I am proud to be a part of the
innovation support system and we help a
lot of people at our university to take
new technology to the market in the past
twelve years we’ve had over 2,000 new
ideas come through our doors but only
about 16 percent of them have come from
women now you might ask do women not
want to be tech entrepreneurs well I
think they do
but I’d like to use this opportunity to
highlight a few issues that I think
contributes to women not choosing a
career as a tech entrepreneur and
firstly I don’t always think that they
realize that we’re there for them in
entrepreneurship the man is norm and
over the years we’ve tailored our
support to him we invite women to join
in but I’m not sure that they’re super
excited about taking part in activities
where they’re always set aside as not
the norm but the other there’s a great
satirical Twitter account called man who
has it all and he’s made an art form out
of pointing out the absurdities of
gender inequality simply by replacing
the word woman with man he’s an example
will you stop saying boys in tech we’re
whines bitter James bringing his gender
into everything as usual now I think we
another thing that this norm does it
that is that we tend to differentiate
between women’s issues and
entrepreneurship issues
I read this our headline in a women’s
magazine I’m more successful than my
boyfriend can we date happily if he
feels I emasculate him now at first that
sounds like a woman’s issue something
you discuss with your girlfriends but it
must must be a huge problem for an
entrepreneur to even have to consider
the feelings of a less successful
partner and it affects exactly the
driven and ambitious woman who would be
a great entrepreneur yet I haven’t to
date seen a single inspirational quote
for women along the lines of leave the
guy he’s not worth it I have however
seen a number of inspirational quotes
for entrepreneurs that include things
like don’t be cocky don’t be flashy it’s
always someone better than you or if
you’re not a risk-taker you should get
the hell out of business now that’s
hardly inspirational if at the same time
you’re told that based on your gender
you lack confidence and the willingness
to take risks man who has it all has an
inspirational tip of his own all men you
can be anything you want to be
don’t let your crazy hormones irrational
moods or inferior intellect hold you
back I think that we need to do more to
inspire all kinds of entrepreneurs and
then we’ve got the issue of the gender
bias last year there was a study in the
Harvard Business Review that has venture
capitalists down as saying that people
who displays stereotypically female
behaviors and traits should tone it down
whilst pitching and the rather
surprising conclusion of the article was
that advice to women
include not being so damn feminine man
who has it all has a little tip of his
own men if you want to be taken
seriously in meetings avoid using the
word perhaps maybe sorry or any words
starting with the letter a to said when
I was us to do this talk and immediately
said yes the first thing I blurted out
was I know exactly what I’m going to
wear and I regretted it immediately I
felt like it was such a girlie thing to
say and I wanted to explain myself what
I wear impacts how I feel and how I act
and ultimately how I perform so I was
strategizing but is this the typical
kind of female behavior that I should be
toning down or can we arrive at a point
in time when my professionalism isn’t
mistaken for girlishness the next thing
I’d like to talk about is leaning in we
tend to say that women should lean in
they should make their voices heard take
part and they should and they do but I
see two issues with this one is that
sometimes the space to lean into is
already crowded with how it is written
and unwritten rules regulations
convention criteria that women were
never part of conceiving in the first
place if we already know what a good
entrepreneur is and we base that on what
a good entrepreneur has always been then
here comes a little tip again from man
who has it all he puts it like this men
in science
don’t let grant allocation processes
publishing routines hiring processes
harassment or hostile labs put you off
and then sometimes you lean into a black
hole let me tell you a little anecdote
of mine we were five people around a
lunch table there were two women and
three men we got onto the very swedish
subject of curing salmon there’s two
different ways but what is actually the
difference so the other woman at the
table said I think it’s got to do with
the proportion of salt to sugar that’s
the difference which is the right answer
the men then around the table said yeah
or maybe it’s the herbs you use or how
long you marinate it for another woman
realizes no they haven’t understood that
she had the correct answer so she says
again a little more assertively no it’s
actually got to do with the proportion
of salt to sugar and they said yeah or
maybe and I asked why do you keep
guessing when we’ve already had the
correct answer and they were bemused
they didn’t realize that that was the
answer they thought she was just
guessing so my point here is that you
can lean in all you want you can have
all the competence and all the right
answers but there’s got to be someone on
the receiving end who hears you I
believe that we in the innovation
support system have to be on the
receiving end and we have to learn to
hear finally I’d like to talk about
feelings we often say that failure
courage risk-taking are all part of the
entrepreneurial journey and if you’re a
human being then those things come with
failure will have some elements of
disappointment courage and fear are
closely linked and risk-taking will
bring some anxiety and maybe also
excitement but we don’t talk about those
feelings I had a brush with emotion just
last week when I was preparing for this
talk I went in to get feedback from a
colleague and there I was it was across
from this experienced person an expert
in public speaking and someone I really
respect and I did my talk and he gave me
constructive and helpful feedback and
there was nothing negative in there but
still I left the room with a little bit
of insecurity I felt a bit doubtful and
I I just couldn’t understand why and I
kept coming back to this feeling and
thinking about it and then it clicked so
I went back to him and I said you know
when we talked yesterday and you gave me
feedback I left feeling a little bit
insecure and I think it had to do with
the way we talked we were all up here
my brain loved the feedback but my
feelings would have needed to be
addressed and validated too so he
thanked me for bringing it up and
talking about it and I said well don’t
people generally talk to you about these
kinds of things and he said no never I
think that’s sad but it’s not surprising
we just don’t talk about these feelings
doubt and insecurities has no place in
the image of the entrepreneur so
man who has it all finally has something
to say about this today’s fact woman’s
view of the world is impassionate
empirical and objective while men will
always be at the mercy of their
irrational illogical feelings now if we
come back to the question why don’t
women want to be entrepreneurs I would
say I think they do they just don’t want
to be male entrepreneurs thank you [Applause]
innovation support system and we help a
lot of people at our university to take
new technology to the market in the past
twelve years we’ve had over 2,000 new
ideas come through our doors but only
about 16 percent of them have come from
women now you might ask do women not
want to be tech entrepreneurs well I
think they do
but I’d like to use this opportunity to
highlight a few issues that I think
contributes to women not choosing a
career as a tech entrepreneur and
firstly I don’t always think that they
realize that we’re there for them in
entrepreneurship the man is norm and
over the years we’ve tailored our
support to him we invite women to join
in but I’m not sure that they’re super
excited about taking part in activities
where they’re always set aside as not
the norm but the other there’s a great
satirical Twitter account called man who
has it all and he’s made an art form out
of pointing out the absurdities of
gender inequality simply by replacing
the word woman with man he’s an example
will you stop saying boys in tech we’re
whines bitter James bringing his gender
into everything as usual now I think we
another thing that this norm does it
that is that we tend to differentiate
between women’s issues and
entrepreneurship issues
I read this our headline in a women’s
magazine I’m more successful than my
boyfriend can we date happily if he
feels I emasculate him now at first that
sounds like a woman’s issue something
you discuss with your girlfriends but it
must must be a huge problem for an
entrepreneur to even have to consider
the feelings of a less successful
partner and it affects exactly the
driven and ambitious woman who would be
a great entrepreneur yet I haven’t to
date seen a single inspirational quote
for women along the lines of leave the
guy he’s not worth it I have however
seen a number of inspirational quotes
for entrepreneurs that include things
like don’t be cocky don’t be flashy it’s
always someone better than you or if
you’re not a risk-taker you should get
the hell out of business now that’s
hardly inspirational if at the same time
you’re told that based on your gender
you lack confidence and the willingness
to take risks man who has it all has an
inspirational tip of his own all men you
can be anything you want to be
don’t let your crazy hormones irrational
moods or inferior intellect hold you
back I think that we need to do more to
inspire all kinds of entrepreneurs and
then we’ve got the issue of the gender
bias last year there was a study in the
Harvard Business Review that has venture
capitalists down as saying that people
who displays stereotypically female
behaviors and traits should tone it down
whilst pitching and the rather
surprising conclusion of the article was
that advice to women
include not being so damn feminine man
who has it all has a little tip of his
own men if you want to be taken
seriously in meetings avoid using the
word perhaps maybe sorry or any words
starting with the letter a to said when
I was us to do this talk and immediately
said yes the first thing I blurted out
was I know exactly what I’m going to
wear and I regretted it immediately I
felt like it was such a girlie thing to
say and I wanted to explain myself what
I wear impacts how I feel and how I act
and ultimately how I perform so I was
strategizing but is this the typical
kind of female behavior that I should be
toning down or can we arrive at a point
in time when my professionalism isn’t
mistaken for girlishness the next thing
I’d like to talk about is leaning in we
tend to say that women should lean in
they should make their voices heard take
part and they should and they do but I
see two issues with this one is that
sometimes the space to lean into is
already crowded with how it is written
and unwritten rules regulations
convention criteria that women were
never part of conceiving in the first
place if we already know what a good
entrepreneur is and we base that on what
a good entrepreneur has always been then
here comes a little tip again from man
who has it all he puts it like this men
in science
don’t let grant allocation processes
publishing routines hiring processes
harassment or hostile labs put you off
and then sometimes you lean into a black
hole let me tell you a little anecdote
of mine we were five people around a
lunch table there were two women and
three men we got onto the very swedish
subject of curing salmon there’s two
different ways but what is actually the
difference so the other woman at the
table said I think it’s got to do with
the proportion of salt to sugar that’s
the difference which is the right answer
the men then around the table said yeah
or maybe it’s the herbs you use or how
long you marinate it for another woman
realizes no they haven’t understood that
she had the correct answer so she says
again a little more assertively no it’s
actually got to do with the proportion
of salt to sugar and they said yeah or
maybe and I asked why do you keep
guessing when we’ve already had the
correct answer and they were bemused
they didn’t realize that that was the
answer they thought she was just
guessing so my point here is that you
can lean in all you want you can have
all the competence and all the right
answers but there’s got to be someone on
the receiving end who hears you I
believe that we in the innovation
support system have to be on the
receiving end and we have to learn to
hear finally I’d like to talk about
feelings we often say that failure
courage risk-taking are all part of the
entrepreneurial journey and if you’re a
human being then those things come with
failure will have some elements of
disappointment courage and fear are
closely linked and risk-taking will
bring some anxiety and maybe also
excitement but we don’t talk about those
feelings I had a brush with emotion just
last week when I was preparing for this
talk I went in to get feedback from a
colleague and there I was it was across
from this experienced person an expert
in public speaking and someone I really
respect and I did my talk and he gave me
constructive and helpful feedback and
there was nothing negative in there but
still I left the room with a little bit
of insecurity I felt a bit doubtful and
I I just couldn’t understand why and I
kept coming back to this feeling and
thinking about it and then it clicked so
I went back to him and I said you know
when we talked yesterday and you gave me
feedback I left feeling a little bit
insecure and I think it had to do with
the way we talked we were all up here
my brain loved the feedback but my
feelings would have needed to be
addressed and validated too so he
thanked me for bringing it up and
talking about it and I said well don’t
people generally talk to you about these
kinds of things and he said no never I
think that’s sad but it’s not surprising
we just don’t talk about these feelings
doubt and insecurities has no place in
the image of the entrepreneur so
man who has it all finally has something
to say about this today’s fact woman’s
view of the world is impassionate
empirical and objective while men will
always be at the mercy of their
irrational illogical feelings now if we
come back to the question why don’t
women want to be entrepreneurs I would
say I think they do they just don’t want
to be male entrepreneurs thank you [Applause]
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