It’s time to confront some uncomfortable truths about gender bias

Are we making any progress tackling gender bias? I would love to say yes, but if two truly depressing pieces of research published last week are anything to go by, not only are we failing to make progress; we are going backwards.

The first, reported on in The Guardian, relates to another sector – femtech (feminine technology) – but perfectly illustrates a bizarre paradox at play in the funding world.

It reveals that femtech companies are less likely to get funding if there is a woman on the founding team – even if she has a male counterpart – and that female founders are also less likely to secure funding if they use “advocacy” words and phrases in their funding applications, such as  “women’s rights”, “take control” or “freedom”. Conversely, male femtech founders are more likely to get funding and indeed can benefit from increased investment if they use the same words, according to researcher Ludovica Castiglia. You couldn’t make it up.

As a female co-founder myself, I can attest to the challenges involved in trying to raise funding. I am glad I did not find out sooner that startups founded solely by women raised just 1.6% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in Europe last year, rising to 2.1% in the US (the World Economic Forum). I am also glad BE News’ co-founder is a man.

It shouldn’t be this way. Unfortunately, while many founders are female, most investors are not, and the numbers speak for themselves: men don’t financially back female-run businesses. It is gender bias writ large and, if this were not demoralising enough, female leaders are also having to contend with multiple other forms of gender bias, suggests law firm Cripps’ ‘Beating bias: Fuelling female leadership’ report.

Astonishingly, 100% of the 101 female c-suite executives and founders surveyed said they had experienced some form of gender bias in the workplace. That’s not nearly everyone, it iseveryone.

The c-suite women surveyed primarily blamed outdated views and gender assumptions (33% and 31% respectively), while owners and founders most frequently cited support bias and stereotyping (32% and 30%).

The most common issues identified were unequal pay, microaggressions and gender role assumptions (which 50%, 40% and 35% respectively had experienced), while 90% (rising to 100% in real estate) identified professional barriers to progression to leadership and 25% (rising to 30% in real estate) believed female business owners face greater barriers than men when seeking investment and that gender bias exists among investors.

If women who have reached the top of the career ladder are experiencing such shocking levels of gender bias against them, what hope is there for those lower down the ladder?

Not much, particularly in real estate. For all the talk of addressing gender bias, you only have to look at the list of measures that Cripps is calling for to realise how little meaningful action has been taken by the industry to date. The law firm is advocating: strengthened compliance with anti-discrimination laws; board and middle-management quotas; access to mentorship, education and training; enhanced access to childcare provision; a dedicated government venture capital vehicle for female-led ventures; flexible work environments; increased female representation in finance and front-office investment staff; diverse hiring and promotion practices; mandatory gender bias training; better childcare access; and recognition and celebration of female success.

We need to do all of the above and more if we are to start addressing gender bias. It is not enough to focus on the easy wins such as mentoring programmes and apprenticeships or initiatives recognising and celebrating female success. We need to see more women at board level, not just entering the industry. We need to see equal pay, not just equal representation. We need to see more women returning to work after maternity leave. Anything less is gender washing and should be called out as such, not supported and applauded as it too often is.

The shocking reality is that gender washing and gender bias don’t just exist; they are the norm. Men are routinely favoured over women, particularly women who are more capable, and all too often, women are complicit in maintaining the patriarchal status quo. This is perverse. It is 2024, not 1924!

We need to stop patting ourselves on the back and take a long hard look at ourselves in the mirror. It is time to confront some uncomfortable truths. Until we treat women fairly rather than fearfully, we will continue to go backwards on gender bias – and it won’t just be women who suffer, businesses and the industry will too.