Women Mean Business: The Story So Far By
To have such a disparity in funding and levelling between male and female founders in 2019 isn’t good enough MARTA KRUPINSKA Head of Google for start-ups UK
March 9 2018
A day after The Telegraph’s campaign launches, the Government orders the first ever “serious review” into the funding gap preventing women from becoming business leaders in Britain. Robert Jenrick, then
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, says The Telegraph has highlighted the need to “shine a light on the challenges that women who want to set up a business face”.
March 22
Prime Minister Theresa May sets up a Downing Street task force, which meets every two weeks to examine the issue and boost the number of women starting businesses.
April 3
In an op-ed for the paper, the PM says: “The Telegraph’s Women Mean Business campaign shines a light on the funding gap faced by Britain’s female entrepreneurs. The proportion of funding going to start-ups run by women is far
It makes economic sense to support women entrepreneurs as it lets us benefit from the perspective that female leadership brings CODY GAPARE Owner and founder, C-lash
too low. Last month the Government launched a review into this wasted potential. When it publishes its findings later this year, it must be the catalyst for a fundamental shift in favour of a level playing field for investment.”
April 5
All companies in Britain with 250 or more employees are required to submit the data around their gender pay gap. The results of the second year’s figures are shocking. Analysis reveals that almost eight out of 10 companies pay men more than women. The median hourly rate for women is shown to be, on average, 9.6 per cent less than men. There is no sector that pays women more than men, on average.
April 24
The first statue of a woman in Parliament Square is unveiled. The bronze of Dame Millicent Fawcett by Gillian Wearing was approved following an open letter published in
The Telegraph in May 2016 by activist Caroline Criado Perez.
August 14
The Government pledges £400,000 to female entrepreneurs who take on Britain’s grand industrial challenges. “We’re more determined than ever to support women who have the potential to be the UK’S next successful business innovators,” explains Ian Campbell, executive chair of Innovate UK, which operates under the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
September 21 2018
Inspired by the Women Mean Business campaign, the Government commissions a review into the challenges women face in starting their own enterprises, led by Alison Rose, CEO of RBS Commercial and Private Banking.
October 30
Rose speaks to The Telegraph about her Government review. “It’s a big responsibility but it’s something I feel passionately about,” she says. “We know there are a larger number of female entrepreneurs in the US than the UK. Why is that?”
October 31
The inaugural Women Mean Business Live event takes place at the Hilton Bankside in London. The summit brings together leading female voices, including Minister for Women and Equalities Penny Mordaunt and campaigner
Dame Helena Morrissey, to look at how female entrepreneurs can get a better deal. #Womenmeanbusiness trends on Twitter.
November 10
Equal Pay Day 2018: as a result of the gender pay gap, it is reported that women effectively stop being paid for their work until the end of the year from this day.
To achieve equality we need more women in positions of power who express themselves openly and without fear ZELDA PERKINS Theatre producer
December 19
A Moneycorp survey finds that the majority of female business owners have experienced gender discrimination; a quarter report blatantly sexist comments and a third say they had missed out on a business deal as a result.
February 4 2019
A Treasury report finds that female business founders are missing out on billions of pounds of investment every year and receive 157 times less funding than their male counterparts.
Start-ups run by women, meanwhile, receive just 0.5 per cent of the total invested by venture capital funds – its lowest level in a decade and equivalent to just 1p in every £1.
4 February
In an interview with The Telegraph on the same day, Liz Truss, then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, praises Women Mean Business.
She says: “It is pretty shocking that in 2019 virtually 90 per cent of all funding is going to all-male teams. It’s not even going to mixed teams. For anyone looking in, it looks like men have a monopoly on getting that funding.”
It is mind-blowingly obvious that business needs women, for ideas, expertise, talent – but also for another point of view HARRY DE QUETTEVILLE Telegraph Special Correspondent, Technology
March 8, 2019
The results of Alison Rose’s review are published, with the first recommendations for the Government on how to help female entrepreneurs. She reports that women-led businesses start with just half as much capital as their male-led counterparts. If a level playing field could be established, female founders could add £250 billion to the UK economy.
April 8
The London Metal Exchange issues a code of conduct for traders for the first time in 142 years. That week, Lloyd’s of London introduces stricter rules after allegations of an ‘institutionally sexist attitude’.
July 16
The Government launches the Investing in Women Code as a result of the Rose Review. The voluntary pledge asks financial institutions to be transparent about the gender of start-up founders they support. It is signed by major British banks such as Natwest, Barclays, Lloyds and RBS. Robert Jenrick chairs the Rose Review’s first board meeting and credits the campaign’s “critical role” in raising the Government’s awareness of the issue.
Listening to how women who had started their own businesses overcame hurdles gave me confidence to do likewise ASMA KHAN Chef, restaurateur and author
September 20
Alison Rose, who led the Government review into female entrepreneurs, is named as the new chief executive officer of RBS. She is the first woman to lead a major UK bank.
October 11
A new report by the Entrepreneurs Network finds that the total value of investments in businesses with at least one female founder in 2018 was 11.4pc – up from 9.9pc in 2017.
October 29
The Government pledges to ban the use of non-disclosure agreements to cover up workplace discrimination and sexual harassment in wake of The Telegraph’s investigation into Sir Philip Green.
October 29
New figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that the gender pay gap for full-time workers rose to 8.9 per cent in 2018-9. At current rates predictions say it will take 60 years to close the gap.
November 5
The second Women Mean Business Live summit takes place, bringing together leading voices such as Women’s Minister Liz Truss, entrepreneurs Tina Brown and Samantha Cameron, and broadcaster Victoria Derbyshire to look at how to make the workplace really work for women.
Being a female leader has been my superpower throughout my career, using traits often associated with being a woman HOLLY TUCKER Entrepreneur and philanthropist