Ireland can become a global leader in the technology world if it can encourage more women into technology, engineering and science.
This is one of the central messages ahead of the inaugural Female Founders Forum being held in Dublin today (30/06/2014).
“Many countries are vying to become world leaders in tech, and Ireland is no exception,” said Ann O’Dea, co-founder and CEO of Silicon Republic. “What could really give us the competitive edge is if we focused strongly on encouraging more women into technology, engineering and science.
“This debate is often framed in the context of gender equality. But it’s not just about ideals; the truth is it makes good business sense for the tech sector to become more inclusive.”
O’Dea cites international research which shows that tech companies led by women are more successful than those led by men, achieving 35% higher return on investment. When this is coupled with predictions that women will become far greater consumers of technology in the near future, O’Dea argues that the best way for Ireland to take advantage is to bring more women into the sector, gaining an advantage on other regions.
“One of the key messages from today’s Female Founders Forum,” said O’Dea, “is that the investment community and the wider business community need to wake up and realise the potential of proactively ensuring talented women are encouraged to enter and remain within the industry. At present, the majority of venture capitalists and angel investors are missing a trick by not backing ambitious female-led enterprises. There are major financial gains to be had if women are encouraged to found tech start-ups and consider careers in tech.”
O’Dea highlighted that a particularly gender-imbalanced area in the tech sector is capital and funding. According to O’Dea, only 5% of venture capitalists and approximately 15% of angel investors are women, which is a serious cause for concern.
“The system for accessing finance, for pitching for investment – that has often been designed by men for men,” she said. “And it’s no surprise, when the majority of investors are male, that the investment community is more likely to back companies founded by men. It is just a reality that we are often drawn to people who resemble ourselves. This is no different when it comes to investment. It’s also why we need to encourage more successful women to become investors.”
“However, I believe Ireland has the potential to really lead the way in bridging the gender gap in tech and the wider STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths] sectors,” said O’Dea. “We are small enough, nimble enough and flexible enough to make change quickly. We have a thriving start-up culture, and many of the world’s biggest names in tech located here. We are also increasingly attracting attention from the global investment community, so we have an opportunity to change traditional patterns of behaviour, and to convince investors of the benefits of funding female-led enterprises.”
According to O’Dea, women make up only a quarter workforce in research, technology and science in Ireland, with some of the more technical roles attracting even lower proportions of women. Only 10% of engineers are female, while for roles such as developers and programmers the figure is even lower.
The Female Founders Forum speakers come from a wide range of backgrounds. Julia Hartz is co-founder and president of Eventbrite. Anne Ravanona is founder and CEO of Global Invest Her, which focuses on getting women entrepreneurs funded faster and increasing gender diversity at work. Sonya Lennon is co-founder of Frockadvisor and Gráinne Barron is CEO and founder of Viddyad.
Also featuring are Lenora O’Brien, founder of Pharmapod, Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, and Geraldine McCarthy, Dropbox in Ireland.
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