Only 13% of Web3 founding teams include a woman, and only 3% have a team that is exclusively made up of women, a new report has found.
“We risk continuing to build an online world that replicates, instead of countering, the same biases that plague the physical world,” said the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report which was done in partnership with the People of Crypto Lab.
The key results from the report are highlighted below:
- Only 13% of Web3 startups include a female founder. Within that group, 10% of founding teams include both men and women, and only 3% of companies have a team that is exclusively female. All numbers are worse than average for startups overall
- The gender disparity extends to the overall general Web3 workforce. Among all employees at top Web3 startups, the share of women is higher (approximately 27%), but they are often clustered in non-technical roles such as HR and marketing.In funding, the split is even wider
- All-male founding teams raise nearly four times as much, on average, as all-female teams (almost $30 million, on average, compared to about $8 million). Among companies that have raised more than $100 million, the percentage with all-female founding teams is zero
According to the report, this situation is quite worrisome, especially since the gender gap in the Web3 industry is more significant than in STEM-based fields where women account for 33% of the workforce, with 25% serving in technical roles.
“The numbers are alarming,” said Jessica Apotheker, BCG’s chief marketing officer, and a co-author of the study.
“Web3 companies will shape how people represent themselves online, transact business, and interact with each other. BCG research has found that companies with diverse leadership teams are better at innovation and more profitable. Web3 companies that do not embrace and leverage diversity from the start will forego a huge business and monetization opportunity.”
Nonetheless, the analysts have put forward some recommendations that can help to change the situation, a strong possibility given the nascency of the industry:
- Measure all aspects of representation in the industry and firms
- Put women on investment teams
- Design more inclusive brand experiences
- Build proper support systems in the ecosystem
- Partner with regulators
“Web3 will revolutionise how we interact, transact, and monetise as a society, but this can only be achieved if women are equally involved in its development,” said Simone Berry, co-founder of People of Crypto Lab and a co-author of the study.
“Despite the current ecosystem being biased towards men, we are very early in development with an incredible opportunity to not repeat past mistakes and ensure that women have the resources and funding they need to lead the new digital economy.”
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