Women pitching for funding have to face unwanted sexual advances

WOMEN are being sexually propositioned when attempting to secure funding for a new business, a survey has revealed.

More than a fifth (21 per cent) of female business founders have been on the receiving end of unwanted sexual advances while pitching to secure financial investment, according to an exclusive poll for The Daily Telegraph, conducted by Censuswide.

A quarter (25 per cent) of the 750 female British business owners surveyed also said they had experienced inappropriate propositioning “during business meetings”. The findings were part of a study conducted for the Telegraph’s Women Mean Business campaign, launched on Thursday.

In an open letter on International Women’s Day, 200 business leaders, entrepreneurs and MPS urged the Government to set aside money to boost female entrepreneurship and address the factors currently preventing them from being equally funded.

Currently, just 9 per cent of start-up funding in the UK annually goes to female-led enterprises.

Two thirds (65 per cent) of female business owners told The Telegraph that they had been unfairly treated by financial services when trying to raise funding, while 67 per cent who had male investors said they would have been treated differently if they had met a woman. Consequently, three quarters had self-funded their enterprises, via credit cards and savings.

Sophie Thorne, 31, the founder and chief executive of Twisted Lingerie, said that being asked by a male investor if she is single or if she’d like to go on a date is a “fairly common occurrence” in meetings and at business events.

“It’s very male dominated… they can

‘It’s sometimes as if they’re not taking your business seriously at all, which is so frustrating’

switch and become very flirty when they speak to women looking for investment. It’s sometimes as if they’re not taking your business seriously at all, which is so frustrating,” she said.

Cathy White, director of Geekgirl Meetup, a networking organisation that promotes women in technology, said that young female investors share advice specifically to prepare for meetings with male investors.

“It’s things such as ‘bring on board a male co-founder’… or ‘wear a fake engagement ring so you won’t be hit on’,” Ms White, 29, said.

On Friday, the Treasury ordered the first ever “serious” review into the funding gap, calling it “the greatest economic opportunity out there today”.