Our mission at Levin Group is to Connect Tech Talent within global changemaker sectors such as FinTech, HealthTech, GreenTech and RetailTech.
Gender balance is key to the success of these sectors; yet still faces a mountain of challenges.
Gender bias in FinTech
A report from the Harvard Business Review showed that in 2020 women-led start-ups received just 2.3% of Venture Capital Funding. Yet, a 2019 McKinsey survey suggests that women, more frequently than men exhibit leadership traits applicable to deal with future global challenges.
To help drive gender balance in FinTech, we surely need to value it in our own business. This isn’t some noble mission to be “seen” to practise what we preach – it’s proven that companies with a balanced workforce are more innovative, and successful, than those that do not. Likewise, to help solve a problem you can’t actively and knowingly play a role in perpetuating it. There are many angles to think about when it comes gender and business, but these are my top three.
Top 3 tips to help drive gender balance
- Firstly, think about creating an awesome business. We are fortunate to have a balanced leadership team, but the point was to hire the best people who inspired me and were people I truly believed in; not to hire women or men specifically.
- Think about the link between role models and scalability. If you want to scale a company fast, you need as many people as possible to have identifiable role models to emulate and be inspired by. There is a common bottleneck in recruitment – it’s possible that female candidates will display character traits such as ambition more cautiously, or suffer a sense of imposter syndrome when considering going for promotions. These are things that require constant discussion.
- Think about innovation. A room full of men will look at problems from a man’s view, a room full of women will do so from a female point of view. The more diverse the room (indeed, in every sense of the word diverse) the quicker you will solve your problems and reach goals.
I make no promises around our business being perfect, or to prioritise pleasing the outside world. I do however promise that we will choose to challenge ourselves to build a company with strong values around diversity, open conversation, and a progressive attitude.
JB
