It’s 411 BCE, and Aristophanes is slaying his viewers within the Theatre of Dionysius with a mixture of laughter and tears.
In his play Lysistrata, the title character leads the ladies of Sparta and Thebes in a daring and humorous marketing campaign—a intercourse strike—to finish the devastating warfare between their two cities. On the floor, it’s all enjoyable and farce, however the true energy of the play lies within the second when Lysistrata and her fellow ladies seize the Treasury on the Acropolis.
The Treasury—the place the boys management the funds to proceed the warfare—is the true centre of energy in Athens. By occupying it, Lysistrata and her fellow ladies disrupt the very forces that perpetuate battle and inequality.
It’s a daring act of resistance. On this radical transfer, Aristophanes was poking enjoyable on the time moderately than providing a pointy critique of programs that hoard energy and wealth. Though the play is comedic, it additionally incorporates a twist the place the seriousness of ladies’s calls for emerges, revealing the depth of their battle for equality.
In a surprising act of defiance, the main woman addresses the Athenian Meeting—an all-male discussion board—demanding that girls’s voices be heard in political and financial issues.
In one of many play’s most memorable exchanges, the boys threaten her: “How’d you like to have your mouth shut?”
The response? “Two or three punches ought to do it.”
For those who adopted the US election, you might need heard that very same phrase getting used to invoke a tradition of silencing dissenting voices, notably these of ladies.
The traditional is trendy
Quick-forward to at this time, and there are echoes of this historical battle in every single place.
In some ways, the stakes are nonetheless the identical. Whereas a intercourse strike is probably not on the desk, actions like 4B in Korea present that the decision for collective motion, notably by ladies, could be very a lot alive. What we’re seeing at this time is a modern-day model of Lysistrata’s problem: the battle for a fairer share of financial energy.
Why is it that, just like these historical occasions, lower than 4% of enterprise capital globally nonetheless goes to female-founded corporations—regardless of a lot public dialog and advocacy for gender fairness in funding?
Why does the capital that does move in the direction of ladies founders nonetheless face limitations to entry?
Moira Had been
These questions stay pressing.
Analysis printed in October highlights the magnitude of the issue: all over the world, over two billion ladies are denied entry to equal financial alternatives. A 2023 World Financial Discussion board examine put the financing hole for girls entrepreneurs at US$1.7 trillion, whereas a UN report estimates an extra US$360 billion funding is required per yr to attain gender equality.
We’ve all heard the stats: A Deloitte examine confirmed that corporations led or based by ladies persistently outperform these led by males when it comes to funding returns.
In Australia, for instance, whereas 22% of start-ups are women-founded, solely 0.7% of all personal start-up funding in 2022 went to female-led groups. This, regardless of funding within the sector rising tenfold between FY18 and FY22. This disparity underlines a contemporary treasury that refuses to acknowledge feminine contributions to enterprise.
A current examine from the International Impression Investor Community’s (GIIN) 2024 confirmed that gender traders—those that allocate no less than 30% of their affect belongings to women-led or -owned ventures—met or exceeded their monetary expectations 90% of the time, highlighting the sturdy enterprise case for supporting ladies entrepreneurs.
The sensible cash is aware of this hole must be closed, and a few traders are taking steps in the best course.
Take Blackbird Ventures, which lately reported that of the 16 new corporations they invested on this yr, 5 had ladies within the founding staff. And by greenback quantity, these investments carried out higher—35% of Blackbird’s whole funding went to women-led groups.
Greater strides
However that’s only one step in a a lot bigger motion.
Not all ladies founders wish to interact with conventional enterprise capital. Many are creating new fashions for fulfillment, pushed by group and collective empowerment.
One such mannequin is Coralus, a community-driven enterprise fund the place ladies and non-binary founders are supported by a spirit of radical generosity.
To this point, Coralus has raised $19 million and funded over 190 ventures via its community of seven,000+ members. That is the form of disruptive, community-powered funding that’s starting to problem the established order.
And it’s all rooted in the identical classes we will hint again to Lysistrata—disrupting the previous order, difficult the patriarchal programs that maintain energy, and creating new methods of doing enterprise and sharing sources.
Inform me why?
Which brings me to a bigger query: why is it that in any case these centuries, ladies are nonetheless being shut out of monetary alternatives?
It’s a tragedy, not a comedy, as a result of whereas we maintain funding wars and constructing weapons, we’re not funding the innovation and ingenuity that would actually propel humanity ahead.
The identical forces that denied Lysistrata a voice proceed to throttle our progress at this time, blocking new concepts, alternatives, and innovations—a lot of which come from ladies.
But when I’m being sincere, the foundation of my despair is not only the injustice ladies face. It’s the truth that these similar programs are failing everybody.
Have a look at the psychological well being disaster amongst males, the staggering suicide charges, the declining life expectancy. The programs aren’t working for males, both—besides, maybe, for the billionaires.
You don’t must scroll very far via Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s Checklist earlier than you realise that girls make up a tiny fraction of the ultra-wealthy. In actual fact, it’s important to scroll all the way in which all the way down to #16 to discover a lady’s title.
Sure, billionaires are a coverage failure
And right here’s the factor: billionaires are a coverage failure.
They’re not successful story. They’re the results of a system that rewards the focus of wealth and energy within the palms of some, whereas leaving the remainder of us to choose up the scraps.
Each time we take part within the billionaire-driven financial system, we’re complicit in holding up that system. The monetary mechanisms that maintain these inequities in place are the identical ones that forestall ladies from receiving truthful funding and funding.
It’s time to get actual concerning the gender funding hole. It’s time to finish the bromance with billionaires and spend money on feminine founders. You can begin small—by being a buyer of women-led companies, commissioning and procuring their merchandise, companies, and analysis.
However then, take it additional. Make investments. And invite others to hitch you. Construct a treasury and motion that challenges the previous order.
A motion to make Aristophanes look again from the afterlife and marvel, “Maybe I wasn’t so far off after all.”
Time for enormous interruption
At a systemic stage, it’s time for a large interruption – daring concepts like enterprise capitalists halting funding for male-led companies for 2 years if we genuinely wish to handle this persistent and worsening downside.
And earlier than you dismiss this as outrageous, think about that for hundreds of years, this has been the lived expertise of half the inhabitants.
So actually, it’s not radical in any respect.
Moira Had been AM is a revered chief in group and social enterprise, and the Mayor of the Metropolis of Onkaparinga.
