I recently wrote a guest blog post for The Next Women on female entrepreneurs I met in Berlin, Germany and felt compelled to write a longer post outlining what it really means to be a female entrepreneur in the tech startup world.
It’s clear that in recent years there has been a paradigm shift in global female innovation. Women are feeling more empowered than ever before and as technology continues to be more accessible around the world, innovation and creativity will continue to flourish. There are more opportunities for women to establish thought leadership online and to increase their influence within the tech arena.
As increasing numbers of women are given unprecedented access to channels of communication within global networks, there are now more possibilities for these women to connect with other female mentors on social ventures, find investors and realize their next big idea. Online forums and organizations offer a collaborative and supportive ecosystem enabling women from all over the world to start their own company and build business ideas that are sustainable.
Strong women have always served as role models. My mother was a guiding light in my youth, and still is today. Not only did she know what she wanted in life, she realized within herself what made her powerful. I believe her strong sense of individuality and general helpfulness toward others had a huge impact on me. If we can teach young women of the world to adopt a stronger sense of individual character and provide them with the necessary training to run their own companies our problem of underrepresentation in the tech world will cease to exist.
We need to embrace the fact that technology is bleeding through every aspect of our lives, and that advanced learning, networking and collaboration is more accessible than ever. It’s not really a solution, because I don’t necessarily think there needs to be one. The ‘solution’ is for us to open our eyes, and see that women have as much opportunity in the tech startup scene as men – not limited by physical or mental strength, and not bound by the limitations of apparatus or, in this case, technology.