Startups
Reports: Hungarian, Polish and Ukranian Women in our Startup Ecosystem
"In the last 7 years I have been mentoring entrepreneurs coming from different parts of the World, but mostly from Hungary. It striked me that despite all our efforts to attract women participants, female founder applications to our incubation programs were significantly lower compared to male applicants. Also, the number of female mentors active in our program were multiple times lower than males. Most of my program staff were female - it just happened that way - and I thought that it should in itself send the signal, that we are most welcoming to female founders. We also ran campaigns prominently displaying our - few - female founders, mentors, partners in the program. The response was amazing, yet, the ratio in the applications remained unchanged. Clearly, something more needs to be done. The reasons that hold women back from the entrepreneurial space are complex.These studies attempt to uncover some of the underlying issues, and our goal is to use this knowledge to create avenues for women in entrepreneurship." Andrea Kozma, director of CEU iLab.
December 20, 2022