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Articles
Some of the most relevant articles.
Diversity and business performance

Is Gender Diversity Profitable? Evidence from a Global Survey

Peterson Institute for International Economics

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Delivering growth through diversity in the workplace

McKinsey 2018 Article

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Why diversity matters

McKinsey 2015 Article

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Number of Women-Owned Businesses Increased Nearly 3,000% since 1972,

According to New Research

American Express Co, FT 2018

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Why some teams are smarter than others

New York Times 2015 Article

Research by Anita Woolley of Carnegie Mellon and Thomas Malone of MIT

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How diverse teams boost innovation

BCG 2018

Research by Rocio Lorenzo, Partner & MD, BCG

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Why some teams are smarter
How diverse teams boost innovation
Individual success stories

A 32-Year-Old's Startup, Inspired By A Health Scare, Sells For $275 Million

Forbes, 2018

When originally raising finance, Surbhi Sarna experienced VC's limitation in relating to women's health [not a niche market, women are 50% of the world's population],

 

"I've been in several boardrooms with all male VCs who are like, 'Oh. This is a women's issue," 

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Gender and funding

FFF Investor Melinda Gates Discusses Female Founders, The Role of LPs, Diversity, and More

Medium, Oct 2018

 

Melinda Gates discusses her move to investing in diverse founders. Highlighting the double untapped opportunity, of diverse led businesses, and those offering more female orientated market solutions. Categories such as 'childcare and women's health' offer wide open investment opportunities, with lower investor attention currently and broad (50% population) market potential.

'I think it’s important to highlight that market opportunity. So, this is me putting my money where my mouth is.'

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Women struggle to get access to start-up funding

Financial Times 2018

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Female Founders Got 2% of Venture Capital Dollars in 2017

Fortune 2018

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Investors Punish Entrepreneurs for Stereotypically Feminine Behaviors

Lakshmi Balachandra is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at Babson College and a co-author of the Diana Report (2014), a comprehensive analysis of venture capital investments in women entrepreneurs.

'investors were less likely to select as finalists entrepreneurs who demonstrated stereotypically feminine behaviors like warmth and expressiveness, regardless of their gender.'

'the strategy of simply having more women investors won’t work if feminine traits are penalized in the pitching context by investors of all genders.'

'In the long run, investors need to broaden their view of what makes a successful business leader and create room for both masculine and feminine entrepreneurs (and those in the middle).'

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Recordings of VCs talking about investments shows why women founders have such a hard time

Quartz, May 2017

'It’s seldom that someone outside investors’ inner circle gets an unvarnished look at deliberations.'

Researchers at Sweden’s Luleå University of Technology got that view. It’s not pretty.

Solution: After awareness training, with the skills to notice what we're unintentionally doing, bring in reminder checks along the investment decision process. Challenge yourself, and agree to challenge each other, when you notice discussions veering to stereotypes. Write down your basis for investment decisions relating to the entrepreneur, compare with other investors, and against notes on other entrepreneurs.

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When stereotypical gender notions see the light of day, will they burst? Venture capitalists' gender constructions versus venturing performance facts

2018

Malin Malmströma,⁎, Aija Voitkanea, Jeaneth Johanssona,b, Joakim Wincenta

a Department of Economics and Technology and Society, Luleå University of Technology and Hanken School of Economics, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden. Halmstad University, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden

' Although often discussed, there has been limited effort to match venture capitalists’ construction of gender notions with specific facts about the entrepreneurs’ venturing activities. This study shows how stereotypical gender notions of both men and women entrepreneurs are embedded in venture capitalists’ assessments and analyses as well as explores whether or not these notions have substance based on actual performance. Drawing on interview data and statistical analysis of objective key performance information from accounting reports, we identify four myths in the evaluations of 126 venture capital applications for governmental capital that do not have any significant empirical substance. We discuss these findings’ implications for the study of myths in women's entrepreneurship. '

Spoiler alert: All four gender myths were disproved by the actual statistical business performance.

Investors prefer entrepreneurial ventures pitched by attractive men

Harvard Business Review

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Why female entrepreneurs get less funding than men

Sally Herships, Marketplace

This tech investment firm published startup diversity stats for the first time and it shames venture

capital's 'collective blind spot'

Business Insider, Oct 2018

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More than 90% of tech investment in Europe goes to all-male teams

FT, 2018

Atomico survey shows no progress has been made in three years despite focus on diversity

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Women on Boards

30% Women on Boards - A Moment to Celebrate

Helena Morrissey, LinkedIn

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California becomes first US state to require public companies to include women on boards

The Telegraph

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LGIM to vote against FTSE 350 boards that do not have 25% female representation

Investment Week 2018

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Missing/ Female C.E.O.s

The New York Times

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Adopting an inclusive culture

Deloitte’s Radical Attempt to Reframe Diversity

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, HBR Aug 2017

 

Deloitte has ended its women's and diversity networks, realising separating women and diversity into special interest groups results in 'separation'. Instead, Deloitte offers all managers the skills for an inclusivity mindset and the accountability to build diverse businesses, 'skilled and ready to lead vastly more-diverse businesses and respond to increasingly diverse customer groups'. 

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The Hidden Newsmakers in Finance: Bloomberg Insists on More Women, Diverse Sourcing

Oct 2018

 

Bloomberg proactively bring diversity of expert voices to financial news. Strategic, with their growing diverse

customer base. Great news for cultural change in seeing women and men as being the expert voice.

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Top 5 Ted Talks About Diversity in The Workplace

LinkedIn

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Women in the Workplace 2018

McKinsey & Lean In 2018

 

McKinsey reports on the 'stalled' progress of diversity at managerial level. The findings highlight early inequality at entry level hiring and promotion to manager level. Attrition is not the reason, women and men are at the same rate: asking for promotions and pay rises; remaining in the workplace; leaving a company; few leave to focus on family. The findings highlight the culture change needed, of everyday discrimination, sexual harassment, and experience of being the only woman in the room. Women holding positions of authority were markedly more likely to be sexually harassed, or have their judgement questioned.  

The report closes with the 6 actions needed: targets, reporting and accountability; ensure meritocracy; senior champions; inclusive culture; make 'only woman in the room' rare; flexibility of work.

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Why we think we're all objective, when we're not, and other articles on how the mind works 

2 Factors That Just Might Make You Doubt Yourself

LinkedIn

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