Launching While Female: Smashing the System That Holds Women Entrepreneurs Back

An expose of the gender gap in entrepreneurship and a road map for a more inclusive and economically successful future for us all

Journalist and professor Susanne Althoff investigates the obstacles women and nonbinary entrepreneurs-especially those of color-face when launching, funding, and growing their companies, obstacles that persist because the current start-up world was engineered by and for white men. Through interviews with over a hundred founders across the country and in all industries, Althoff paints a picture of an entrepreneurial system rife with bias and discrimination, where women receive less than 3 percent of this country’s venture capital, struggle to find mentors in the wake of #MeToo, and are dismissed as mompreneurs.

The effects of this unequal system-a weaker economy, fewer jobs, less innovation-are felt by all of us, and Althoff explains how more equitable structures in business and entrepreneurship will benefit all people, not just those hoping to fund a startup.

By exploring some of the practical ways we can open the entrepreneurial system to everyone, Althoff provides a rallying cry and a way forward for women entrepreneurs and their allies, showing that change is urgent and within our reach.