Venture-Backed Companies with Women in Leadership Roles Perform Better, Study Shows

Something we long suspected at StartHerUp and was confirmed by the Dow Jones Study described in Women at the Wheel, Do Female Executives Drive StartUp Success:  “We [Dow Jones] also see that a company’s odds for success (versus unsuccess) increase with more female executives at the VP and director levels.”

Other findings outlined in the report:

• 1.3% of privately held companies have a female founder, 6.5% have a female CEO, and 20% have one or more female C-level executives.
• The most common positions held by female executives were within Sales & Marketing roles.
• The overall median proportion of female executives is 7.1% at successful companies and 3.1% at unsuccessful companies, demonstrating the value that having more females can potentially bring to a management team.
• By industry,  the median proportion of female executives at successful companies is higher than that of unsuccessful companies.
• For start-ups with five or more females, 61% were successful and only 39% failed.