Looking for “Raw Models”
This is not a “click-click-boom” article in which I pretend to have a clear thesis on the gender gap in tech. What is the real problem and how to change it? I’m searching for my own answers and it’s an ongoing process that I wanted to share.
This article is in 2 parts: (1) thoughts I find helpful (2) five portraits of female founders from Copenhagen.
To really get it, when you read these lines and when you watch the short interviews, I’d like you to pay attention to your feelings. You may enjoy it, feel nothing or get bored. Just ask yourself: “Why?”
Only 5% of our founders are female.
Searching for an explanation, it’s hard not to fall into the trap of generalisation… We’re all facing a cultural legacy filled with centuries of hidden biases we need to debunk if we really want to make progress. It’s a responsibility we keep in mind at The Family, and while we might not be politicians (for sure!), we might not be a huge crowd (40 people), we’re looking for solutions to improve the numbers of female founders. It’s not about lowering the level of ambition from our entrepreneurs, it’s more about addressing them differently. And to really do that, I guess it starts by changing what’s wrong in ourselves first.
Are we feminists?
If you want the same opportunities for everyone, regardless of their gender identity, then you’re a feminist. I’m a feminist, I want equal opportunities and I actively care about getting there, maybe because personally, to feel good, to find confidence and to have fun, being surrounded by women is essential for me. By the way, there are as many women as men in our team, but being an employee isn’t being an entrepreneur.
Once we’ve decided that we’re feminists willing to welcome more female entrepreneurs… so what? In the past 5 years, less than 3% of all startup applications to The Family have come from women.
Let’s go find inspirations in different environments.
For the psychiatrist: gender determinism is… a sterile debate.
A few days ago, I had a conversation with the best psychiatrist on earth — who happens to be my dad ❤. I asked him how things were in his work:
- Do you observe big differences between men and women?
- Yes, there are 8 times more murders committed by men than women, and 10 times more men in jail.
- How do you explain it? Testosterone?
- Correlations do not mean causality. Testosterone is an accomplice of aggressiveness, but it’s less the cause than the result of a dominant behaviour.
- So if it’s not really about that, it’s about gender biases in education?
- Yes, and you know, the more a society progresses, the more female delinquency rises.
- …
For the anthropologist: women’s inferiority is a universal cultural construct.
Right now, I’m finding interesting clues from Françoise Héritier, a French anthropologist who succeeded Claude Levi-Strauss, and studied the differences between the feminine and the masculine in various societies. She observed that anywhere, anytime, the male has been seen as superior to the female, and she qualified her observation as a “fundamental law of kinship.” This inferiority is the result of interpretations of physical phenomenons, like women’s periods for instance: women lose blood while men don’t, and blood means life, so women are inferior. See?
Women’s inferiority is a human perception of nature and, therefore a cultural construct. And what can be constructed can be deconstructed.
Changing the law isn’t changing the mindset.
“Male and female citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, must be equally admitted to all honors, positions, and public employment according to their capacity and without other distinctions besides those of their virtues and talents.” said the French playwright and political activist Olympe de Gouges… back in the 18th century. Mentalities remain the hardest thing to move forward.
In an interview, Françoise Héritier explains that if people theoretically accept gender equality, in practice, it’s another story. When she was the only woman at France’s most prestigious research establishment — the Collège de France — during a meeting with twenty other scientists, a peer asked for someone to take notes. “Naturally”, they looked at her, and she replied: “No. I’m not genetically designed to take better notes than you.”
Throughout her life, she moved from a scientific approach to a more activist one, and I guess that’s the reason why I enjoy reading her.
Françoise, my dad, same conclusion: cultural constructs or behaviours create the gap. The good news is that there is hope: it can change. Cool, when?
…When women celebrate all of themselves?
Being a woman isn’t just a cultural construction. If it’s important to remember that men and women have the same abilities, let’s not forget that they also have some bodily functions that are not exactly the same — sex, namely.
But using nature as a starting point to explain the gender gap is a slippery slope, it often opens the doors to a binary, limited and “differentialist” approach: women give birth and men go hunting, end of story!
Well, it’s not because some people use certain arguments to prove stupid thinking that these arguments have to be avoided. I don’t want to deny my body, and assuming that I’m physically different shouldn’t limit my social role.
Here comes Camille Froidevaux-Metterie, an “optimistic feminist”, researcher and teacher of political science in France. For her, while our societies have been slowly converging towards equality, we’re living an historical time in which the sensitive experience is the last mile to go through before arriving at a much more inclusive society — for all kinds of genders.
Embodied cognition is useful here: she sees women’s empowerment coming from exploring our body, being aware of sensations, enjoying the diversity of feelings, it’s evolution through time, and embracing our singularity.
This idea reminds me of a tendency I observe and follow with enthusiasm, from startups lifting the veil on women’s sexual pleasure, like OMGyes, or others breaking the menstrual taboo — Fempo, clue, to the rise of initiatives helping women in sharing their experiences — like the Red Tent.
“Ideas are recovered by reminiscence from sensible things.”
Socrates
I believe researchers are here to give us ideas we already know somewhere in the back of our mind, we just need real life experiences to recognize these ideas ;)
So, to revive some memories, to nurture my inner feminist, let’s meet females who defy the statistics. I’m searching for accessible role models, I’m questioning my own images of power, ambition and strength. I need more diversity to create my archetypes. Archetypes, not stereotypes: an archetype is “the original pattern or model from which copies are made”… an assumed ideal pattern. A stereotype is a preconceived and oversimplified idea of the characteristics which typify a person.
From October to March, The Family is going on a European tour to discover new local tech scenes. I grabbed this opportunity to personally meet only with female founders. My first stop was in Copenhagen. I met five entrepreneurs, accompanied by Irina, who is an ex-founder turned event organiser at The Family Berlin. We’ve been enjoying discovering these entrepreneurs and recording their stories.
In each of these meetings, I found inspiration and new answers. May you find yours too?
Each conversations started with a simple “Tell me more about what you do”, followed by “What does it take to be a woman and an entrepreneur?”
It’s called “Raw Models” for a reason: no sophisticated editing, no commentary, and short — max 3 minutes. “Raw” means fresh, but its anagram reveals a much more combative side…
_________________
Camilla Hessellund Lastein
Founder & CEO of Lix Technologies, a learning platform for students.
Camilla faced many experiences that nurtured her determination — She dropped of school, worked as a waitress to save money for her startup idea, teamed up with cofounders who turned out to be scams and spent a couple of years working from a friend’s couch. That might explain why this 25 yo CEO seems very wise to me, especially when she shares her tricks to escape from a pressuring inner voice wondering what may others think of her…
You can also watch her TED Talk: What I want to be when I die
Pia Ella Elmegård
Co-founder and Managing Director at Growth Tribe, a programme teaching Growth Hacking and A.I. & Machine Learning skills.
Pia finds happiness in following her intuition in making connections between people. And that’s what she did with us, introducing The Family team with great entrepreneurs and investors in Copenhagen. Whether about daring to start your own venture or being a mom as well as an ambitious woman, she made me feel good.
Sissel Hansen
CEO & Founder of Startup Guide, high quality content and tools to help you navigate the local and global startup scene.
We’ve been collaborating with Sissel through her company, Startup Guide. The handbook she created helps founders open new doors. She reinforces something we take very seriously at The Family, the pay-it-forward mindset. And when you’re a beginner, when you have nothing else but your passion and will to start a new venture, finding help is crucial. Sissel also bridges two worlds: physical and digital, books and startups, creativity and ambition.
Gulnaz Khusainova
CEO of Easysize, which uses an AI algorithm to assess customer shopping preferences and predict their return behaviour. She reduces return rates by 35–40%, saving online stores 5–7% of their revenue.
Growing up in Russia in a Tatar family, Gulnaz used to love creating businesses and won a “Business Plan” prize at 12. So, when I was dancing to the Spice Girls, she was helping the bakery next door to be profitable. But it hasn’t been easy at all for the solo founder to be taken seriously or to raise funds. She adopted the philosophy of “growth mindset vs fixed mindset”: nothing is written in stone, abilities and intelligence can be developed with effort, learning, and persistence.
Camilla Ley Valentin
Co-founder & CCO at Queue-it. Queue-it is a virtual waiting room SaaS solution, designed to manage website overload situations during massive end-user peaks, with more than 3 billion consumers worldwide.
I couldn’t stop thinking of Romy Schneider when I was listening to Camilla. Not only for her blue eyes, but also for her ability to dive into an ocean of old men and build her self-confidence alone — there weren’t any other women back in the early days of her career. And despite that, with her, success goes along with elegance, not arrogance.
Maria Flyvbjerg Bo
Co-founder at Spenderlog, which analyzes supermarket receipts and shows what you spend your money on all the way down to item-level, combining personal financial management with health and lifestyle.
Maria started selling things when she was 12 and built her online shop when she was 16; since then she’s never stopped creating startups, from marketplaces to FinTech. What I found interesting with Maria is that, along with all the ups and downs of her many ventures, she managed to keep her freedom, an authentic faith in business, and happiness at the center of it all.
I’d love to get your thoughts!
Your comments and experiences are very welcome ;) I guess I’m not the only one trying to find answers… and inspirations, so let me know!
The next episode of Raw Models will probably be coming from Amsterdam!
If you think of entrepreneurs I should meet, let me know: @alice_zag on Twitter.
