Changing the vibe with Female Tribes

Reconnecting with my femininity, netwalking and rewilding with some wonderful women from my Lean In Circle today. We walked, talked, re-connected with each other, with nature and ourselves.

The womens agenda and, in particular, empowering women to aspire to lead in underrepresented sectors is a huge personal driver for me. I feel compelled to try and be part of the change, I fundamentally believe we will live in a better world if we have diversity in leadership. In all domains in our lives. But it’s not just about this.

I am also drawn to the company of women and womens groups out of a need to keep connected with my femininity and values, as a result of working in a largely male dominated sector.

In the tech sector only 17% of workers are female, in C-Suite roles 4.4%. [Business Leader]

At Panintelligence we sell Embedded Analytics to SaaS software businesses, over 95% of our customer contacts are men. In nearly every external meeting I am the only woman.

When I find other female CEOs in the tech sector locally I try bring them in to my circle, I intentionally build tribes. Selfishly, because I need them to keep me sane, so I don’t feel so alone. It’s a circle of trust, of safety, of a deep feminine connection between women. It is hard to describe it, but I know it matters. And it seems to matter to a lot of women.

Women get Women.

Women trust Women.

Women support Women.

I know these are bold generalizations. But what strikes me after 15 years building and running networks such as the IoD Young Directors Forum, Lean In Leeds, Calverley Business Network, No Code Lab is that every single network was founded by women, run by women and largely attended by women. Not intentionally, but because women are drawn to women.

In female led, female focused groups….women create bonds of trust quickly. There is also an unsaid loyalty and commitment to lift each other up that happens naturally in female led groups.

As a CEO of a PE backed firm with 3 investors I also spend a lot of time speaking to financial institutions….corporate finance, VCs, advisors etc. This sector also suffers from the same low representation of women in senior roles. In venture capital (VC) firms, only 4.9% of the partners are female. In private equity (PE), fewer than 10% of senior roles are held by women.?[Investopedia]

It is no wonder then that less than 2% of venture capital funding went to all-female founding teams in 2021, marking a five-year low [TechCrunch]. With so few women investing in women it is hard for us to move the dial on female leadership in tech.

Without women making investment decisions, female entrepreneurs won’t get the backing or support to become the role models we need in tech to attract more female talent and leadership into the sector. Fund Her North a collective of 30 women in investment in the North of England, with a combined investment of over ￡650m is a promising sign that change is on its way. ?I have also noticed a significant increase in number of events aimed at supporting underrepresented founders in recent years.

So far there have been 23 funding rounds in 2022 from female-founded or co-founded tech firms, raising a total of $1.5bn; and only 2 months into the year, investment into female-founded tech firms has already surpassed investment in both 2019 and 2020 [Business Leader]. The green shoots of change.

Today after re-wilding with some of my tribe I realise my need to network with women is fulfilling a much deeper need. To not be alone on this mission….bringing more women together, drawing out the role models, inspiring women to aspire to lead, being seen so others can believe….Because we know change is more likely to happen if we come together, than if we try and make the change happen on our own.