This is the third article in a series focusing on gender issues within different contexts at Tufts.
At Tufts and nationwide, the field of entrepreneurship like many others is unbalanced when it comes to gender. Men outnumber women considerably in business and finance careers McKinsey & Company researchers found in their November 2012 quarterly report that women occupy only 15 percent of seats on corporate boards in the United States. Women comprised a 35.3 percent share of total entrepreneurial activity in the United States in 2010, according to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity.
The Tufts entrepreneurial scene displays similar gender gaps. In the 2012-2013 academic year, women made up 39 percent of enrollment in the Gordon Institutes Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies (ELS) minor, slightly higher than the 34 percent in the 2011-2012 and 2009-2010 academic years and 36 percent in 2010-2011, according to Professor of the Practice for ELS John Hodgman.
Its something you see replicated in the percentages of people that set up companies. Entrepreneurship does tend to be ... a very male-dominated environment, James Barlow, director of the ELS program, said. It just seems to be [perpetuated] by the number of male investors, the number of successful entrepreneurs that are male. Theres just a volume game that seems to become self-perpetuating.
While interest in entrepreneurship and innovation is strong at Tufts through outlets like ELS, the $100K Business Competition, Tufts Entrepreneurs Society (TES) and the Tufts Venture Fund, Barlow hopes to increase support for student entrepreneurs, including women.
From my perspective, the more people we can get involved in entrepreneurship, the better, he said. I think that it behooves us to have a great balance both in terms of subject and discipline and gender in these classes; thats exciting to see.
The perception that entrepreneurship is a boys club is not uncommon and has often contributed to the self-perpetuating dynamic of gender imbalance, according to ELS Lecturer Inge Milde, who is involved in organizing the Business Plan Competition.
What Im seeing is that the playing field is certainly not level yet, Milde said. Its still very much a boys world.
Milde commented on the reasons behind this trend, noting the evolution of the field toward greater inclusion of women.
Not so much from my generation, but ... in the 50s and 60s, there was this huge feeling that you had to act like a man in business, to play the way men do. There was very little acknowledgement that the differences that women bring are valuable, especially in big business, she said. So they had to play like the boys in order to be accepted to the boys club, and I think thats shifting. Theres more of an appreciation for the differences that women do bring, whether thats intuition or collaboration or using emotion as a strength in business.
TES served as a hangout for six senior men just a few years ago, according to TES vice president Kate Hitchner, a senior.
I would say its kind of changed a little bit. I think its hard to say because I just went and hung out with those guys, and it was probably all guys because they were just friends, she said. Id say that now there are probably just as many girls. I just think its naturally guys that come to it first because they think [theyre] going to go into business.
Junior Kip Denoyer, who is involved in both TES and Tufts Venture Fund, pointed out the strong interest of women on campus in these groups.
Its pretty clear that in the larger business world, females tend to be underrepresented in the higher ranks of business, he said. But on campus, it seems like when we have meetings or events I guess there are fewer females coming to our events, but its not black and white. There are females who are very involved on campus.
The Business Plan Competition, an integral aspect of the Entrepreneurial Leadership program, had record submissions this year, according to Barlow. Senior Adrienne Dreyfus won the classic competition last year with her application for consumers and merchandisers, PriceTrack. Dreyfus, who is also a computer science major, completed the project independently.
Everyone is respectful and supportive. Its just that they dont really understand that, in my personal opinion, we have to play by mens rules because theyre the majority, she said. It just gets really exhausting to have to blend myself in, so I kind of prefer to just do things my own way because I find it more comfortable.
Dreyfus pointed out that the behavior of both men and women contributes to the perpetuation of gender norms in the entrepreneurial scene.
I think its a very interesting dynamic, and its up to both genders to fix it ... I think for startups and the entrepreneurial world in particular this is a total generalization but women tend to be perfectionists, which is great, we all want to aspire to be the best we can be, so its a great quality to have, she said. But its the worst quality to have if you want to be in startups, because theres no perfection in startups unless you perfectly fail. Thats most womens nightmares, in a way.
This boys club atmosphere may deter women from becoming involved, Dreyfus said.
I think guys could do a lot better at reaching out to women and bringing them in because its a guys club, thats the idea of it, she said. I dont want to intrude on a guys club, because if I intrude when Im not invited, that makes it really uncomfortable for me.
I know that they all have the best intentions, and they would love for more women to be involved. Its not like theyre trying to keep women out, its just that I dont think they realize that being a passive member of the group isnt going to help women, she added.
Sarah Lockwood (LA 13) participated in TES and founded College Outside, an online magazine for outdoor-oriented students. She now works as the Business Development Manager at Her Campus, an online magazine and community for women founded by three female Harvard students in 2009. Lockwood commented on the difficulties for women in a male-dominated field, including a lack of other women.
The major obstacle that Ive found is finding other women mentors, because the majority of successful [businesses] are run by men. Its been difficult for me to find someone thats a successful businesswoman at a company that I respect that I can turn to as a mentor, she said. Eventually I would love to be able to show someone the ropes and what Ive learned.
Although college-educated women have increased their share in the overall workforce according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, certain obstacles for women remain. Denoyer recognized this phenomenon within entrepreneurship.
I think generally the same barriers that exist for women in the general workplace exist in trying to start a business and get funding because you have to go up against similar situations, he said. Finance is a very male-driven field, and it might be difficult to go into a very aggressive set of venture capitalists and ask for money in a similar way that it might be hard to ask for a raise.
In addition to finance, technology is a field where women are traditionally under-represented. This translates into gender imbalance within tech startups according to the Kauffman Foundation, women comprise just 10 percent of high-growth technology startup founders.
One thing to think about is the fact that the startups scene in Boston is really dominated by tech and so if a small percentage of women are becoming developers and learning [skills] in these fields, then obviously thats going to translate into less tech companies run by women, Lockwood said. So a lot of it is just getting more women into the fields of tech as well, thats going to really boast the startup numbers in the entrepreneurial field.
Despite the unbalanced representation of women in the field, there are many female entrepreneurs who have been tremendously successful. At Tufts, Barlow sees women engaged in his Entrepreneurship and Business Planning course and hopes that more will join, adding to the diversity of students in the program.
Certainly what I see in my ELS 101 class are some really strong, confidant and incredibly capable young women [exploring] entrepreneurship programs, and they are often the driving force within the teams, he said. Its fantastic to see theyre amongst a really dynamic, diverse group. I think what well start to see as we build up greater opportunities for different kinds of innovation [are] different kinds of entrepreneurship that may appeal better to an even broader spectrum.
