“1.3% of privately held companies have a female founder, 6.5% have a female CEO, and 20% have one or more female C-level executives.”

Source: Dow Jones report titled: Women at the Wheel: Do Female Executives Drive Start-Up Success?

Ouch! That hurts..Why are there so few women in start-ups when we see a rise of the women entrepreneur this decade?

Now here’s a number that makes me smile with pride:

Figure 4-1 shows that companies with only one or two female executives saw a higher number of failures, whereas those with three or four female executives had a slightly better chance of success. For start-ups with five or more female executives, 61% were successful and only 39% failed.

Women-in-Startups

We certainly need more women to start new ventures and with such encouraging study, the females are more likely to launch successful ones. It’s not about who’s better but how to get more women empowered so they know that it can really be done, not only in their minds but in the real world. And, some help will go a long way.

To encourage this trend we need more such initiatives as Women 2.0 and Women on the Web by Google for Entrepreneurs

Women 2.0 (www.women2.com) is a media company offering content, community and conferences for aspiring and current women innovators in technology. Our mission is to increase the number of female founders of technology startups with inspiration, information and education through our platform.

Women Entrepreneurs on the Web (WeOW) is a Google program for female entrepreneurs to connect, grow their online presence, and utilize Google products to launch and scale their businesses. As part of the program, entrepreneurs learn to build their online presence, connect with their customers, track and optimize their efforts, and connect with other entrepreneurs in their communities.
 

 

What do you say?
The Value of Women in Startups