Our colleague at Oxford Brookes University, Prof Simonetta Manfredi, has had a piece published in Times Higher Education exploring the gender investment gap.
This article was posted in follow up to a half day conference called “Women, STEM and investment: Closing the gender gap” which took place at Oxford Brookes University on the 5th June, and explored the issues and challenges that still exist for women founding companies and raising investment.
In the article, Simonetta reflects on the discussion that took place at this conference and the issues women face. She notes that only 19 per cent of all university spin-outs have at least one female founder and only 12 per cent have all female founders. Research into the experiences of female founders finds that securing investment to create and grow spin-outs can be more challenging for women than for their male counterparts.
Simonetta also talks about The Women Angel Insights report, published by the UK Association of Business Angels (UKBAA), which shows that women are more likely to back female founded companies, so the problem in raising investment is compounded by a lack of female investors.
Oxford Brookes University has collaborated with Advanced Oxford to examine gender diversity issues in our regional innovation ecosystem. The Oxfordshire Innovation Engine 2023 report includes data about women’s representation as company founders and directors across the region.
It is fantastic to see Simonetta reference both Advanced Oxford and the analysis on gender diversity within Oxfordshire’s Innovation Engine 2023 in her piece.
Read the full article on the Times Higher Education Website here
