women have played a crucial role in shaping society as leaders, warriors, healers, inventors, and intellectuals. Yet, throughout history, their contributions were often overlooked, and their rights were systematically denied. While early feminist movements like those led by Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792 and the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 laid important groundwork in the Western world, advocacy for women’s rights has taken place across many cultures and time periods. For example, in the early 20th century, Huda Sha’arawi was a key advocate for Egyptian women’s rights, and Indigenous women across North America have long played central roles in governance and leadership. Similarly, in Latin America, the 19th and 20th centuries saw significant women’s rights movements, including the activism of feminists like Paulina Luisi in Uruguay. Also, between the late 1960s and mid-1970s Argentina went through intense social transformations and political activism. Among the feminist organizations that appeared were the Unión Feminista Argentina and the Movimiento de Liberación Feminista.
Although the fight for equal rights for both men and women started over a century ago, gender discrimination still persists globally. While some countries impose legal restrictions on women’s education and workforce participation, others struggle with systemic biases, wage gaps and underrepresentation in leadership.
However, women have proven great potential when included. Let’s take a look at some surprising numbers about women in business in today’s society.
Recent data indicates a significant rise in women's entrepreneurial activities globally. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2023/24 Women's Entrepreneurship Report, women's startup activity rates have increased from an average of 6.1% between 2001-2005 to 10.4% during 2021-2023 across 30 surveyed countries. Notably, in 2023, one in ten women initiated new businesses compared to one in eight men. Countries like France, the Netherlands, and Hungary have seen women's startup rates more than double over the past two decades. Similarly, in Africa, Nigeria has one of the highest rates of female entrepreneurship, with women leading over 40% of micro, small, and medium enterprises. Latin America has also seen a surge in female-owned businesses, especially in Brazil and Colombia.
Furthermore, companies with women in their leadership teams are more likely to outperform their competitors. According to McKinsey & Company, businesses with diverse executive teams are 25% more likely to experience above-average profitability compared to those that don’t. Boston Consulting Group (2018) stated that organizations with above-average diversity on their management teams reported innovation revenue 19 percent higher than those with below-average leadership diversity. Tech companies led by women are more capital-efficient, achieving a 35% higher return on investment compared to male-led tech companies.
All the above clearly shows that women have great leadership potential and that empowering women will empower other women and boost businesses.
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Despite these advancements, female entrepreneurs face substantial challenges, particularly in securing funding. In the United States and Europe, only about 2% of venture capital funding is allocated to women-led startups, even though research indicates that these businesses often generate higher returns on investment than those led by men. This disparity is attributed mainly to systemic biases within the investment community, where female entrepreneurs frequently encounter skepticism and "prevention-oriented" questioning from investors.
How the Entrepreneurial Approach Can Accelerate Action
FutureFounder believes that innovation, entrepreneurship, and policy reforms must work together to accelerate societal transformation and achieve gender equality. Ensuring legal rights, expanding access to education, and addressing financial barriers are just as crucial as fostering an entrepreneurial mindset.
This starts with girls. Education is often the solution or it can pave the way towards a solution. Educating girls has a profound impact on economic development. Each additional year of schooling can increase a woman's earnings by 10% to 20%. According to the World Bank, limited educational opportunities for girls cost countries between $15 trillion and $30 trillion in lost productivity and earnings.
Each additional year of schooling can increase a woman's earnings by 10% to 20%.
Source: Population Reference Bureau
Women's education is linked to increased civic participation and improved social outcomes. Educated women are more likely to engage in community decision-making and advocate for their children's education, creating a positive cycle of empowerment. Like stated before, empowered women empower women.
In line with this, developing entrepreneurial skills in women has proven to be a very effective measure, especially in underdeveloped countries.
Studies have shown that education that focuses on entrepreneurship significantly boosts women's self-confidence and determination to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. For instance, research indicates that female participants in entrepreneurship programs exhibit increased self-assurance and persistence, which are critical factors in entrepreneurial success.
Also, entrepreneurship training equips women with essential business skills, enabling them to navigate challenges and seize opportunities effectively. In regions like Ethiopia, women who received such training experienced a 30% increase in profits within a year, emphasizing the economic benefits of targeted educational interventions such as the ones provided by FutureFounder.
Why it Matters
At FutureFounder, we believe in women and what they can do. Our founder is a woman who personally advocates for equality. We base our work on a selected number of the Sustainable Development Goals; one of them being gender equality. The goal reads, ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’. (Goal 5 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs).
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This agenda was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015. The seventeen SDGs are a call for action to work towards peace and prosperity for people and the planet.
With the goal of SDG number five in mind, back in 2023, we offered a bootcamp specifically for women to create a safe space where women from all over the world could gather to share their enthusiasm for learning and to grow together.
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Currently, we are nowhere near equality in the business world. As we have seen, there is hope, and there is proof of how empowered women help create more empowered women. Whether you want to be a homemaker, business woman, artist, wife, single mother, accountant, or whatever it is you want to be, the freedom to make the choice comes thanks to the hard work of the women who came before us. There is still more work ahead, but we can achieve great things if from every corner of the world we work together.
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