From GIIN - Resource library of different strategies to achieve gender impact.

From UN Women - This new guide provides corporations and their suppliers with a deeper understanding of the barriers and challenges preventing women-owned businesses from accessing and fully participating in local and global values chains. It provides the tools and techniques for reducing or eliminating these barriers and for leveraging the vast untapped economic potential represented by women-owned businesses. For many women, entrepreneurship offers a path to economic empowerment and it is incumbent upon corporations to help create conditions that permit this.

This guide is intended to support signatories of the Women’s Empowerment Principles, which UN Women and UN Global Compact jointly promulgate, to take action on Principle 5: Implement enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women. Corporations are well positioned to promote gender equality and empower women in their workplaces, in their communities and through their purchasing policies and practices.

From Financial Alliance for Women - A wide collection of how-to guides and case studies ranging from data analysis, market research, public policy, women’s market strategy, and more.

From Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF) / Frontier Incubators - The Gender Lens Incubation and Acceleration Toolkit (GLIA Toolkit) is an instructional guide for incubators, accelerators, and other entrepreneurial support organizations operating in Southeast Asian countries with the aim of improving the various issues surrounding working women in Southeast Asia. The GLIA Toolkit was developed with the aim of building a gender smart entrepreneurial ecosystem in Southeast Asia by incorporating a gender perspective into the activities of entrepreneurs and surrounding stakeholders.

From SEAF - This measurement mechanism is demonstrates that SEAF portfolio companies can provide appropriate financial returns and measurable impact, including women being economically empowered through investment and development activities.

From i2i Insights - Pakistan's startup ecosystem has rapidly developed in the past few years. Although currently experiencing an economic slowdown, the ecosystem’s stakeholders continue to demonstrate resilience and a forward-thinking approach.  

By Donor Committee on Enterprise Development. Care work, in all its forms, is a critical social good. It is essential for the provisioning of society and provides the foundation upon which our market economies function. Most care work across the world is unpaid, and its distribution is strongly gendered: more than three-quarters of all unpaid care work globally is carried out by women. A growing body of research has explored the relationship between childcare and women’s economic empowerment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The results suggest that childcare provision can improve women’s labour market outcomes across a number of measures, including employment, income, and transitioning from the informal to the formal sector. Based on these promising links, further research has sought to develop the ‘business case’ for care - focusing largely on two avenues: public investment in childcare provision and formal, employer-supported childcare. A ‘missing middle’ between these two well-documented models, of great relevance for development actors focused on promoting childcare solutions in LMICs, is about meeting the childcare needs of women micro and small enterprises (MSEs), including self-employed workers.

This report from FSA Open Policy Lab summarises gender diversity challenges in Japan’s startup ecosystem based on 19 individual interviews, discussion at a workshop, data analysis and literature review conducted by the Open Policy Lab. Three main findings in this report are as follows: Firstly, Japan needs to overcome the persistent gender inequality in the management of listed companies. While numerous measures have been in force, female leaders of the newly listed companies account for only 2%. Secondly, gender diversity in the startup ecosystem is a critical agenda from economic perspectives. Lacking in gender diversity, male-dominant companies may suffer from a variety of losses, including the impact on profitability. Third, all stakeholders in the startup ecosystem should act now to change the status quo. Investment in startups has been on the rise. If current practices remain unchanged, existing distortions would likely be maintained or even strengthened.

From IFC and We-Fi - “Across the world, women play key roles as distributors and retailers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), however, the extent of their participation varies. This learning brief introduces how gender equality can be advanced within the distribution activities of the FMCG sector. It presents an emerging business case, the challenges, and recommendations to address these challenges. The brief is based on IFC projects in Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, Philippines, and Sri Lanka; desk research; and interviews with market participants. The target audience comprises FMCG sales and distribution teams; FMCG sustainability teams; e-supply chain actors, including business-to business (B2B) distribution platforms; and investors seeking to accelerate gender equality.”

From Fairview Capital- A market update and review of woman and minority-owned private equity and venture capital firms actively raising capital in 2020 based on data collected by Fairview Capital

From Fairview Capital- “In our latest report, we share Fairview’s data on the size, evolution, and current characteristics of the universe of woman and minority-owned private equity and venture capital firms (firms majority owned by women and/or ethnic minorities in the US). In 2021, we found that this set of diverse private equity and venture capital firms is larger and more dynamic than ever before.”

From Women Win. The Gender-Responsive Due Diligence (GRDD) Platform describes the process of adding a gender lens to human rights due diligence and offers practical resources and advice to help implement each step of the due diligence process. This platform consists of two core components:

1. Understanding GRDD

2. Implementing GRDD

The GRDD platform has primarily been designed and developed for multi-national enterprises and brands with global supply chains, in both products and services sectors. The platform is intended for any company that has started, or is going to start, implementing human rights due diligence and is keen to ensure this is done in a gender-responsive manner.

From Digital Undivided. The 2021 update to digitalundivided’s ongoing, proprietary research initiative on the state of Black and Latinx women founders.

From Baobab Consulting. In this edition of Baobab Consulting’s LinkedIn white paper, Omolara "Lara" Abiona investigates why African female entrepreneurs find it hard to access financing, sheds light on the complex relational dynamics that further impedes economic empowerment, and presents recommendations to address the access to finance gap on various level.

From Arabella Advisors. This report, updated in August 2021, explores how foundations, philanthropists, and impact investors can begin to address the biases they face, unlock access to capital, and build a more equitable economy for all through inclusive investing.

From Harvard Business Review. Women who venture into entrepreneurship are not poised to get a fair deal. Kamal Hassan, Monisha Varadan, and Claudia Zeisberger argue that bias within the VC industry is preventing funds from being allocated to the best investment opportunities, so if we want both better VC outcomes and more gender balance in entrepreneurship, we need to root out the bias hampering ventures at their earliest stages. The research suggests that the pitching process is the best place to start.

By Dana Kanze, Laura Huang, Mark A. Conley, and E. Tory Higgins. A study of Q&A interactions between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs at the annual startup funding competition TechCrunch Disrupt New York City found that venture capitalists posed different types of questions to male versus female entrepreneurs. They tended to ask men (promotion) questions about the potential for gains, and they tended to ask women (prevention) questions about the potential for losses. The difference in questioning explains much of why female entrepreneurs received five times less funding than their male counterparts.

A second experiment finds that the relationship between Q&A orientation and funding is causal. Entrepreneurs who were asked promotion questions received twice as much funding as those who were asked prevention questions.

Both studies also revealed an actionable silver lining: If entrepreneurs reframe their responses to prevention questions, they may be able to raise more funds.

From Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley’s second annual survey of venture capitalists reveals the intensified dialogue around racial inequality has captured investor attention and shifted their attitudes significantly. The increased focus on this issue is leading to investment strategies that include more actions to address disparities in funding for multicultural- and women-founded companies, which are well-documented for women and Black entreprenuers.

From FCDO/DIT and Palladium. Despite Black female entrepreneurs being one of the fastest growing entrepreneur groups in the US, they receive a disproportionately small amount of investment. In 2019, less than 9% of investment went to female founders, and less than 3% went to founders of color in the US. In the UK, only 0.5% of start-ups with Black founders received VC investment. Recent studies have shown the importance of diversity in building more equitable societies. Investment rates and current trends suggest Black Female Entrepreneurs’ (BFEs) fair access to investment resources requires attention. Despite Black female entrepreneurs being one of the fastest growing entrepreneur groups in the US, they receive a disproportionately small amount of investment. In 2019, less than 9% of investment went to female founders, and less than 3% went to founders of color in the US. In the UK, only 0.5% of start-ups with Black founders received VC investment.

Recent studies have shown the importance of diversity in building more equitable societies. Investment rates and current trends suggest Black Female Entrepreneurs’ (BFEs) fair access to investment resources requires attention.

The FCDO/DIT partnered with Palladium Impact Capital to conduct a market study examining the barriers to investment that BFEs experience in the UK and the US, and potential pathways to removing them.

From Pitchbook. In 2019, female-founded companies in the US closed more venture deals than ever before, raking in more than $20 billion across thousands of deals—significant improvement from a decade prior, wherein just $2.5 billion was invested across just under 600 financings. However, as the latest edition of the All In report series shows, the pandemic's onset put an abrupt halt to this upward trajectory. Reviewing the latest venture data, the report finds that female-founded companies in the US have seen a disproportionate drop in capital invested relative to the country's broader venture space.

The full report unpacks this stark reversal in depth, pulling in datasets spanning exits, industry and regions for greater context and richer nuance. In addition, it features Q&As with key industry players from Microsoft for Startups and Beyond The Billion, addressing related issues such as overall representation and how diversity contributes to improved outcomes for both companies and investors.