For many businesses, the pandemic has been the biggest unwanted spanner in the works that will take some time to come back from. After working from home  for over a year, we can see first-hand the impact that the situation has had, especially for women.

When you are building a plane in the sky - startup speak for tricky innovation in a tough environment - things slip. In the case of fast-growing businesses, important people priorities and processes fall down the agenda. Diversity and inclusion is one of them. It can be deprioritised by default, in a race to stay afloat, pay your teams and spend time on what will get you where you need to go, quickly.

A recent study cited by a leading Fintech publication found that whilst 30% of the fintech workforce is female, only 17% of senior fintech roles are held by women and just over 5% of founders are women. These statistics are pretty shocking as Fintech is such a dynamic world of discovery and innovation.

Working while parenting has always been a balancing act, but the pandemic has led to any existing structures and routines being abandoned.  

Rosa von Krogh is Head of Insights and Innovation at the North Alliance, one of the largest companies in Scandinavia marrying design, media and e-commerce. She is speaking at the global SHE Conference, alongside guests like Hillary Clinton, Norwegian PM, Erna Solberg and Icelandic PM Katrin Jakobsdottir, from 5-19th March 2021.

To mark International Women's Day, University of Bristol-led tech incubator, SETsquared Bristol, are opening applications for Enterprising Women 2.0, a pre-incubation programme for women-led businesses, in partnership with NatWest.

UK businesses are at risk of losing employee trust through choosing to abstain from reporting their gender gap figures, following on from the EHRC’s second deadline extension. Government figures show that nearly half of 10,000 eligible employers chose not to submit their pay gap figures last year - equalling to nearly 5,000 businesses that possibly have something to hide.

Despite the global growth of women-led businesses, funding continues to be a significant challenge. Having gathered multiple data and research, Instant Offices revealed 35% of female business founders still face gender bias when raising their business capital. Female entrepreneurs also receive an average of 5% less funding than their male counterparts.

A few years ago I was sitting in a meeting, working while I waited for it to be my turn to present. The engineer sitting next to me asked me what I was doing - I said that in order to make it home in time before my children’s bath time, I had to work through every single free moment. He replied saying he preferred to not get home until after bath time.

Especially for International Women’s Day on March 8, iStock has unveiled a series of tips to help SMBs meaningfully depict diversity, encouraging them to intentionally and authentically portray women across age, race and cultural lines in their marketing and advertising campaigns for their benefit, and the benefit of women everywhere.   

Nearly half of women working in cybersecurity (49%) say that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their career in a positive way, with just nine percent of female cybersecurity professionals saying that the pandemic negatively impacted their career. This is according to a new global report from human layer security company Tessian, published this International Women’s Day.

To coincide with International Women’s Day, O2 is sharing new research revealing how women have been impacted by challenges raised by Coronavirus. As insights show how employees are feeling a year on from the outbreak of the pandemic, O2 is calling on employers to ramp up their focus on wellbeing and take action to ensure women thrive in the post-pandemic workplace.

Almost one fifth of women (17%) are considering starting their own business, in a sign of a potential fresh wave of female-led startups that could help power the UK’s economic recovery.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is #ChoosetoChallenge, so we’ve spoken to a host of female leaders doing just that. CEO of Clearbanc, Michele Romanow is using AI to challenge traditional VC investment. With decisions based on data and not ‘who you know’ Clearbanc has invested in 8x more women than men in the UK. CMO of Fiverr Gali Arnon, believes freelance marketplaces are helping to diminish the gender pay gap for women across the world and Anna Brailsford, CEO of Code First Girls is on a mission to get more women into coding. 

Research by the Belvoir Group has found that although three quarters of women working in the property industry are keen to run their own business, lack of confidence and concerns about juggling family and work life are major preventative factors.

Gender roles have been set back significantly since the COVID crisis began stated 57% of respondents to a new survey of the UK tech industry released ahead for International Women's Day 2021.

Working at Startups Magazine, we come across some extremely inspiring, empowering and all-round incredible women, but it would be impossible to name them all. As we celebrate International Women's Day 2021, we wanted to highlight our 20 most influential women of 2020 from our last Women in Tech edition.

International women’s day is a double-edged tampon, on the one hand it’s a day of celebration, reflection and unity, on the other, it’s a day to bring about awareness and focus on the inequalities that still pelage our society. How’s that gender pay gap looking? Where are we with female representation in the tech industry now? Was your new smartphone designed with a women’s hand size in mind?

Three inspirational female founders discuss how they made their start in business, how they have continued to grow throughout the pandemic, and their advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.  

March 8th 2021 marks International Women’s Day, and a Yoopies survey on equality has revealed that 70% our survey respondents believe there is gender inequality in the workplace in various ways. Pay gaps, missing out on promotions and lack of access to positions of responsibility were cited amongst the most pressing issues of professional gender inequality and furthermore, we revealed that women are far more likely to have trouble balancing their home or personal life with their professional one than men.

Women throughout history continue to make their mark creating innovations and discoveries that impact our lives today. To celebrate International Women’s Day 2021, Miranda Kent, Managing Associate at intellectual property firm, Mathys & Squire, reflects on inspiring female inventors in each decade since 1910 - when the firm was first founded - to demonstrate the significant value that realising new ideas and inventions can bring.

Most women are suffering with general self-esteem issues with 79% admitting to struggling in this area, according to new research released by think tank The WealthiHer Network, which was published for International Women’s Day, taking place on 8th March 2021.

The Digital Women’s Day, JFD in French, was started up by Delphine Remy-Boutang back in 2013, (back then just an annual meeting), but has since evolved into so much more. It is now a platform for the promotion of digital entrepreneurship for women, and JFD has brought together and celebrated a large number of women who all share the same goal - to revolutionise the world digitally both in Europe and Africa.

A recent survey by Arctic Shores, which investigated the talent acquisition landscape for the year ahead, revealed that three in four companies plan to review their diversity hiring practices for 2021. These findings are surprising, considering 81% of companies already run unconscious bias training. This would suggest diminishing confidence amongst talent leaders that unconscious bias training alone is enough to ensure fair, consistent and effective processes.

This Mum Runs is the largest mobile, on and offline running community for Mums in the world, aiming to empower millions of women to feel great about themselves just through moving more and doing it using the power of community. Here we chat to Mel Bound, Founder and CEO of This Mum Runs, as part of our International Women's Day celebrations.

Recently I’ve been wishing for more meetings with men. I spend a lot of time in meetings with women. And while I know my 20-something self would be puzzled by this statement (and would be delighted to chat regularly to women, albeit in a work capacity) let me explain…

Bumble’s CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd, became the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire last week– a huge milestone for women in business everywhere. But how many female decision-makers are there in the boardrooms of some of the biggest companies in technology, entertainment and e-commerce?

The Data & Marketing Association (DMA) has published new guidance, ‘DMA Talent: ADHD Employer Guide’, created using insights from neurodiversity consultants, brands/employers, and employees with ADHD working across the creative, data and marketing industries.

There’s one tool that’s underused to address the gender diversity gap in startups - education.

London will host a group of North American LGBTQIA+ founders and entrepreneurs today for the start of a two-day virtual trade mission to explore London’s business ecosystem. The mission will see fourteen of North America’s fastest-growing LGBTQIA+ led tech companies ‘touch-down’ in London to meet with corporates and startups to discuss potential business opportunities in the UK capital.

Although this may sound like one of the easier questions you have read this week, this question is so much more than these seven words primarily show.

In June of 2020, the US Supreme Court handed down a ruling that barred employers from discriminating against queer and transgender employees. This was the latest of many fights happening worldwide to introduce or strengthen legislation to protect the LGBTQ+ community in the workplace.

'Why men shouldn’t be the only architects of our digital future'. In the tech world we're always talking about solutions. You hear it all the time, in every pitch deck, on every panel, how if you want to build a successful startup you need to find a problem for consumers or businesses and solve it.

University of Bristol multi-award-winning tech incubator, SETsquared Bristol, has seen its 80 startup and scaleup companies establish record leadership diversity.

As the pandemic continues to impact businesses - both small and large - across the globe, I meet with four diverse founders based in the UK, who are taking part in WeWork's Diverse Founders Programme in partnership with UK social enterprise, Foundervine.

With men being twice as likely to become entrepreneurs than women, the business world has a long way to go to address the barriers which stop women from starting companies, and help to create a more equal society.

Included VC, the first-of-its-kind global initiative building diversity within venture capital, has in a collaborative partnership with 11 funds from around the world, kicked off its Fellowship II. It is the only offering on the market that offers a nine-month, fully funded Fellowship to diverse individuals globally who are looking to enter the VC ecosystem.

You can’t be what you can’t see. This is a phrase that crops up time and time again. We often see organisations pledge to take action to boost the number of opportunities for LGBT+ professionals to take up leadership positions; however there is still a lack of visible LGBT+ role models across business.

The Data & Marketing Association (DMA) has announced a new partnership with not-for-profit organisation, Race Equality Matters, which will seek to achieve racial equality in the workplace.

Over the past few years, we have seen considerable progress on gender equality within the workplace, with logistics providers outlining their commitments to building a more diverse pipeline of talent across all levels.

As someone who once worked for big tech in corporate America, I can attest to the difficulties corporate environments impose on people as individuals, especially caregivers. I don’t limit my identities to only being a mother or only being a professional — I am, like so many things in 2020, complicated and I contain multitudes (thanks for that one, Walt Whitman).

British Polar explorer, Antarctic scientist and author, Felicity Aston is an established expedition leader who has successfully organised and led numerous global missions. As an ambassador for the First Women project, Felicity has led international teams of women to some of the most remote places around the world. Her expeditions have included the first British Women’s crossing of Greenland, The Women’s Euro-Arabian North Pole Expedition and The Pole of Cold Expedition.

To date, the artificial intelligence (AI) industry has had quite a difficult history with diversity standards. Despite studies probing inclusivity and bias, statistics for gender and racial diversity in the sector are alarmingly low. And given that we are living in an age of strong activism in these spaces, it is high time that the tech industry follows suit with some practical steps.

In the first part of this series I looked specifically at why women aren’t investing. This time, I’m exploring what’s stopping everyone else.

PitchBook, the data provider for the private and public equity markets, has released All In: Women in the VC Ecosystem, its second annual report examining global Venture Capital (VC) investment in female-founded startups. The report, published with support from Microsoft for Startups and Beyond the Billion, shows the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately impacted female founders and CEOs negatively, despite undeniable, long term gains in VC investment over the past decade.

A staggering £4bn of investment went to UK tech companies in the first half of 2020. The British Business Bank’s recent Government report, together with recent surveys by leading investment platforms like Stakeholderz, show that despite the challenges posed this year, investors are continuing to back the UK’s high growth tech companies, with many indicating they will invest the same or more over the next year. Tech has long proved to be a lucrative and attractive sector for investors and entrepreneurs.

Startups Magazine and Fiverr have come together to bring Female Founders a Micro-Grant, to win £5,000 Fiverr credit. This competition has now closed for new entries.

This has been quite a year and if 2020’s taught us anything it’s that we need to take very good care of ourselves, as our business’s biggest asset. Your wellbeing is the source of energy and creativity that your business needs.

“I’m starting to think my profile could be an asset for the business,” a brilliant female founder confided over a virtual Zoom coffee a couple of weeks back (I miss real life, barista made flat whites and hugging clients hello but that’s a sidebar). “I always want to make it about the business but I think I could be a bit of an asset.”

We at The WealthiHer Network have delved into the challenges facing female entrepreneurs in today’s society, the potential they create economically and socially, and the turnaround traits needed to drive recovery for all.  Our fear is that without positive action, the path to recovery for female entrepreneurs is under threat… especially in a post COVID-19 society.

Following our recent Women in Tech event to celebrate Female Founders, Startups Magazine decided to support the Young Women's Trust with all the amazing work they have been doing, with all the profits from the event. 

B2B tech Unicorns with more female leaders are more likely to have female staff in the rest of the organisation, according to findings from 'Part One: Female Inclusion' of leading European B2B SaaS Venture Capital firm Notion Capital’s report, Which Diversity Measures Work? 

In our recent Women in Tech issue, we asked one of our partners Fiverr to chose 'Fiverr's Top 5 Female Founders'. Of course, a very hard job knowing how much talent there is out there, but nonetheless her are the wonderful Founders, in no particular order that made that five! 

Founded in 2014, Hatch has been on a mission to increase diversity in entrepreneurship and has been shining the spotlight on diverse women-led businesses ever since.

The year 2020 is a year like no other. While data shows the pandemic hasn’t affected the overall amount VC dollars invested in tech companies (on par with previous years; US), it has already had a disproportionate effect on the funds allocated to women-led businesses. Venture checks for female founders are at their lowest since 2017. The broader picture is even grimmer, with a real threat to roll back the last 30 years of economic progress for women (according to the International Monetary Fund).

A certain male news anchor once said: "What the hell is diversity?" Little did he know that the woman who entered the room in the next six seconds would be the best news anchor he ever met. A lot has happened since the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties and Nineties and we as a society are better for it.

It is no secret by now that we are huge supporters of encouraging more females into the tech industry, and closing the gender equality gap. We have recently released out latest issue all about Women in Tech, where we spoke to some amazing females and heard some empowering stories from both males and females in the industry. However, to hear from some more inspiring females and males about the tech industry, and particularly the role women have within it, then head along to the 4th annual conference from Women in Electronics.

Resilience and Recovery, a new report from the Female Founders Forum - a project by think tank The Entrepreneurs Network, in partnership with Barclays - has revealed that female-founded, equity-backed businesses have been worse affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than their male counterparts.

Startups Magazine and Fiverr have come together to bring Female Founders a Micro-Grant, to win £5,000 Fiverr credit. This competition has now closed for new entries.

A woman’s work is never done. This phrase is now more poignant than ever as we grapple with the new realities posed by the current pandemic. It is, however, especially true for successful female entrepreneurs who are left dealing with the struggles of everyday life whilst trying to run a thriving business.

Hopefully, it goes without saying that women are vital members of any team in business. The best ideas are conceptualised and executed by groups with a variety of backgrounds, skills and opinions - homogenised teams will lead to unexciting products.

In my previous blog, I considered the steps necessary for business leaders to close the gap between rhetoric and reality on racial equity at work. This time, I wanted insight on what is actually happening on the frontline. I sat down with award-winning business strategist and founder of The Black British Business Awards, Melanie Eusebe. She has risen to the upper- echelons of the corporate world, and in our broad conversation offered her perspectives on corporate responsibility, solidarity, and how we sustain the current momentum.

Some people are doing very well out of the pandemic - the fraudsters. That’s because the chaos COVID-19 has caused makes it far easier for them to operate. Have you increasingly been asked to provide personal data to strangers since March? Have you changed any of your habits? Gordon Ramsey himself couldn’t have created a more perfect recipe for rising fraud. How can you make yourself as safe as possible and if you have been a victim, what should you do next?

Only one in five women in the UK hold investments... why? In the first of this three-part series I’ll be exploring this question and sharing some of my experience working in the male-dominated world of finance.

As part of our 'Women in Tech' focus we got the chance to speak to Lisa Krapinger, CMO at breathe ilo, who started working in marketing at Red Bull, leading the sampling and promotion team in order to combine her passion for sports with her career. Krapinger then moved to Heineken in brand management, where she was responsible for promoting the cider brands in Austria through sponsorships and events. Krapinger said: "What I realised from these two roles was that I loved working to build new brands and products up from scratch - hence why Carbomed Medical Solutions GmbH was the perfect next step in my career path."

In September 2020, Citigroup bank appointed a female CEO. Why is this big news? Because in doing so, the firm became the first big Wall Street bank to do so. Barriers are being broken down by female trailblazers in all walks of society and even traditionally masculine environments are being transformed into more balanced ones where everyone, regardless of their gender, has an equal chance at success.

UK-based social media and creative boutique for women, WE ARE F is celebrating the launch of its sister agency, WE ARE FEMALE ATHLETES. This powerhouse of female talent and global stars will represent, manage, and fight for, the underrepresented athletes at the forefront of the women’s sporting movement.

An organisation supporting underrepresented Founders in London and connecting them with opportunities in tech called OneTech is expanding its efforts to support and diversify London’s entrepreneurial community. Addressing systemic racial and economic barriers to entrepreneurship highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with JPMorgan Chase.

For years, if not decades, being a ‘woman in tech’ has been seen as the exception to the rule and for many, a career path that’s littered with challenges. According to a Women in Tech report from PWC, only 5% of leadership positions in the tech sector are held by women, a paltry 3% of females say a career in tech is their first choice and only 16% of females have had a career in tech suggested to them (vs 33% of males).

The only virtual conference you need to attend surrounding Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace in 2020, the 'This Is Us Virtual Conference' is fast approcahing, taking place 20-21st October. We caught up with Meena Chander, founder of the conference.

Wonder Women Tech (WWT), a global ecosystem that serves women and underrepresented groups in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math), announced today the lineup for the organization’s first-ever virtual summit, taking place September 16-19th, 2020 from 9-5:30pm (PT).

With the upcoming issue focusing on Women in Tech and Female Founders, we decided to speak to a few females in the industry on their journey and experiences. Starting with Franziska Kirschner, Research lead at Tractable. "When I was a child, I wanted to become a dog when I grew up. I genuinely believed that science would progress far enough that I could change species by the time I reached adulthood. Unfortunately,  the world’s scientists had other ideas and their endeavours focused elsewhere, such as on making computers reason like humans. 

Businesses, whether they’re established, starting up or looking to grow, all have one thing in common. The need to be agile and aware.  And, if the pandemic has taught us anything it’s that businesses can adapt to a changing market and they can do it very quickly.

A campaign to identify Britain’s 100 most inspiring and multi-achieving female entrepreneurs has officially kicked off, with dynamic businesswomen across the country encouraged to apply to join the ranks of the f:Entrepreneur #ialso 100.

Around the world, fertility rates are falling dramatically. Researchers have described the decline as “jaw-dropping” and the impact that it is going to have on societies is difficult to fathom. According to their research, nearly every country is set to see a serious decline in the number of babies being born. To make the shift even more monumental, the worldwide population is also ageing dramatically, and many countries are likely to see as many people turning 80 as there are being born.

In a world filled with incredible innovative technology that everyday enables people to do what they otherwise could not, it seems nonsensical that there is still such an outrageous employment gap for disabled people, and Paralympic champion Elizabeth Johnson, agrees.

Taking single use plastics out of circulation is no easy feat, but the answer might lie closer than we think.

Black Tech Fest (BTF) is a first-of-its-kind digital conference and movement aiming to help Black professionals expand their network and influence while celebrating the boldest innovations created by the Black community.

BusinessFibre has analysed the top 10 companies across 15 different industries in the Fortune 500 to find which are leading the way in gender equality. In addition, the data highlights what industries pay their CEOs the most and how salaries compare between men and women.

An organisation supporting underrepresented Founders in London and connecting them with opportunities in tech called OneTech has launched a new Founders stories campaign to show the face of startups, and has shared an update on the work achieved by the programme since it began. 

The drive for businesses to make positive changes around inclusion and diversity in the workplace is now more important than it ever was before. To encourage businesses to take stand against discrimination and drive forward a progressive future, global workplace providers, Instant Offices have gathered and analysed data into what diversity and inclusion looks like around the world.

Action, Allies, Achievements, and Accountability are the cornerstones of a strategy for achieving diversity goals. As the CEO of Hyve Dynamics, Cecilia Harvey works with the leadership team to ensure that diversity and inclusion is reflected in our strategy and operations. She does this, not just because she is passionate about it, or because the tech industry is one of the least diverse, but because it makes both moral and commercial sense.

COVID-19 (coronavirus) has significantly impacted businesses, but even more so for social entrepreneurs, BAME founders and females due to the difficulties and challenges around access to support, finance and funding as well as structural inequalities. We are on a mission to work closely with these founders to help them flourish in the face of adversity.

What’s sexy about financial technology? When I joined a fintech startup called Littlepay, I could see some of my friends and peers struggle with why I had left an uber-cool venture role to do something they didn’t understand in the fintech space.

Virgin StartUp has reported that funding applications from women entrepreneurs have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 lockdown.

Authors John Smythe and Ruth Saunders announce the publication of their book ‘Female Entrepreneurs – The Secrets of their Success’, written to inspire and encourage female entrepreneurship. 

Grenade is one of the UK’s leading healthy snacking FMCG brands, offering high protein and low sugar nutrition products. Officially launched in 2010, Grenade successfully secured a prominent position in the Sunday Times’ Fast Track Top 100 for four consecutive years, with its products now sold by leading retailers in over 80 countries worldwide. Here we talk through  defining moments in developing Grenade, whilst providing top tips for female entrepreneurs inspired to launch and grow their own business. 

A new not-for profit social impact grant scheme has been launched, the Energy for Tomorrow (EfT) campaign. This grant scheme has been created by Centrica to support and empower entrepreneurs, particularly those from underrepresented groups, who have concepts and innovations to tackle climate change, lower energy bills, and deliver real impact to people and communities.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematical modelling save lives – we see that more than ever in this C-19 crisis. We are relying on our scientists, technologists and engineers to come up with solutions, fast, to improve health and survival rates, to support businesses, organisations and the economy, to enable virtual social connection. They are essential contributors, key workers and equal among them are many, many women.

After graduating from university in 2016, I found myself working for one of the biggest tech companies in the world, Amazon. Although ironically, I was working as far away from tech in operations, managing up to a hundred warehouse staff at a time. I watched the guys working in tech and the entrepreneurs starting new ventures with envy thinking there was no way I’d be able to segway my career in that direction now that I had started climbing the corporate ladder.

SETsquared Bristol is delighted to announce that its 80+ tech startup and scaleup members have collectively achieved record turnover revenues exceeding £58m in 2019. In addition, its members, across 27 sectors, created 240 new jobs in the city region last year.

If you asked fifty young people in the UK to name a female entrepreneurial role model, only one would be able to answer. This statistic, which was among the findings of a new study into young peoples’ ambition by Entrepreneur First, isn’t just disappointing – it’s damaging.

‘More must be done to foster diversity in IP if we don’t want to wait 50 years to achieve gender parity in innovation’, says Joan Mill, Managing Director, EMEA at CPA Global.

We are currently riding the crest of a wave for female representation in the startup community. The past decade has seen more female-founded startups emerging, and more enjoying unprecedented success at the very highest level.

Despite constantly evolving, women are still under-represented in the tech sector – a problem even more acute in fintech, which is typically male-dominated. But as a woman with an eye on fintech markets across Europe, here’s how we can tackle the issue.

There is not enough diversity in the technology sector as a whole. At London Tech Week, Mike Butcher editor at Tech Crunch, said this year’s figures show that in the tech industry 20% is made up by females, and that has dropped from 33% in 2002.

There is a massive stigma out there that certain careers are for boys and others are for girls. But why?

Women in Technology Oslo is a volunteer driven organisation which host hands-on workshops and technical talks for women new to the world of working in technology.

To celebrate International Women's Day, Brighton workspace PLATF9RM presented its event 'Kickass Women' featuring Startups Magazine's own Editor and Founder, Daisy Stapley-Bunten.

With the recent A-Level and GCSE results being released in the UK, let's look at the statistics  of young women studying STEM subjects. 

A recruitment startup that uses technology to enable people with disabilities to work as effectively as anybody else.

Senior Associate at Autonomy Ventures in New York; board member of NYVC; advisor at Astia and Yeshiva University Women In Business; as well as the co-founder of Pivt, Lynn Greenberg discusses the opportunities in being a woman in tech.

Ben Hayes, Director of Grasp Brands, exposes the tech industry's big and costly branding problem.