Europe's Strong Women

Sustainable innovations will decisively shape our future lives, and already have far-reaching socio-political effects today. Female founders, however, are still a rarity:  making up around just 15% of German and European start-ups in 2020, female entrepreneurs are still strongly under-represented – which also means that enormous potential continues to remain untapped.

Although there’s a steadily increasing number of women in degree programmes relevant to the start-up sector, the stagnation in female start-ups points to significant structural and cultural barriers for female entrepreneurs. Women are at a clear disadvantage compared with their male colleagues, especially when it comes to financing. A bias among venture capitalists and a shortage of female investors are major reasons for this. A lack of networks also means that the hurdles for entering the start-up environment are often very high for women. Moreover, studies show that women often have a different “start-up habitus”. They tend to measure their success by whether they make a qualitative difference, while male founders tend to measure their success by quantitative growth indicators.

In our discussion with exciting female founders and experts from Europe, we want to present success stories and visions for female sustainable entrepreneurship. What strategies are needed to address the imbalance in the start-up scene and reach more women? According to which criteria should innovations be promoted? And what are the advantages of a “female-driven start-up habitus” that focuses more on collaboration and sustainability for the entire start-up ecosystem?

Discussing these aspects will be

• Sandra Broschat, co-founder of Futurewomen UG, Germany
• Malka Kafka, Start-up and restaurant owner (The Tel Aviv in Warschau), Poland
• Dr. Machi Simeonidou, founder of Agroapps, Greece
• Shu Zhang, founder of Pandobac, France
• Alexandra Geese, MEP, Greens/EFA, Germany

Host: Dr. Franziska Brantner, European policy spokesperson for Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Germany

Greetings:    

• Mechtild M. Jansen, Executive Board, Stiftung Frauen in Europa, Germany
• Dr. Ellen Ueberschär, President, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Germany

The event is sponsored by the foundation Frauen in Europa / TuWas Stiftung für Gemeinsinn, and is part of a joint cooperation series “Europe’s strong Women”