Coming soon: A series on female entrepreneurs in Singapore

Women entrepreneurs gathered recently at a female-only event co-organised by SGE, Women 2.0 and PlayMoolah. Photo credit: Isaac Timothy T

Female entrepreneurship has been tirelessly discussed and explored by the academic and business worlds. Notably, scholars such as Vivek Wadhwa (who is currently at the School of Information at UC-Berkeley) have researched and shown that there are no inherent differences between male and female entrepreneurs.

According to his study, “both groups had an equally strong desire to build wealth; wanted to capitalize on business ideas; were attracted to the culture of startups; had long-standing desire to own their own company; and were tired of working for others.”

Despite the similarities, the rise and success of female entrepreneurs across the globe remain less visible, particularly in industries traditionally dominated by males. With less than 10 percent of CEOs, founders, or presidents in high tech start-ups being female and the lack of women in tech circles, the question of why there is a lack of female decision makers remains unanswered.

In the following weeks, SGE will feature interviews and highlight the achievements of female entrepreneurs in Singapore. We will be discussing the challenges and advantages they face across a broad range of industries.

Questions we hope to answer include: What are the typical characteristics of female entrepreneurs? (Or rather, are there any at all?) What are some of the strengths that women should capitalise on? How should they overcome their weaknesses? Does it matter here in Singapore? Will someone of the fairer sex ever be able to build something like Facebook or Twitter?

Why should you even care? (Especially if you’re not a woman?)

Stay tuned and as we unravel the delicate layers of this complex subject to you.

In meantime, you can read about the exciting Chillin’ With Women 2.0 event that happened on 6th June. It was a women-only mixer where fellow entrepreneurs (both aspiring and current) met up with Women 2.0 Pitch Director Ong Aihui from Silicon Valley over appetizers and drinks.