Investor Gender Gap. Yeah, It’s A Real Thing.

The investment business shouldn’t be classified as a man’s world. Nor should women be seen as incapable of existing in it. But a recent study, performed by Gender Gap Grader, analyzes the gender ratio in entrepreneurial enterprises and the difference between men and women investors is staggering. Gender Gap Grader, an organization that measures the “gender gap” in a variety of professional fields, used AngelList, a database of global investors, as a reference for their study. Here are some numbers of interest: Of the 19k investors with investments in at least one startup, only about 7% of investors are female. Even in markets that primarily have a female target audience, such as fashion and the generally classified “women focused” market, the number for women investors doesn’t even break 22% overall. The female Twitter followers of women investors are a meager 28%, suggesting that not only are there a few prominent women investors, but the potential women investors and startup entrepreneurs are few as well.

Do these numbers truly show that women aren’t likely to become investors? Or, in the world of startup businesses, males excel as entrepreneurs in comparison to females? It’s more likely that because investors have repeatedly been male, the female presence is still fighting to be noticed and trusted as worthwhile investors and innovators. It can be argued that the importance of diversity is being taken more seriously now, but the cyclical structure of male dominance as entrepreneurs is still ingrained in our society. This infographic simply illustrates that the rate of opportunity is certainly not equal for men and women and the support and encouragement for women in entrepreneurial positions and modern professions (i.e. developers and software architects) is not equal to men either. And whether or not such inequality is intentional, this study demonstrates that women are being discouraged in these fields.

What would it take to break this cycle of male dominance and level the entrepreneurial playing field? How can we support both established and upcoming female entrepreneurs and investors so that there is better gender equality in the business world?