CALGARY – The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot of ways that the world does business. And a new report on women entrepreneurs and stress underscores the need for more support as we move out of the pandemic.
More than half of women surveyed by Flik, an organization that supports women entrepreneurs, reported they had struggled with various mental health issues.
“Female founders experienced more social isolation compared to their male counterparts, just due to lack of representation in the entrepreneurship community,” said Flik’s Julie Van, the lead author of the article.
Isolation can have very real health consequences. Freelancers told the Flik survey not having camaraderie with co-workers or positive face-to-face feedback has negatively impacted their mental wellbeing.
The same study notes of the 130 female founders surveyed globally, over 95 per cent say they’d suffered from anxiety during rounds of seed funding.
Van says it’s always been a struggle when it comes to women accessing cash.
“Funding issues, support, and just the general environment of the venture capital and entrepreneurship space–women have had more difficulty with getting access to resources, being connected to opportunities, and that puts a lot of strain on their mental health,” she said.
From funding shortages to imposter syndrome, Van says some women founders encounter hurdles discouraging them from even starting businesses.
The report goes on to say that here in Canada men are four times as likely to receive venture capital and investments than women.
