How we arrive at a mismatch of perception versus reality.
Social construction of gender roles and position in society.
Through films, children books, online search results.
A simple example of misperception v reality, one you can test yourself.
How awareness of social misperceptions is of importance to investors ... see and invest in the reality, 38% of founders are female.
A quick UK Google search on the job 'Founder' shows 5% female images, a misperception of female founders as less the 'norm' and more 'risky'.
These social constructions create a mental image of women as less significant in your mind's picture of the world.
Leading to under-estimation of female founders.
An under-estimation the market women represent, as smaller or niche, and so under-investing in the businesses serving the female market.
A significant investment misperception.
Women are 50% of the population.
A significant market by any standards.
The 'niche market' misperception led to nVision, with a recent $275m exit, being originally dismissed by investors as 'a women's issue'.
Online job images
A distorted picture of reality is created.
We see female founders as less the 'norm' and so more risky.
Instead see and invest in the reality,
38% of founders are female.
'How men and women appear in online job searches'
Google (US) search image results show 60% men, 40% women, (reality over all jobs held are 54% men and 46% women)
and show images of men higher up the page.
Google search: CEO
first 15 images male,
10% images were female
Reality: 28% CEO's women
Google search: General Manager
15% images were female
Reality: 34% CEO's women
Founder and Entrepreneur were not on the dataset list for this research,
so I did a quick Google (UK) search:
Google search: Founder
first 17 images male,
5% images were female
Reality: +37% Founders women
Google search: Entrepreneur
of the first 40 images, two were female, the 3rd and 39th
23% images were female
Reality: +37% Entrepreneurs women