We all place a lot of hope in the " new economy " : new growth drivers, new ways of working, innovative solutions for the ecological transition, for access to healthcare, for the fight against poverty... But what can this " new economy " do for professional equality and balanced leadership?
The place of women in start-ups invites us to think and act so that the age of tech is also the era of diversity.
How many women start-up founders?
According to the latest BCG study for Sista, 8% of French start-ups are founded by strictly female companies. 16% of French start-ups are founded by mixed companies. 76% of French start-ups are founded by strictly male companies.
Well, the observation is clear : start-upper remains a mainly masculine noun. And it is not from the men of tech that we should expect a change : the same BCG study reveals that 82% of start-up founders surround themselves exclusively with men to launch themselves. On the other hand, women play the gender diversity card: 68% of female start-up founders surround themselves with a mixed team to get started.
However, BCG has been able to establish projections that indicate that at the rate things are going, we can expect that by 2055, 60% of the founding teams will be mixed. There were only 5% of start-ups in this case in 2008.
What funds for start-ups ?
What makes us believe in this tremendous increase in gender diversity in the years to come ? The interest of the funders !
Indeed, start-ups that have mixed teams at their head are 1.4 times more likely to obtain funding at launch than start-ups with strictly male teams at their head, according to this study produced by the Sista collective. But at the same time, all-female teams raise 4.3 times less than all-male teams. In other words, for a start-up, surrounding itself with men potentially means multiplying by 4.5 the amounts of cash available to launch its project.
For men's teams, integrating women represents a much more modest gain: the multiplier is 0.4 for the additional funds to be expected from an inclusion effort. This is all the less vital because if the profit of making a mixed team is sensitive at the seed stage, this is no longer the case when we move on to series B and C. There, investors seem to be losing interest in parity among other extra-financial criteria, and it is the 100% male teams that take the (very) bulk of the bet.
As a result, if we take into account all fundraising (seed, series A, B and C), men collect 88% of the amounts available for start-up financing.
A problem of sectors ?
While the criterion of the gender of leaders is of great interest to financial players who have perfectly integrated the paradigm of a performance-producing gender balance, we cannot expect business angels (among whom only 9% are women), funds and private equity (where women represent 27% of portfolio holders ) to do anything other than their job : To finance projects that are up to what they can expect in terms of gains at the end of the project.
So, before accusing them of falling into sexism when it comes to very large sums of money, let's try to analyze their system of preference for the projects to be financed : they currently see a maximum of opportunities in the field of big data, deeptech, AI, biotech, fintech, robotics. However, these are sectors where female leaders are particularly rare : today less than 2% of start-ups in robotics, 3% in AI are created by women, 9% in fintech, 15% in big data and they account for only 18% of partners in biotech.
In the new economy as in the old one, there are more women in the personal services, social, trade, and " tech4good " sectors (which could be compared to a form of SSE 2.0).
A problem of ambition ?
But even in sectors where they are over-represented in the traditional economy, we see fewer women than men starting out as soon as there is a tech dimension.
But what makes them think that new technologies are not for them ?
The very instructive IPSOS-Epitech study on how girls and boys are oriented towards digital careers tells us that while 56% of high school girls are interested in computer science, only 37% think they will study engineering or computer science. The reason for this is a feeling of not being up to the task : among high school girls with an overall average of at least 14/20, 43% think they are capable of studying computer science, compared to 78% of boys with the same level of education. Imposter syndrome, when you have us!
All we have to do is work to give these teenagers confidence, by reassuring them of their skills and encouraging them. Yes, but the same study tells us that 33% of girls are encouraged by their parents to go into digital careers while 61% of boys benefit from the support of their family in this orientation project. Does this mean that gender biases are sneakily infiltrating the projections we make for our children and in our ways of supporting their orientation ? Do you think!
Real sexism and perceived sexism in the tech world
Let's mention another obstacle expressed by high school girls : 38% of those who would consider going into new technology professions think that it is difficult for a woman to make her place in the tech world. They project themselves as " outsiders " who will have to fight to assert their legitimacy in a world perceived as insufficiently inclusive.
A limiting belief? In part, because sexism in tech is not just an illusion if we are to believe the 2022 GenderScan study: 46% of women who work in tech say they have already been confronted with sexist behavior. This is 8 points more than women in all sectors combined.
Is " geek culture" to blame ? In any case, mental representations readily associate the tech profile with a young man living a masculinity that is not very deconstructed and fraternity in an uninhibited zone of potacherie. Imagery is undoubtedly far from reality for the majority of those who undertake and work in tech, especially since, according to researcher Isabelle Collet, author of the book Les oubliées du numérique, far from being a spontaneous subculture, " geekism " is historically a gendered marketing tool: indeed, the " geek " appeared with the objective of the PC industry to conquer the household market; households to which we introduced the pimply, grumbling teenager who seemed good for nothing as a little genius of potential computing! If there is therefore an element of fantasy in the apprehension of the world of start-ups as a universe of primal males, we should not neglect the reality of toxic masculinity in tech either, says Emily Chang in her essay Brotopia.
What she describes of Silicon Valley as a very non-inclusive environment (despite the appearances of diversity that communicators would like to give it on brand image media) can only push the leaders of these new types of companies to strengthen their policies of equality, the fight against discrimination and the development of a culture of inclusion.
Parenthood for start-uppers, a hope for equality ?
At the heart of these policies, the issue of parenthood holds a new and very special place. Indeed, with the help of the evolution of the age pyramid, the " new economy " is now fully confronted with issues that did not concern it (or only slightly) 10 or 15 years ago. The issue of reconciling life due to family constraints is of direct concern to 37% of tech employees in France.
But 22% of women and 8% of men who work in this field believe that using parenting support systems could penalise their careers, according to the GenderScan 2022 study. However, in tech (and this is a particularly notable exception in the work landscape), the share of men who take part-time work (21%) is roughly equivalent to that of women (22%). However, it is necessary to deepen the motivations that govern this choice of organization : is it primarily to take care of one's children or to " slasher " more easily? The available data does not say...
