Why aren’t there more women in innovation?
These are excerpts from Part one of my book: Venus Genius: the Female Prescription for Innovation.
I identified several factors for the lack of women in innovation. Here are a couple of them, there are more to discover in the book.
Innovation is for rebels and adventurers
Emma Green, staff writer at The Atlantic states that in the 17th century, “‘innovation’ wasn’t a compliment. It was an accusation. In fact, shouts of ‘Innovator!’ used to be akin to charges of heresy.” “From the 1400s through the 1600s, prior to early American settlement, the concept of ‘innovation’ was pejorative. It was an early modern synonym for rebellion, revolt and heresy.”
It wasn’t certainly my case, but because of their brain biology and more importantly their upbringing and education, girls have a tendency to be quieter, stay still and conform.
Boys are encouraged to be adventurous go-getters.
Boys are taught to be brave, while girls are taught to be perfect — Reshma Saujani, founder of ‘Girls who code’ and author of ‘Brave, not perfect.’
Historically and culturally, innovation seemed to be more suited to men’s temperaments than women’s.
INNOVATION WAS BORN IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Innovation was rooted in science and industry during the nineteenth century Industrial Revolution. Innovation was defined as technical invention. It’s only in 1939 that the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter gave innovation its business dimension.
This very rational approach grounded in technology left women out of the innovation field, as science and technology have historically been domains from which women were mostly excluded.
Unfortunately, the evolution of innovation to include business didn’t lead to gender equality. According to the Equality of Opportunity Project, the gender gap in innovation is shrinking gradually over time, but at the current rate, it will take another 118 years to reach gender parity. That’s a shame. If women and minorities were to invent at the same rate as white men with high-income (top 20%), the rate of innovation in America would quadruple.
There are not enough women in CEO and other decision roles in big companies
Innovation will not happen in a company unless it is championed by the C-suite.
Unfortunately, the C-suite has been predominantly masculine: globally, 29% of senior management roles are held by women, however 43% of human resources directors are women compared to 17% of sales directors and 16% of chief information officers. It is ususally not in HR that the key decisions are made for the future of business and innovation.
How can women help shape the future of the world when they are not in the position to make the decisions that will impact the future of our world?
Innovation is still dominated by the masculine energy and it’s difficult for women to find their place: for centuries, women had limited access to science and technology. As these were the foundation for innovation, women also had limited access to innovation. Among other factors, the lack of women in decision roles and high-level innovation positions in corporations doesn’t allow women to influence the future.
Over the next weeks, I’m going to be sharing excerpts and stories from Part one of my book, Venus Genius in this article series. Venus Genius launched on December 7, 2020 on Amazon, here is the link to buy it: https://lnkd.in/dXbs_WK! If you want to connect, you can reach me here via email: contact@innoveve.com or connect with me on social: www.linkedin.com/in/fabienne-jacquet — https://www.facebook.com/innoveveLLC — @innoveveLLC.
