{"id":37337,"date":"2023-10-20T14:49:31","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/meet-the-australian-female-entrepreneurs-working-to-change-the-startup-status-quo-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:49:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:49:31","slug":"meet-the-australian-female-entrepreneurs-working-to-change-the-startup-status-quo-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/meet-the-australian-female-entrepreneurs-working-to-change-the-startup-status-quo-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Australian female entrepreneurs working to change the startup status quo – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Some of Australia\u2019s most successful female entrepreneurs\u00a0are working to redesign the tech and startup\u00a0worlds to create\u00a0a more inclusive environment for everyone.<\/p>\n

There’s still a stark gender gap in the Australian startup ecosystem.<\/p>\n

According to the 2015 Startup Muster report<\/a>, only 24% of founders in 2014 were female and startup events are routinely dominated by men.<\/p>\n

But some of the country’s most renowned and esteemed female entrepreneurs are actively working to bridge this gap and encourage other women to enter the startup world.<\/p>\n

To mark International Women’s Day, we asked them about the work that they’re doing to support gender diversity.<\/p>\n

Putting role models on show<\/h3>\n

Rare Birds<\/a>\u00a0is launching an global\u00a0ambassador program to mark International Women’s Day and has announced its first 15 individuals representing the Indigenous community, migrants, regional and rural community and women.<\/p>\n

Rare Birds founder Jo Burston says she’s striving for her organisation to be seen as all-inclusive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support women entrepreneurs but that support comes from all diversities,\u201d\u00a0Burston tells\u00a0StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

Burston says Rare Birds\u2019 research\u00a0indicates that\u00a0unless they globalise, female founders typically hit a plateau around the $10 million turnover and 20-employee mark.<\/p>\n

So creating access to the entrepreneurs\u00a0that\u00a0have broken through these barriers is critical.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be what you can\u2019t see so just having a place where women can see role models or people that they can aspire to be who are very ordinary women doing very extraordinary things gives them the confidence to think about how they can do that for themselves,\u201d\u00a0Burston says.<\/p>\n

Making work\u00a0more flexible<\/h3>\n

Envato<\/a> co-founder Cyan Ta\u2019eed says they\u2019ve created a 100% flexible work environment where men are encouraged to take up a job share and part-time and flexi-roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realised that until we had men totally taking advantage of all of that, the women were always going to be somewhat handicapped in their careers,\u201d Ta’eed\u00a0tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So instead of just having executive job share positions to accommodate mothers, Envato\u00a0shifted its\u00a0goal to get men into these roles.<\/p>\n

This has set a new norm at Envato where it\u2019s expected that people, regardless of who they are, work flexible hours because everyone has\u00a0different circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo suddenly there was no difference,\u201d Ta’eed\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

By setting a new norm that accommodates \u201chuman beings\u201d with different life circumstances, she says the women of Envato can climb the ladder to the highest levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nothing to do with being a woman, it\u2019s nothing to do with I\u2019m having young children, it\u2019s just to do it with we all have stuff going on and we need to work flexibly around that,” she says.<\/p>\n

Parental leave not maternity leave<\/h3>\n

Hey You<\/a> co-founder and serial entrepreneur Rebekah Campbell says workplaces should place the onus on men to take six month’s paid parental leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re running a business like ours, I can\u2019t take six months off to be the primary carer of my baby,\u201d Campbell\u00a0tells\u00a0StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

Campbell’s her partner works at the Macquarie University<\/a>\u00a0and will be taking six months\u2019 paid parental leave, allowing her to remain at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost companies have maternity leave where the woman can take three or six months off but the guy can only take two, three or four weeks off,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

She believes these\u00a0policies that assume mothers as the primary carer force women out of the workforce.<\/p>\n

Campbell has seen this happen with many friends who are ambitious, career-driven\u00a0women and breadwinners.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir [male] partners who are often much more suited to being the primary carer can\u2019t take that time off,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t be about making startups and businesses \u201cwomen friendly\u201d it should be about making them \u201cfamily friendly\u201d so male parents are just as supported to become primary carers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get very annoyed continually hearing that\u00a0childcare is a women\u2019s issue,\u201d Campbell\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t even say maternity leave because it\u2019s so sexist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boosting the confidence<\/h3>\n

Ta\u2019eed calls on women and girls to give things a go even when they don\u2019t feel they\u2019ve acquired all the skills yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that\u2019s often standing in women\u2019s way is this perception that they need to wait to be ready,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that I always felt ill-prepared for things.\u201d<\/p>\n

But by jumping into it she says you\u2019ll soon realise that you can do it.<\/p>\n

There will be challenges but she says these should be embraced, because change is occurring and there is growing recognition of the potential in women to start and drive ventures, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old culture that we used to have with [venture capitalists] is shifting a little bit and there\u2019s a bit more understanding around the differences with female led startups and their benefits,\u201d Ta’eed\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

In line with this, Ta\u2019eed and her team have marked the 2016 International Women\u2019s Day with a financial contribution and corporate clothes donation to Fitted for Work<\/a>, a charity empowering disadvantaged women through\u00a0employment.<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Twitter<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>LinkedIn<\/a><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>and<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>Soundcloud<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of Australia\u2019s most successful female entrepreneurs\u00a0are working to redesign the tech and startup\u00a0worlds to create\u00a0a more inclusive environment for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}