President Barack Obama announced he will travel to Kenya in July to lead his annual entrepreneurship summit.
One important theme from the recent Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Milan – the importance of women entrepreneurs to economic growth whether in an African village or in the Valley.
One of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms recently hit the news for reasons other than successful investment — a suit alleging gender discrimination in the workforce.
Alicia Robb, a Kauffman Foundation senior fellow and visiting scholar at UC-Berkeley, led an insightful discussion on high growth in women’s entrepreneurship earlier this month at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress examining problems of gender diversity within the ranks of startups. She was joined by Ruta Aidis, who leads Women’s Entrepreneurship Research Forum and suppors Dell Inc.’s efforts to better understand the unique challenges women entrepreneurs face in starting and scaling their businesses.
While the U.S. leads in global rankings of women’s entrepreneurship, the data points to a glaring absence of women founding new enterprises in the high-tech sector. This, is due to a variety of reasons but the root causes are structural and cultural.
Rebeca Hwang, the cofounder of Rivet Ventures, an early stage venture fund that backs startups targeting female-centric markets, is doing something about this and highlighting the huge yet largely untapped potential that female consumers represent. Even half a century since women entered the workforce, she said, we see many opportunities that male-dominated venture funds simply miss.
She explained that when entrepreneurs, male or female, target women consumers who represent more than half the U.S. market, they must first overcome the understandably male-oriented worldview of male-dominated venture funds.
Girls, she said, are just as talented as boys and that when given the same opportunities, women achieve at the same or higher rates than men. If there is a confidence gap, she said, it’s a reflection of upbringing, not an inherent distinction.
One African Minister who inspired many last week in Milan will be pleased about today’s news of the President’s decision to visit the continent to promote entrepreneurship.
“More than anything else we must create a good environment because the people of South Africa are very creative and industrious and they are able to make their living for themselves,” said Lindiwe Zulu, South Africa’s eloquent Minister of Small Business Development.
President Obama’s Administration is unlikely to need much prodding on including a focus on women’s entrepreneurship. Much of the work that the State Department and Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes have led on advancing entrepreneurship overseas has stressed women and youth.
Obama’s personal leadership of this summit offers a unique opportunity once and for all to ensure that those in charge of economic policy around the globe never again view entrepreneurs as merely a side ring at the circus but rather the most powerful driver of new jobs, economic prosperity and innovation and political stability for all.