Gender equality in politics has been on full display for the last few weeks. Missed it? No problem, we will get you up to speed - just this week, Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, called out the world leaders at UNGA for not representing women’s voices: “Less than 10% of speakers during this week’s General Debate are women”. And that came on top of Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, presenting her proposed new team of commissioners just last week. She had made a big deal out of making it gender equal  and the outcome was not all bad: Out of a total of 26 proposed commissioners, 10 are women and 16 are men.

Here is where it gets interesting and surprising (and also really quite annoying): von der Leyen’s proposed cabinet and intention to reach a gender balance faced criticism and resistance. It was really disappointing to see that member states didn’t respond positively or proactively to her requests and it took quite a bit of massaging to get them to cooperate. Even more worryingly, the general public also had sceptical opinions: one big Danish newspaper, Weekendavisen, wrote: “Only the elite define gender imbalance as a societal problem, and that is because their other problems have already been solved.” They then go on to say: ”If you are unemployed or low paid, you care about rising living costs, a better future for your children and an old age not spent in poverty”.

It is quite a statement. And it is not one we agree with.

The notion that gender equality is a nice-to-have that is non-pressing and non-essential is something that we also hear all too often in the startup world. The lack of female founders and investment in them is always treated as someone else's problem - by both the government and actors in the startup ecosystem. Only 1-2% of VC investment in the Nordics goes to women, and these numbers have barely budged in the last 10 years. In Denmark, the government did at least acknowledge the problem in their latest entrepreneurship strategy, but they fell short of actually defining any clear KPIs or regulation to help with it (even though there are precedents for how they could have done this - take a look at California).

The fact is this: Gender equality is a huge problem and it is everyone’s problem. But we often forget that it is also an opportunity. Gender equality is an opportunity to build better solutions, both in politics and in the startup world (and to make a lot of money). Gender equality is far from a “nice-to-have”. It is crucial to have. And if you are not convinced, we have taken the time to explain exactly why we are so passionate about it.

Promoting gender equality is about solving an important societal problem…

Women are half of the world’s population. A whole 50%. So then of course in politics, where decisions that affect their lives are made, their voices need to be reflected. This also holds true in the startup world, where the products that shape our world are built.

While the EU has a legal obligation to ensure equality between men and women, it also seems logical that, in a democracy, the people making decisions look like the people they are making the decisions for. How can they represent the peoples’ interests otherwise?

It might be less obvious, but the exact same logic applies to the startup world. In product design, the female population is often an afterthought - if it is even a thought at all. This is so common there is even a term for adapting a product designed for a male standard to women: “Shrink it and pink it”. It’s painfully condescending - and it minimises a serious problem. Designing for a male standard is at best inconvenient, for example when an AI voice reader has a harder time understanding a female voice. But at its worst it is lethal; women die when car air bags or artificial hearts are designed for a male standard and do not account for female bodies.

Looking at it from another angle: there are clear benefits to increasing the share of women in these scenes. We are not just biased, we have done our research and can prove it for you: take the fact that increasing the share of women in politics through quotas actually increases the quality of politicians (shown by their education  and their experience). Women founders also make better entrepreneurs. It sounds provocative, but once again, we have got the receipts: every 100 DKK invested in a startup led by female-only founders yields a 25% higher ROI than an investment made in one led by male-only founders. That is pretty significant.

Even if you wanted to ignore all that, increasing the amount of women founders is a gateway to tap into a huge growth market: women control 85% of consumer spending in the US and WCI (women-centered-innovation, which means products designed by women for women) is the best way to access this market. Women entrepreneurs and designers have an innate ability to understand female consumers and create products that are more appealing to them. There is huge potential there, just from a growth perspective alone.

…but it is also about solving a lot of other societal problems more effectively

Knowing that there is evidence women make damn good politicians and damn good entrepreneurs, it is not surprising that increasing the share of them in these positions creates damn good outcomes. A better gender balance leads to better outcomes, both on political agendas and in the startup world. You can judge for yourself, but we do not think that sounds like a privileged problem or an issue for a later date.

Did you know that women tend to focus on solving root problems rather than just addressing symptoms when they are designing policies? Studies indicate that women report more concern about poverty and healthcare than men in policymaking (we are sure Weekendavisen would be absolutely thrilled to hear this) while men prioritise national defence and military spending. On top of that, there is evidence that parties in countries with quotas devote more attention to social justice issues in their manifestos. Similarly, feminist foreign policy prioritises human security over state security, focusing on the root causes of conflict, demilitarisation, a multilateral approach, and diplomatic interventions. Prioritising bringing more women in policy is therefore a way of making a statement on what problems we want solved and how we want to solve them (and perhaps it is time to try something different?).

In a similarly utilitarian manner, female entrepreneurs are more likely to create social impact through their businesses. Women entrepreneurs tend to invest more of their income in the education of their children and support others in their community. They also define success as doing something impactful and making a difference in their communities, as well as growing their business and creating profits. Only the latter two tend to be true for men.

Having more women in positions of power is only the tip of the iceberg. In the developing world, it is a well known fact that focusing on opportunities for girls and women is a really impactful way to create spillover impact for a lot of other parameters. Antonio Guterres made this exact point when he addressed the low percentage of women leaders at the UNGA: “This is unacceptable – especially when we know gender equality delivers for peace, sustainable development, climate action and much more. That is precisely why we took targeted measures to achieve gender parity among United Nations senior leadership.”

Gender equality is not just a problem to solve but a way to solve a problem

Focusing on bringing in more women into specific positions, like the UN and European Commission have done, is about changing a dusty thought process that is no longer producing the best possible outcomes. How we solve a problem matters just as much as which problem we are choosing to solve. Deciding gender equality is something to be addressed only when other things are fixed is focusing on putting out fires rather than dealing with their root causes.

We are very aware that it is not a zero sum game (and where did the mindset come from that it is?!). The process of solving one problem is a huge opportunity to start solving other ones. By taking into consideration other areas, such as gender equality (and inclusion and diversity more broadly), even better outcomes are produced across the board, which make things better for everyone.

In the end, if it is really too hard for politicians to multitask by simultaneously solving several problems, that might be yet another reason to bring the women in, as they have been simultaneously living up to a long list of (contradicting) expectations for centuries!

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