When National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt stressed the importance of expanding America’s STEM workforce in her State of the Science address last summer, engineer and academic leader Pamela Norris felt “called to action.” 

“I am particularly interested in ensuring that we tap the full range of talent in the U.S., to help ensure our position globally as STEM leaders,” said Norris, who is the incoming dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Delaware. “And an important part of that is our innovation and entrepreneurship enterprise, where the lack of full participation of women is definitely an issue.” 

Norris moderated a recent National Academies webinar that explored challenges and potential solutions for increasing women’s representation among STEM entrepreneurs — those who develop and market innovative products and services based in science and technology. 

Only around 13 percent of venture capital dollars go to startups with a woman on the founding team, according to research from the Harvard Kennedy School. And an average of 2.4 percent of venture funding each year goes to firms with all-female founders, a level that has remained stagnant for decades.

This underrepresentation has consequences not only for U.S. innovation but also for women themselves, since their insights and needs may be overlooked as new technologies and products are developed, explained speaker Andrea Mohamed, chief operating officer and co-founder of QuantumBloom. “If we don’t have women participating in the innovation ecosystems, literally the future will be built by people who don’t look like us and don’t experience the same challenges and opportunities that we do.”

Enhancing opportunities

At the webinar — sponsored by the Government-University-Industry-Philanthropy Research Roundtable — Shelli Brunswick, CEO and co-founder of SB Global LLC, shared some of the results of a 2022 survey she conducted for the World Business Angels Investment Forum. 

The survey sought to shed light on the state of female entrepreneurship globally. When asked about the obstacles they ran into, women entrepreneurs pointed to encountering traditional views that entrepreneurship is a male activity, as well as difficulties obtaining finance. 

What did respondents believe could enhance opportunities? Greater access to financial resources was their top answer, followed by government policies that support entrepreneurship generally.  

“There can be good legislative policies,” said Brunswick, noting her own experience in space procurement for the Air Force. “How do you use set-asides to ensure small businesses and innovative thinking have an opportunity to compete for contracts, so you don’t always give contracts to the same people?”

“I think what’s needed is a dual approach for strengthening ecosystem access, improving access to capital … while also developing focused support spaces where women can share unfiltered insights about leadership challenges, access targeted resources, build strategic relationships,” said Jacqueline Olich, principal and founder of Veza Alliance Management. “The ripple effects of women’s increased participation in entrepreneurship and investment create positive change throughout our innovation ecosystem.”  

Multiple speakers highlighted the importance of ensuring these opportunities extend to underrepresented women, including women of color. Mohamed said that in some cases, allies may need to actively make space for others to participate and lead, to create a more equitable landscape.

The key role of professional networks and sponsors

Olich, along with other speakers, noted the importance of professional networks. “Rather than waiting for existing systems to change, women are creating their own ecosystems of support and innovation,” she said. An example is the Biotech CEO Sisterhood, which connects women leaders in the biopharmaceutical industry to support one another. 

Mohamed relayed how networks had supported her at pivotal parts of her career. “These are the people you call when you’re down, or you’re concerned, or you hit a roadblock, and they’re brainstorming in the moment.”

 “Invest in your network before you need it,” she advised, urging women to develop the networks they are already a part of — alumni communities, work communities, and the physical communities where they live — and to seek out new ones. “Find groups that align with your values, your goals, and put into things as much as you want to eventually take out.”

The presenters also stressed the value of another type of relationship — sponsorship, in which a leader or senior member of an industry or company actively advocates for a new entrepreneur. 

Why is sponsorship so important? “While mentorship can change mentees for the better through coaching and encouragement — which we all need — sponsorship changes the social environment around proteges by actively advocating for, raising the social visibility of, and sometimes protecting them,” said Olich, citing research from Rosalind Chow. “Sponsorship is more proactive.” 

“STEM women entrepreneurs often lack sponsors, which is a significant barrier to their success,” said Olich. “The challenges of securing funding and dealing with biases in investment decisions really highlight the need for sponsorship to help bridge these gaps.”

Here too, women’s networks are of value, as they can prepare entrepreneurs to find sponsors, said Julie Collins of the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps. “Having people — a tribe, peer mentors — that are going to hold you accountable for the things you need to work on,” she said. “If you’re an entrepreneur, you better be able to nail your market, you better be able to understand who your customers are, what your value is, how you’re going after it. And so you need people that are going to hold you accountable for telling that story well, so that when you find [potential sponsors] they are going to advocate for you.”

• Watch the webinar

• Overcoming Structural Barriers for Women in Entrepreneurship: Proceedings of a Workshop (2021)