While International Women’s Day marks a moment to celebrate women’s progress, it also serves to highlight the challenges they continue to face. For women in business and tech, these obstacles can range from a lack of capital, to inadequate networking opportunities, to overt misogyny and abuse.
BetaKit has collected a variety of articles that we hope women and their allies can use to raise awareness and take action. The following list is a collection of talking points, educational tools, and support resources. Originally compiled in 2020, BetaKit has updated it each year since then with additional resources.
We encourage you to read and share, to amplify the conversation.
Pay gap between men and women in tech tripled over five-year period
The pay gap between men and women working in tech nearly tripled between 2016 and 2021, underlining the growing inequality in the sector, according to a report by The Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University. The report, “Canada’s Got Tech Talent,” found that men made $20,000 more on average than women in 2021. The gap has widened since 2016, when men made $7,200 more than their female counterparts. In 2021, men earned $91,000 on average, while women earned $71,400.
Wages for women at the senior level (from the 60th to 80th percentiles) remained flat over the five years, even when controlling for job-switching or having a new child. In the higher percentiles, men saw hourly wage increases of $15 more than women. The report’s authors said stagnant wages for higher-earning women are “primarily responsible” for the widening pay gap.
Women VCs are now earning more at the highest levels (if they can reach them)
For the first time, women’s average salary in senior investment roles was higher than that of men, according to the 2024 Canadian Venture Compensation Report. The average minimum compensation for four roles—senior associate, vice-president, principal, and partner—now sits above $100,000.
However, the farther you look up the leadership ladder at venture capital (VC) firms, the fewer women are present, according to a Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) report. Thirty-one percent of firms have no women in firm or investment leadership, and 50 percent do not count a woman among senior investors.
Just a 10-percent increase in the share of women partners is associated with higher annual returns and more profitable exits, according to a 2019 Harvard study. More homogeneous venture firms are less successful in general, a Toronto Metropolitan University study found.
Lack of inclusion, unclear parental leave still hampering retention of Canadian women in VC
In a recent conversation with BetaKit, Roxanne Leduc, a Canadian Women in VC (CWVC) board member and founder and CEO of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consultancy Cap Inclusive, said LPs and the VCs they back have focused less of their efforts on inclusion—and this is likely why some Canadian VC funds are struggling to retain the women and visible minorities they hire.
According to BDC Capital’s first national D&I reporting survey from 2022, women make up at least 50 percent of fresh hires and promotions at venture firms, indicating that Canadian VCs are taking strides on the gender diversity front from a hiring and advancement standpoint.
But despite this progress, data collected indicates that Canadian investors were struggling to retain women even then. This finding could further support the argument that many VC firms have yet to create truly inclusive environments for women.
And while the number of women in venture capital is growing, there is still room for improvement when it comes to compensation and the amount of money that goes into women-led funds. The data shows a continued trend from years past, as the 2022 report from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA), conducted alongside Diversio, pointed to the age-old story of some progress but not enough.
Women entrepreneurs make a mark on Canadian small business growth
Forty-three percent of small businesses with under 10 employees in Canada are run by women, according to Venture Forward, an international research initiative by GoDaddy. And nearly half of these businesses were founded in the past five years.
Female small business founders are also embracing artificial intelligence (AI). Nearly half say that AI will allow them to compete with larger companies over the next year.
Amid economic uncertainty created by inflation, a trade war, and a labour shortage, only 35 percent of female founders said they were optimistic about the Canadian economy. Less than 30 percent of founders said they planned to hire new staff in the next year. However, 70 percent of women founders expressed optimism about the growth of their company.
Women entrepreneurs are Canada’s biggest missed business opportunity: report
Despite a promising increase in women-founded companies over the past 20 years, there is still a significant gap in the number of women who could be starting businesses in Canada.
That’s according to a new report from Business Data Lab at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. It estimates a gap of approximately 150,000 women-led firms remains to meet the federal government’s goal as set out in its Women Entrepreneurship Strategy.
The report also notes a key statistic compiled by an OECD report in 2023: Canada’s 710,000 “missing” entrepreneurs, who could be starting businesses but are not. It puts the lost economic value of these potential contributions at up to $180 billion.
Nearly 60 percent of majority women-owned businesses are in sectors such as healthcare, professional services, and retail, compared to men-owned businesses, which are more diversely distributed. Women-owned businesses are least represented in construction, mining, oil and gas, and transportation.
Diversity gap persists in senior ranks of Canadian VC firms
Despite year-over-year gains in the representation of women and visible minorities at Canadian venture firms, senior-level diversity in the industry is still lagging, according to a 2023 report from BDC Capital.
BDC Capital’s report found that overall, diversity at the senior levels of the private asset industry remains low—almost half of venture firms are entirely male-owned, while eight percent are entirely visible minority-owned and two percent are entirely woman or Indigenous-owned. Only 31 percent of venture firms reported having gender parity.
These findings should come as no surprise given that reports indicate that women-founded startups still only receive a very small slice of overall venture capital (VC) investment. According to PitchBook data, women only received 1.9 percent of all VC investment in 2022. Even worse, this already small share appears to have been dropping each of the past few years.
Lack of inclusion, unclear parental leave still hampering retention of Canadian women in VC
Roxanne Leduc, a Canadian Women in VC (CWVC) board member and founder and CEO of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consultancy Cap Inclusive, said limited partners (LPs) and the VCs they back have focused less of their efforts on inclusion—and this is likely why some Canadian VC funds are struggling to retain the women and visible minorities they hire.
According to BDC Capital’s first national diversity and inclusion reporting survey from 2022, women make up at least 50 percent of fresh hires and promotions at venture firms, indicating that Canadian VCs are taking strides on the gender-diversity front from a hiring and advancement standpoint.
But despite this progress, data collected indicates that Canadian investors are struggling to retain women. This finding could further support the argument that many VC firms have yet to create truly inclusive environments for women.
And while the number of women in venture capital is growing, there is still room for improvement when it comes to compensation and the amount of money that goes into women-led funds. The data shows a continued trend from years past, as the 2022 report from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA), conducted alongside Diversio, pointed to the age-old story of some progress but not enough.
The majority of respondents to a CWVC survey also expressed that they were unsure how their parental leave policy worked, highlighting a need for greater transparency if the VC industry hopes to retain women.
Leduc noted that most VC funds have not made parental leave a priority, and if women do not understand the benefits available to them and the impact of taking such leave, that can lead to doubt and turnover.
Women, Indigenous peoples, and people with disabilities remain significantly underrepresented in Canada’s tech sector
The 2023 Diversity in Tech Dashboard by TAP Network revealed persistent gender pay disparities across all job levels, with men consistently outearning women. The discrepancy varies by role, ranging from seven percent to 18 percent, with the largest gap of 18 percent identified at the Management level. At the executive level, where women make up only 28 percent of positions, the pay gap stands at seven percent.
Women represent 36.9 percent of the workforce in Canada’s tech sector, a slight increase from last year’s 35.8 percent. However, this figure still significantly trails the 50.83 percent of the population identified as women according to the 2021 Canadian census. Men constitute 62.5 percent of the sector, while non-binary and other genders account for a marginal 0.6 percent.
These findings followed a 2020 report that pulled together public disclosure documents of 594 companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, which found that although the presence of women on the boards of some Canadian companies has been slowly increasing, there is still a notable lack of visible minorities, Indigenous people, and people with disabilities. These reports resonate with data going back to 2017, when a #MoveTheDial report explored a wide range of gender inequity issues in the tech world, noting that women comprise just 13 percent of the average tech company’s executive team.
The under-representation of women in tech is particularly true in British Columbia. A 2019 report from Minerva BC found that just 26 percent of board members in the companies surveyed were women. Women also accounted for just 23 percent of available executive positions among those companies surveyed.
#MoveTheDial partnered with Feminuity to release a “playbook” of strategies to increase women’s retention rates at startups in 2019. It found that startups can be more competitive workplaces for women by offering flexibility, autonomy, and mentorship opportunities. Another part of tackling the representation problem is understanding how to effectively measure it. In 2017, Hubba released an open-source community resource and reporting framework for measuring diversity within companies—while ensuring that respondents feel safe and supported.
A survey of the challenges women founders face when fundraising (and how to overcome them)
In 2023, PwC Canada conducted interviews with 40 successful women founders from 25 different countries to explore their first-hand experiences and perceptions of fundraising, from seed rounds through to Series D and beyond, and what advice they would give to other women entrepreneurs following a similar path.
The study’s authors made five key recommendations for overcoming the barriers facing women founders seeking capital.
Women in Canada’s tech sector often face unique barriers to raising capital. A study from the Conference Board of Canada found that women have a harder time raising capital due in part to the investor biases they face.
The study found that, compared to men, women reported it took longer to raise Series A financing, requiring more pitches to do so. The survey also reported differences in the way people of different genders pitch to investors, how those pitches are received, access to networks, and pools of capital.
Mental health struggles for women entrepreneurs tied to financial burden, access to capital
Only eight percent of women entrepreneurs surveyed by the PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise said that they were always satisfied with their overall mental health, according to a report released last year. The vast majority (86 percent) identified financial factors as their primary source of stress and anxiety—while 73 percent said they faced barriers to accessing capital or financing for their business.
More than half of women entrepreneurs surveyed for a study in 2021 reported that they had struggled with mental health issues. The same study also noted that of the 130 female founders surveyed globally, 95.2 percent said they’d suffered from anxiety during rounds of seed funding.
Fifty-two percent of the women and non-binary respondents to the study reported dealing with mental health issues. The report found a generally unsustainable lifestyle of anxiety and burnout for female founders as they grapple with issues ranging from the stresses of raising a family while trying simultaneously to raise millions in seed money, to finding time for their health and social life.
This article was originally published on March 6, 2020, and updated March 7, 2025.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by WOCinTech.
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The post Ten things worth reading on International Women’s Day first appeared on BetaKit.
