The Editor's Post: The brilliance bias and the motherhood penalty: what still holds women back?

Can you believe that an experienced female impact entrepreneur is considering hiring a white man to sit alongside her when pitching for funding, because she doesn’t think that investors will take her seriously enough?

Can you believe that male entrepreneurs are frequently invited to set out their brilliant visions for growth by potential funders, while female entrepreneurs are much more often asked about the risks their business will face? 

Can you believe that a young woman entrepreneur in the UK described to me how she found (overwhelmingly male) social investors intimidating and dismissive of her ideas, in spite of her expertise in her market sector?

Can you believe that midlife women across the world are unlikely to become social entrepreneurs because household responsibilities, childcare and financial pressures force so many of them to prioritise simply earning money rather than delivering social impact during their “peak start up years”?

I – almost – can’t believe that we are still highlighting stories like this in Pioneers Post. Yet this week, we felt it was important to publish a viewpoint from Marta Zaccagnini of Village Capital who sets out the systemic gender bias faced by women founders that she has witnessed, including the story of the founder who felt she needed a man on the team to help raise capital. Importantly, Zaccagnini also busts four key myths that are holding women back.

Looking at our coverage of the challenges that female entrepreneurs face, it’s clear that it remains a live issue, in spite of all the initiatives to redress the balance. (Brigit Helms of the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship spoke about the “brilliance bias” at the AVPN Global Conference last year; a study of 5,400 social entrepreneurs across 44 countries revealed the “motherhood penalty” stopping women becoming social entrepreneurs; and the young woman who experienced the rudeness from investors was one of our WISE100 network.)

Kelly Bewers put it nicely in an article for Pioneers Post when she argued that the solutions that are often proposed, such as mentoring, networking and leadership development, focus the problem on women themselves, drawing them as ‘victims’, rather than questioning the system – the patriarchal attitudes and structures that create the inequality. 

Bewers said, “yes, women are being discriminated against by the system – but some women are discriminating against that system too” by leading the design and development of alternative models of business, forging a new economic system that challenges the inherent concepts of business. 

And this is perhaps where we can find hope. In Pioneers Post, you will find positive stories of women succeeding in the impact economy, such as this week’s ‘Good Ideas’ profile of Women’s Work Lab founders Camilla Rigby and Rachel Mostyn who have created a social enterprise that supports other women to thrive. Or my dispatch from the Impact Europe conference last autumn where I heard from Ukrainian Alina Marnenko, who founded Museum in the Dark to support visually impaired people, and – since the war began – has, through sheer determination and ambition, managed to keep it operating and even expanded its work. 

Another source of positivity is the WISE100 initiative that we at Pioneers Post run with NatWest Social and Community Capital, which celebrates and supports women in social enterprise, impact investing and mission-driven businesses across the UK. We award the most outstanding every year, and provide vital networking and learning opportunities through our online and in-person events. The deadline for the 2025 WISE100 is this Sunday 16 February, so I urge you to nominate yourself or someone else right now!

This week's top stories

Exclusive: UK government’s Social Impact Investment Advisory Group members revealed

B Lab, GSG Impact and Faber urge EU not to dilute sustainability reporting rules

Opinion: Female founders are not uninvestable: I can bust the myths that are holding them back

​​Good Ideas: Why the co-CEOs of Women’s Work Lab don’t want their jobs

The Impact World This Week: 13 February 2025

Top image: Freepik