Women Leading the Way: A Surprising Rise in Female Startup Leaders

According to the HSE FEST 2023 expert survey, women remain a minority in leadership roles within startups, yet their representation has grown to around 30%.

It's widely recognized that women often face challenges in advancing their careers. Both economists and employers have noted skepticism towards female candidates, partly due to potential maternity leaves and caregiving responsibilities. However, these trends are gradually shifting.

At the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Saint Petersburg, during the All-Russian Festival of University Technology Projects HSE FEST 2023, a survey was conducted among female leaders ranked within the top 100 startups. The findings revealed that women lead 30% of STEM projects across sectors such as EdTech, MarTech, and MedTech.

The survey aimed to understand the characteristics of female leadership, the role of education, and the management models employed by women in top positions. Key criteria included experience managing startups as founders, co-founders, or CEOs.

The results indicate that today's female startup leaders typically possess higher education in economics or technical fields, have experience managing multiple startups, and exhibit strong leadership qualities combined with high resilience to stress.

In Russia, the number of women in STEM leadership roles is on the rise. The HSE FEST 2023 survey showed that while women still represent a minority in startup leadership, their presence hovers around 30%.

Among experts surveyed, 55.6% acknowledged the underrepresentation of women leaders in STEM businesses as a genuine issue, 33.3% considered it less significant, and 11% believed no such problem exists. Notably, about 20% of experts observed that women often demonstrate greater effectiveness in project management.

All female leaders surveyed confirmed that their first higher education degree was instrumental in managing projects. Forty percent held degrees in economics and finance, while 33.3% had engineering or technical backgrounds. Additionally, 36% are currently pursuing or planning to pursue advanced academic degrees.

Twenty-six point seven percent of respondents have experience managing multiple startups, while for the majority (73.3%), this is their first startup venture. Regarding their fields, 26.7% have management experience in IT, 13.3% in sales, and another 26.7% in marketing.

When it comes to project management methodologies used in tech startups, most women employ multiple approaches, including Kanban, Scrum, Scrumban, Six Sigma, and Critical Path Method. Overall, 42.2% of top 100 participants utilize agile methodologies, with Kanban being the most popular at 28.6%. This highlights the appeal of flexible and iterative project management approaches. Meanwhile, 7.1% reported using traditional methods like Waterfall, and 28.6% do not use formal project management methodologies.

Surveyed female leaders often face financial and technical challenges in managing startups, with the bulk of their workload focused on organizing team operations.

The top three soft skills identified by respondents include leadership (73.3%), the ability to build relationships inside and outside the company (73.3%), and stress resilience (66.7%). Other valuable skills noted were systematic thinking (60%), multitasking and communication (53.3%), and high adaptability (46.7%). Interestingly, only 6.7% highlighted empathy and strategic thinking as key skills.

Remarkably, 80% of participants consider themselves fully fulfilled as startup leaders. This satisfaction suggests that what was once a predominantly male domain is becoming increasingly open, attractive, and welcoming for women pursuing ambitious careers in STEM.

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