Despite the fact that in UK around 59% of men can possess an angel investment over women, there are a number of powerful women who have stepped on the pedestal and started their start-ups through other ways and by breaking set boundaries. However, this has not been as easy as stating it is. Women have to struggle past a lot of hurdles before they can think of being leaders of big companies.
There are a number of reasons that the entry is one way and a few of them are listed below.
1. The Need To Be Overconfident
Results of some reports and studies show that one of the psychological factors that affects taking up a stance to start a business in a cut-throat industry is having the overconfidence to do so. According to a research conducted in University of North Carolina, it was discovered that there is a phenomenon called ‘male hubris, female humility effect’. This shows that women are less likely to be overconfident. Moreover, in a time where many are discouraged from a career in tech, the confidence already stands at a low level.
2. Lack Of Humility
Continuing from the information above, there is also a dearth of humility in men but women have it in abundance. When success is achieved, women do not mostly attribute it to themselves which in turn means that exploitation is also reduced. Men on the other hand take full credit of their accomplishments usually and attribute failure as blame on someone else. Therefore, they are able to move on faster from risks and upsets. Women thus get discouraged by failures easily as they do not even have support to move forward.
3. Societal Discouragement
From their young age the girls are taught to be humble and not explore beyond their limit of thinking. They are taught to follow rules and not break them. These stereotypes keep up even in the office spaces where many cases of sexism and unfairness are reported every day. In companies like Tinder there have even been cases of sexual harassment and illegal discrimination. The parents aren’t aware of how many pros lies with their daughters joining the tech industry which becomes another factor that drives them towards following subjects like ‘arts and humanities’ rather than ‘designing or coding’.
4. Lack Of Funds
The institutions who want to encourage women face hardships for they do not have the infrastructure to offer the courses. This means that at such a basic level, the interests are not sparked or nurtured. There are budget shortfalls or the dearth of technology instructors as well that have led to less availability of computer courses in middle schools. Women who want to start business also find it really difficult to acquire funds as they are preferred not to be given despite the return in their investments showing higher results.
5. History Speaks
According to some sources it is believed that from the very beginning it was the lack of technology being advertised for women that led to the situation that exists today. In the 80s, the computers that were sold were marketed as machines for the entertainment of men especially for gaming. The mindset that men could code better than women set then and it has been hard to remove it. It was also propagated that using a computer would mean being obsessed with it around the clock and women should not be encouraged to do that.
6. Women Do Not Speak Up
In many Q&A sessions of companies it is noted that majority of the matter is spoken and answered by men. Women just sit through the presentation without much input. In case they do say something, it revolves around the culture of the company rather than hardcore tech terms. Even during presentations, it is shown that mostly the men sit around the table with notes and give presentations while the female recruits are hardly even noticed or introduced.
7. Workspace
The office spaces are usually decorated in such a way that men find it appealing. For instance there would be Star Wars posters or beers and so on that would discourage female presence. The brospace feels alien to any women employee. The companies also neglect giving less hours of work and prefer taking males who can work overtime for it is presumed that women will have to look after the household as well after all.
Despite the existence of these reasons, researches are being conducted in order solve the puzzle of all the possible reasons so that immediate solutions can be developed for tackling this issue.
