Publicly Traded Companies Run by Women Entrepreneurs

Women are making powerful strides in all industries and sectors – from sports and entertainment, to international judiciary systems – despite living and working in a world rife with “alarming” bias against them. 

However, in the realm of publicly traded companies, women leaders remain scant. Just over 40 companies on the S&P 500 had women CEOs – a paltry 8%.

The growth is slow.

While there are thousands of publicly traded companies worldwide, The Story Exchange only found 44 thus far that had women involved from the very beginning.

Bias Impacts Whether Women Entrepreneurs Get Funding

Swedish researchers observing government venture capitalists over a year found that they described female and male investors quite differently, and not in a good way.

They suggested that bias, and the way those biases were phrased, may have impacted whether women got funding.

According to the Harvard Business Review article, "We Recorded VCs' Conversations and Analyzed How Differently They Talk About Female Entrepreneurs," male entrepreneurs received positive language (.e.g, bold!) about their "potential."  The women, on the other hand, tended to get a different set of comments (e.g., cautious and nervous) with emphasis on their looks.

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