Prowess Project hosted our fourth in the Men Tell All panel series on Gender Equality in the workforce at The Riveter. Below are the top three takeaways from our discussion on ROI of Gender Equality.
Meet our panelists:
- Harold Hughes – Founder, Keynote speaker & Mentor
- John Oberg – Founder, Advisor, Board member, Investor,
- Neil Patwardhan – Founder, Advisor, Mentor
Takeaways:
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Where do you keep your ketchup?
Harold likened the importance of having a diverse team to if you were to have a contest where you awarded a team for finding ketchup in a kitchen. If your team was homogenous, they might all check the cabinets or they might all check the fridge. By having a diverse team, you’d know to check BOTH the fridge and the cabinets.
2. Why is investing in female founders a risk?
According to Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation found that women-led teams generate a 35% higher return on investment than all-male teams. Given these statistics, why do women only get 2-3% of VC dollars? How is this a risk that VC aren’t willing to take? We didn’t get to a conclusive answer here, but the question presented was a takeaway in itself.
3. How to find male mentors as a female?
Research by LeanIn.org showed that number of senior men who are “uncomfortable” mentoring women has more than tripled. From five to 16 percent of male managers in the US now hesitate to mentor a woman. Suggestions from our panelists were to find male mentors online, there are now several platforms to do so, The Mentor Method and Ceresa. Or talk to women who have male mentors and ask if their mentors can help the female find a male mentor. It creates a sense of vetting and accountability.
Thank you everyone for attending and we’re already looking forward to our next panel!
Until next time,
Ashley