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Home › Topics › Women Life Scientists as Entrepreneurs › Tackling Bias and Barriers for Women in Life Sciences and Business

Barriers, Bias, and Unfair Treatment

Topics Women Life Scientists as Entrepreneurs Tackling Bias and Barriers for Women in Life Sciences and Business Barriers, Bias, and Unfair Treatment

Women life scientists’ participation in entrepreneurship is relatively low compared to men’s. For example, a study of MIT’s science and engineering faculty found that 40% of men but only 20% of women had founded a company (Bhatia, 2021). Some of the reasons persist, such as bias and barriers, but there has been a fair amount of effort to address them recently. Women entrepreneurs often say that unbiased opportunities are more common now, although things still need to change in many ways. It would be incorrect to assume things are more difficult for all women entrepreneurs everywhere. Women can take advantage of many opportunities available in biotechnology entrepreneurship.


Business Funding Bias

On average, women entrepreneurs get less business funding than men (Krause, 2016; Martin, 2015), receiving 2–3% of VC investment capital (Brush, 2017; Taylor, 2017). For perspective, in 2016, $64.9 billion went into male-founded startups and only $1.5 billion to female-founded startups (O’Brien, 2017). The low figure is partially due to smaller deals for women (Zarya, 2018). Possible explanations for less funding for women entrepreneurs include the male-dominated network of venture capital and the low percentage of female partners in investment groups (Kerpen, 2018), as well as conscious or unconscious bias of investors (Krause, 2016; Martin, 2015).

Women have relatively lower entrepreneurial self-efficacy (Shimasaki, 2009; Miranda, 2017); however, at least some of what looks like low self-efficacy reflects a realistic assessment of actual differences in how women are treated in academia and industry. For example, less support for women in academia results in fewer credentials that might attract venture capitalists, such as honors or leadership positions (Krause, 2016; Martin, 2015).


Known Barriers

Known barriers to funding from venture capital and inherent biases in businesses, especially technology (McConnell, 2017), continue to exist for women entrepreneurs. Yet, if successful, programs supporting entrepreneurship can draw from a more representative pool of skilled individuals by including more women. Several factors have been proposed as contributing to barriers for women:

Fewer Role Models

Female role models guide women to see the potential value in entrepreneurship. Although it is increasing, the number of possible role models has been low (Saeid, 2014).

Male-Oriented Entrepreneur Identity Perceptions

Others postulate that because the definition of an entrepreneur follows historically male identity standards, it conflicts with the perceived identity of some women (Greene, 2018). This effect is stronger in predominantly male industries. High-growth businesses, including biotechnology, are often in male-dominated industries (Marlow, 2005), which results in a masculine stereotype being associated with these businesses even more than other businesses.

“Typical” Male Traits Being Valued

Previously, businesses often valued what were considered at that time typically masculine traits over typically feminine traits, although rigidity about gender traits has been softening in recent years. Previously, learning skills manifesting typically masculine traits and practicing typical entrepreneur-defined achievement strategies, at least in the short-term, improved a woman’s acceptance and success (Martin, 2015). However, as business becomes more diverse and gender traits become somewhat more fluid, the benefits of diverse strengths and perspectives are often appreciated.

Unconscious and Conscious Bias

  • Having Ideas Valued Less: Many women scientists still describe having their ideas more readily dismissed, not being taken seriously, and being talked over in meetings more often than men (Alda, 2021). In a research study of science faculty, two potential student lab employees were presented. Their descriptions were exactly the same, but their names differed, John and Jean. The results showed that the man was significantly more likely to be hired and likely to make more money (Moss-Racusin et al., 2012). Participants were also more likely to be willing to invest time in mentoring the male-named potential employee. Women participants in this research were biased as often as males.
  • Being Judged Negatively for Showing Emotion: Women may be judged more negatively as leaders or entrepreneurs than men if they show their emotions. In one study, women who expressed anger, fear, or remorse were more likely to be viewed as ineffective leaders than men expressing the same emotions (Mullin, 2021).

Sources

Alda A. Is There a Revolution for Women In Science? Are Things Finally Changing? clear + Vivid with Alan Alda. Podcast. 1 hr. 37 min. 2021.

Bhatia S, Hopkins N, Hockfield S. Special Edition: Women in Biotech. April 2021:Vol. XXXIII no. 4.

Brush C, Greene P, Balachandra L, Davis A. The gender gap in venture capital- progress,
problems, and perspectives. Venture Capital. April 3, 2018;20(2):115-136.
doi:10.1080/13691066.2017.1349266.

Gates M. Closing the gender gap in venture capital deserves our immediate and sustained
attention. Recode. September 12, 2017.

Greene PG, Brush, Candida. A Research Agenda for Women and Entrepreneurship: Identity
Through Aspirations, Behaviors and Confidence. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA, USA:
Edward Elgar Pub; January 26, 2018

Kerpen C. How Women Entrepreneurs Are Closing The Venture Capital Gap. Forbes. April 9,
2018.

Krause A, Fetsch E. Labor after Labor. Kauffman Foundation; May 2016.

Marlow S, Patton D. All Credit to Men? Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Gender.
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. November 1, 2005;29(6):717-735. doi:10.1111/j.1540-
6520.2005.00105.x

Martin L, Wright L, Matlay H, Beaven Z. An unusual job for a woman? Female entrepreneurs
in scientific, engineering and technology sectors. Int Jrnl of Ent Behav & Res. May 21,
2015;21(4):539-556. doi:10.1108/IJEBR-08-2011-0095.

McConnell D. Minority and Women Entrepreneurs and Barriers to Securing R&D Funding for High-Tech Ventures. Foster Blog. December 7, 2017.

Miranda FJ, Chamorro-Mera A, Rubio S, Pérez-Mayo J. Academic entrepreneurial intention: The role of gender. Int Jrnl of Gen and Ent. March 13, 2017;9(1):66-86 doi:10.1108/IJGE-10-2016-0037.

Moss-Racusin CA, Dovidio JF, Brescoll VL, Graham MJ, Handelsman J. Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. PNAS. 2012;109(41):16474-16479. doi:10.1073/pnas.1211286109

Mullin, Caitlyn. New research sheds light on challenge women leaders face when dealing with negative emotions. Bizwomen. August 12, 2021.

O’Brien SA. Female CEOs get only 3% of venture capital money. CNNMoney. July 26, 2017.

Saeid Karimi, Harm J.A. Biemans, Thomas Lans, Mohammad Chizari, Martin Mulder. Effects
of role models and gender on students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Euro J of Training and Dev.
August 27, 2014;38(8):694-727. doi:10.1108/EJTD-03-2013-0036.

Shimasaki CD. What Makes a Biotech Entrepreneur?. In: The Business of Bioscience: What
Goes into Making a Biotechnology Product. Vol 2009 edition. Dordrecht: Springer; 2009.

Taylor & Francis Group. Women entrepreneurs still lag behind men in accessing new business
funding. ScienceDaily. July 25, 2017.

Weiner Y. Today, Women Get Only 2% of VC Dollars. These 16 VCs Explain Why, And How This Can Be Solved. Medium. April 13, 2018.

Zarya V. Female Founders Got 2% of Venture Capital Dollars in 2017. Fortune. January 31,
2018.

What are the barriers for women life scientists? Our 2019 focus group data

We asked four women life scientist entrepreneurs about the greatest barriers that women face when starting a business. These were the top barriers they described:

  1. Being unable to secure funding and more funding being needed for female-led businesses. One said that women are “often at a disadvantage when competing against male peers.”
  2. Not receiving validation or being seen as credible as a woman scientist who has the potential to succeed as an entrepreneur. Being discouraged from starting a business and encouraged to join existing corporations instead.
  3. Time/balancing priorities, not having a mentor.

Other surveys of women life scientists identified additional barriers to entrepreneurship:

  1. Low self-confidence in entrepreneurial abilities/low level of experience and skills in business (how to set up a business, hire the right people, know what money to take)
  2. Financial risk aversion
  3. Not the right time in their career, family, or financial situation
  4. Not being included in established networking organizations
  5. Lacking credentials that would impress investors, such as leadership positions
  6. Lacking interest in business
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Topic Home Expand All
Overview
5 Articles
Few Women Start Life Science Businesses, but Numbers Are Growing
What Is a Women-Owned Business Certification? What Are the Benefits?
Case Example: Sasha Thomas, PhD and Entrepreneur
Groups Supporting Women in Science, Business, and Entrepreneurship
Business Success Stories from Women Life Scientists
Tackling Bias and Barriers for Women in Life Sciences and Business
5 Articles
Barriers, Bias, and Unfair Treatment
Gender Disparities in Research Funding
Countering Unfair Treatment
Ideas for Addressing Bias and Barriers
Discussion Group: Women Scientists on Barriers, Bias, and Unfair Treatment
Return to Women Life Scientists as Entrepreneurs

This project is funded by National Institute of General Medical Sciences (Grants 1R43 GM131458-01 & 2R GM131458-02)


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