{"id":41508,"date":"2023-10-20T15:14:28","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/female-founder-meetups-aim-to-uncover-diversity-issues-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:14:28","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:14:28","slug":"female-founder-meetups-aim-to-uncover-diversity-issues-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/female-founder-meetups-aim-to-uncover-diversity-issues-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Female founder \u2018meetups\u2019 aim to uncover diversity issues – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Organisations and governments need to stop focusing on a one-size-fits-all approach to increasing gender diversity in startups and instead look at the specific and different issues, startup advisor Tristonne Forbes says.<\/p>\n

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Forbes, who is on Startup Victoria\u2019s female founders committee, says it\u2019s important to look into the range of reasons behind why a diversity gap exists in tech startups.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are different reasons women may not be breaking through to the high-growth startup sector because there are different types of women,\u201d she says. \u201cIncreasing participation rates is not going to be a one-size-fits-all solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Startup Victoria is \u201con a mission\u201d to promote gender diversity, Forbes says, and has been running monthly female founders meetups<\/a> from earlier this year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get as many female founders there as possible and make our mark, and show how vibrant the startup community can be in Melbourne,\u201d Forbes says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing quite a bit over the last few months to achieve that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A wider understanding of the issues female entrepreneurs face is needed to combat this gender gap, Forbes says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are making progress, no question about that,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we are really just scratching the surface in terms of really understanding what we could be doing to quickly increase participation rates of women in the high-growth startup sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe need to delve into those to help lift women up and provide support.”<\/p>\n

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Joining forces to promote diversity<\/b><\/p>\n

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Many different groups in Victoria have been putting on various events aimed at promoting women in startups, and now they\u2019re joining forces to bring all their talents into one place.<\/p>\n

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Female Founders Melbourne hopes to get over 100 female founders to a meetup on Tuesday night in Melbourne which is in partnership with the Melbourne Accelerator Program and Google.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe establishment of the female founders’ meetups has been a really important step,\u201d Forbes says. \u201cThey\u2019re providing for more opportunities for women and importantly giving us opportunities to study women on mass.\u201d<\/p>\n

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From her personal experience working as a startup advisor, Forbes says she has identified many roadblocks that are preventing gender equality in the startup world.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSome women are daunted about running a high-growth business, so we need to build awareness,\u201d she says. \u201cOther women don\u2019t know where their business fits into the scheme of things, so they don\u2019t take up opportunities to pitch.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey stay quiet instead of going for it, so we want to run pre-screening sessions in front of people that can make that distinction for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Qualitative research<\/b><\/p>\n

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In order to identify the diverse range of reasons why there is a gender gap in the startup world, Startup Victoria is working with a qualitative researcher to produce a detailed report.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe want to get some insightful, robust findings to share with the community,\u201d Forbes says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019ll also help to come up with antidotes to some of the issues that might be out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe aim is to provide significantly more insights and something that can be shared right throughout the ecosystem to assist with the creation and design of world-class networks and support networks.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re definitely making progress, but if we want to speed that up we need these sorts of initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Meetups like the upcoming one on Tuesday night are also crucial for female entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think they\u2019re really important,\u201d Forbes says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWomen can meet people that are in the same stage as they are and dealing with the same challenges. We can show that there\u2019s a real interest here and get some momentum for more programs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEveryone is trying and there\u2019s a passion in the community to help, and that\u2019s wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Want to grow your business with Instagram?\u202fStartupSmart School can help<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Organisations and governments need to stop focusing on a one-size-fits-all approach to increasing gender diversity in startups and instead look<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60852,"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\/41508"}],"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=41508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}