"The gender financing gap persists. Women-led startups raise significantly less capital than startups led by only men. According to PitchBook Data, in 2021, 85.4% of global VC dollars went to startups with only men on the founding team.

That number has hardly budged over the past decade — despite the fact that data continues to suggest that women-led startups outperform startups with all-men founding teams. For example, a BCG study found that women-led companies generate more than twice as much additional revenue per dollar invested (78 cents versus 38 cents) and a PitchBook study found that women-led startups reach their exit stage a full year earlier than all-male-founded startups (median 6.4 years versus 7.4 years).

For investors, focusing on only a fraction of all entrepreneurs means they leave significant opportunities for returns on the table. For startups, this gender financing gap means promising innovations do not receive the resources they need to scale.


That is why Village Capital partnered with IFC, We-Fi, the World Bank, and researchers Amisha Miller and Saurabh Lall to identify and test several concrete ideas for how to help close the gender financing gap. With the support of a research coalition that also includes Visa Foundation, Moody’s, ANDE’s Advancing Women’s
Empowerment Fund, Sasakawa Peace Foundation, and ANDE’s SGB Evidence Fund, we have identified several promising interventions.


Now we are sharing our results, and encouraging investors and accelerators to take action."

Climate change and gender inequality are among the world’s most pressing and complex development challenges. Women are catalysts for innovative solutions to tackle climate change. However, their underrepresentation in decision-making processes and labour markets means that women are prevented from fully contributing to climate-related planning, policy-making and implementation. Recently, WUSC joined partners in celebrating the development of a new roadmap for climate finance and marked the culmination of a unique project at the intersection of climate finance and gender implemented by a consortium of partners including ANDE and AKFC and generously funded by Global Affairs Canada. The purpose of the Roadmap is to present recommendations to donors on how to facilitate women climate entrepreneurs’ access to appropriate climate finance, contributing to greater equality and inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa while advancing innovative and transformative women-led climate solutions.

"Social Norms are the rules that govern behavior. Gender norms are social norms defining acceptable and appropriate actions for women and men in a given group or society. They are embedded in formal and informal institutions, nested in the mind, and produced and reproduced through social interaction. They play a role in shaping women and men’s (often unequal) access to resources and freedoms, thus affecting their voice, power and sense of self.

The purpose of this study was to gain quantitative and qualitative information about social and gender norms affecting women entrepreneurs in Vietnam related to childcare responsibilities, who should be the breadwinner and who is upholding these norms. The focus group consisted of growth-oriented entrepreneurs with two or more employees and who have been in business for at least two years."

Social Norms are the rules that govern behavior. Gender norms are social norms defining acceptable and appropriate actions for women and men in a given group or society. They are embedded in formal and informal institutions, nested in the mind, and produced and reproduced through social interaction. They play a role in shaping women and men’s (often unequal) access to resources and freedoms, thus affecting their voice, power and sense of self.

The purpose of this study was to gain quantitative and qualitative information about gender norms faced by women entrepreneurs in Pakistan related to childcare responsibilities and financial decision making and responsibility, which impact a woman’s ability to run and grow her own business. The focus group consisted of growth-oriented entrepreneurs with two or more employees and who have been in business for at least two years.

"Social Norms are the rules that govern behavior. Gender norms are social norms defining acceptable and appropriate actions for women and men in a given group or society. They are embedded in formal and informal institutions, nested in the mind, and produced and reproduced through social interaction. They play a role in shaping women and men’s (often unequal) access to resources and freedoms, thus affecting their voice, power and sense of self.

The purpose of this study was to identify gender barriers, perceptions and factors that limit shared responsibility in the home and which influence the low participation of men in domestic and care work. The study was also conducted to identify, with the participants, intervention strategies that promote behavioral change around shared responsibility. Qualitative interviews covered individual beliefs, family and societal expectations and challenges. The focus group consisted of growth-oriented entrepreneurs with two or more employees and who have been in business for at least two years."

"The topics of gender and entrepreneurship have been of great scholarly interest since the eighties. In this invited editorial, we provide an overview of the evolution of the field of gender and entrepreneurship. Specifically, we consider the evolution of the field by highlighting the importance of context and the need to consider gender in all future research examining’ entrepreneurial activity. Drawing on a contextualized approach we provide an overview of the six articles in this curated special issue with the aim of increasing our understanding of women’s entrepreneurial activity. Finally, we conclude with some suggestions for future research. We hope this invited editorial will spur deeper research at the intersections between gender and entrepreneurship."

"This report offers a trend analysis of women’s entrepreneurship in 50 countries, five global regions and three national income levels. We focus on four key themes in the first half of the report, followed by a closer analysis of region- and country-specific patterns in the second half. The four themes are (1) gender differences in rates at various points in the entrepreneurial lifecycle, from intentions through to startup activity, new business, established business and business exit; (2) gender differences in COVID impacts, both positive and negative; (3) structural inequalities and women’s participation in high-potential startups; and (4) factors in the enabling environment that likely influence gender differences in entrepreneurial activity.

Our findings offer insights to a diverse audience of researchers, policymakers, educators and practitioners. Our goal is to highlight areas where women entrepreneurs have made significant progress, where the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their business outcomes, and where there are still gaps, challenges and opportunities that can be better addressed."