The Sunday Times has released its annual Rich List. This year, with a record number of women and self made entrepreneurs. There has been a lot of coverage on the top 25 women who made it onto this year's list. So how have the self-made women fared?
More women than ever, a record high of 150 have joined the exclusive Rich List ranks in 2020. Of them, 97 are “self made” with the rest receiving their fortune through marriage or inheritance.
The top 25 include Bet 365 founder Denise Coates, designer Victoria Beckham, and author JK Rowling. New entrants to the list include Debbie Bestwick who co-founded Team 17, the games developer behind the Worms franchise.
Rihanna, another new entrant on the list, recently moved to London. While a lot of articles have focused on her musical accolades, her entrepreneurial spirit is undeniable. Rihanna co-founded lingerie brand Savage x Fenty and colour-inclusive makeup line, Fenty Beauty.
While the progress of female entrepreneurs on the Rich List is welcome, there’s still a long way to go. As highlighted in our recent Here and Now Report, firms with at least one female founder received just 10% of UK funding and women-led businesses are, on average, 44% of the size of male-led companies. An independent review published by the UK Government found huge untapped economic potential of female entrepreneurs. According to the review, only one in three entrepreneurs are women, a gender gap equivalent to over 1 million fewer female entrepreneurs. The review found that closing the gap could add an additional £250 billion to the UK economy.
Dame Helena Morrissey, founder of the 30% Club lobby group, which campaigns for more women in top jobs, talks in the Sunday Times article about how a lot of female founders still struggle to obtain venture capital and private equity funding. Dame Helena adds that “it’s not that they don’t want to invest in female founders, but there’s a sense that women either set a higher bar, or have to lean in to the more masculine approach”.
In our Here and Now Report, we put forward the case for greater representation of women in the venture capital sphere. As we reported, female venture capital partners are twice as likely to invest in companies with a woman on the management team and three times more likely to invest in companies with a female CEO.
We shouldn’t slow down in our efforts to reduce the barriers women face to starting up and scaling their businesses. But we should celebrate this small win and reflect on the progress we’ve made already.
There are many positives to draw from the findings of our Here and Now Report, including the fact that more than two thirds of women (71.8%) aged 16-64 are employed, the highest percentage since the Office of National Statistics began recording the data in 1971.
During the current COVID-19 crisis, we need to keep a keen eye on how the support entrepreneurs are receiving is impacting women-led businesses as this may impact their survival rates.
We have come a long way. Today we need to focus on levelling the playing field, to ensure that the UK becomes the place for women to start and grow their businesses.