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When Laura Fernández Giménez managed a co-working space in sunny Barcelona, she realized two things. First, many companies were looking for tech workers like developers, but struggled to find enough to fill the positions. Second, not only was there a shortage of IT staff in Barcelona, but there were fewer women doing this type of work.
While Fernández Giménez left her job as an employee to start a business, a report by Startup Genome suggests that she is one of the few women creating their own tech company in Barcelona. According to the study, only 14 percent of startup founders in the Catalan capital are women.That's why, in January 2018, Fernández Giménez began her career as an entrepreneur, leaving the co-working space toco-workingand created the FutureFunded platform. This project ofcrowdfunding(crowdfunding) raised money to support women's tech education and has since becomeAllWomen,an academy that aims to train women in technology. "After six months, we realized that our impact had to increase, as it not only raised funds for women, but also created an environment where they felt welcome, in the majority, safe, and that was designed for them," the founder recalls.
While Fernández Giménez left her job as an employee to start a business, a report by Startup Genome suggests that she is one of the few women who create their own tech company in Barcelona. According to the study, only 14 percent of startup founders in the Catalan capital are women. Although this number is very low, it places the city slightly above the European average, which is 13 percent. In London, 15 percent of startup founders are women, 19 in New York City. Reports on Spain as a whole show a similar but somewhat better picture. A recent study by South Summit, a technology platform aimed at connecting Southern Europe and Latin America, reports that 22 percent of startup founders in Spain are women, compared to 18 percent last year.
"I really believe in the importance and power of role modeling," she explains. "Seeing other women doing things that we are not expected to do gives you strength to believe that you can do it too."MODELS THAT ARE MISSED, VERSUS "BRO CULTURE"
The reasons why there are few women founders are numerous and complex. AllWomen founder, Fernández Giménez, believes that stereotypes and prejudices remain preeminent, forcing women into gender-typical professions and lifestyles. "I truly believe in the importance and power of role modeling," she explains. "Seeing other women doing things we are not expected to do gives you strength to believe that you too can do it."
Not only missing role models help sustain the glass ceiling. Also a strongly misogynistic work culture in the tech field, often described as "bro culture" (a kind of brotherhood, which occurs exclusively among males), can make it more difficult for women to find their way into entrepreneurship and technology, as argued in an article in the English newspaper The Guardian by author Emily Chang, who wrote Brotopia, a book that has become famous for exposing the macho culture of Silicon Valley.
This work environment is something that Katrina Walker, founder of Codely, experienced firsthand. Walker decided to start the Barcelona-based tech academy that also teaches technical skills to women, because she experienced "everything from subtle condescension to blatant sexism" when working in the tech scene. "I wanted to create a space that supports women who are interested in advancing their career in technology," she says about the startup that started the course for the first group of students in September of this year.
Fernández Giménez and Walker are not the only entrepreneurs who are working to improve technology and the startup environment for women. In addition to AllWomen and Codely, other Barcelona-based companies also focus on helping, motivating, or educating other women. For example, Downtown Offices, founded by Dutch Astrid Aafjes, aims to act as a network for the female entrepreneurial community. And, apart from these business models, there are also meetups, Facebook groups and workshops like Shecommerce. All have one thing in common: they aim to create safe spaces for women, and hope to motivate them to pursue tech and/or entrepreneurial careers.
Of course, businesswomen in Barcelona do not only start projects focused on women. Other companies based in the Catalan capital and founded by at least one woman are the electricity company Holaluz by Carlota Pi Amoros, the anti-piracy agency Red Points led by Laura Urquizu, and the biotechnology company Husk Ventures founded by Carol Rius and Heloise Buckland.
TIME FOR CHANGES
Despite the fact that the rate of female entrepreneurs is slightly above ten percent, Aafjes, founder of Downtown Offices, who started her network a year ago, believes that the environment is improving. "Every time I go to a startup meeting, I meet many young foreign women who are looking for opportunities," she explains. While most of them are unlikely to intend to create a large company, many of the women she meets want to grow their small business, she points out. At the same time, Aafjes realizes that many women are entering the tech industry.
"We always organize events with expert speakers in various technological fields, all our technology teachers are women. So they exist, they are there, and you just have to actively look for them"However, at the same time, there is still a lack of representation and visibility of female founders. "If you look at the speakers, panelists, etc., at conferences, on the radio and at meetings, most are men, unless it's a female platform like Shecommerce," says Aafjes, who arrived in Barcelona eight years ago. While there is an increasing number of businesswomen, most, and therefore the general facade of the scene ofstartups,is masculine. The founder of the Academy, Fernández Giménez, agrees and comments that she has no patience for the all-too-common objection that there are no women experts in a specific field. "We always organize events with expert women speakers in various technological fields, all our technology teachers are women. So they exist, they are there, and you just have to actively go look for them," says the founder. "Encourage them, instead of putting your male friends on stage just because you know them and because your job simply becomes easier that way."
It is undeniable that women founders of companies in Barcelona strive for visibility, and in fact are actively working to improve the city's conditions, both for themselves and for other women. However, outside the support system for entrepreneurs and tech workers that they are building themselves, the city's startup ecosystem still has a long way to go to achieve equality, instead of developing only by women for women.
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