It pays to have younger women in your business teams, according to the latest report from US non-profit organisation, Girls With Impact.
Although women make up just 22% of those participating in college venture competitions, they represent a far higher proportion of winning business teams, reveals the report, entitled ‘The Power of Next Generation Women’. In fact, 51% of the winning teams (those ranking in first, second or third place) – had a female founder and 32% a woman CEO.
According to Girls With Impact CEO, Jennifer Openshaw, the results provide ‘further proof that women can outperform – even in business’.
REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
As well as highlighting the barriers that women face in entering business careers, the report offers a host of recommendations for parents, educational establishments and companies. Parents are advised to provide young girls early exposure to business conditioning needed for college, through after-school activities that can help to boost chances of career success.
The report also recommends that educational establishments, like colleges, get better at tracking women’s participation in college ventures/competitions and encouraging greater female participation.
Finally, if corporations want to take advantage of this talent, they need to start supporting the training of younger Generation Z women much earlier. The report recommends that businesses invest more in STEEM, not just STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). The extra ‘E’ which stands for ‘entrepreneurship’ will ensure the development of female leaders with the mindset and skills capable of navigating in the future world of business, says the report.
“Whether you’re large or small, the future of work is all about entrepreneurship – connecting internally and externally to drive innovation,” stated George Brooks, Americas Leader at EY’s People Advisory Services. “We need to do a 180 and re-think organisations to unleash the potential in these young women.”
Companies that fail to turn to this next generation of women “will miss out – pure and simple”, added David Noble, Professor and Director of the Werth Institute for Innovation Consortium at the University of Connecticut.
The research, sponsored by EY’s People Advisory Services, is based on six years of data involving 1,454 participants on 535 teams from three universities – UCLA, Rice University and the University of Connecticut.
For a copy of the report, check out: https://girlswithimpact.com/
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