: : FEMALE FUTURES

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About Us Since it was founded in 2001 The Future Laboratory has grown to become one of the CEO : Trevor Hardy Co-founder : Chris Sanderson world’s most renowned futures consultancies, LS:N Global editor-in-chief : Martin Raymond and has worked with more than 1,000 Senior partner : Tom Savigar Chief strategy and innovation officer : Tracey Follows brands in 37 countries from offices in Business development director : Cliff Bunting London, Melbourne and New York. Editorial director : Tim Noakes Foresight editor : Steve Tooze The Future Laboratory offers a range of services, Senior journalist : Rebecca Coleman from foresight to inspiration to strategic advice Strategic researcher : Victoria Buchanan, Karli-Jade Fontiverio-Hylton Researcher : Amy Nicholson and activation. At our core is a global team who LS:N Global visual editor : Hannah Robinson continually research, analyse and document the LS:N Global insight editor : Daniela Walker new and the next, and set out the implications LS:N Global senior journalists : Maks Fus Mickiewicz, Peter Maxwell for organisations across 14 industry sectors. LS:N Global visual trends analyst : Aleksandra Szymanska LS:N Global video journalist : James Maiki Our strategy, innovation and creative teams LS:N Global video editor : David McGovern help our clients to explore probable, possible and LS:N Global visual trends researchers : Jessica Smith, Rachael Stott LS:N Global journalist : Josh Walker preferable futures to harness market trends, LS:N Global junior journalist : Rhiannon McGregor understand and adapt to emerging consumer LS:N Global picture assistant : Holly Friend needs, position their businesses for success Projects and events manager : Philip Franklin-Slattery, Kristian Prevc and keep them ahead of their competitors. Head of design : Emma Booty Art director : Joanna Zawadzka Production planner : Madeleine Watts Senior sub-editor : Ian Gill Sub-editor : Jon Billinge Junior designer : Queenie Wong Creative artworker : Neil Rees Creative consultant : Lucinda Chua Visual researcher : Amy Sellers The Future Laboratory : 26 Elder Street, London E1 6BT, UK Phone: +44 20 7791 2020 Email: [email protected] thefuturelaboratory.com The Future Laboratory is one of the world’s foremost trend forecasting, consumer insight and strategic innovation consultancies. Through its online network LS:N Global, it speaks to clients in 14 lifestyle sectors on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Contact : For further information on all our services please contact [email protected] or call +44 20 7186 0776. You can also join the conversation in our LinkedIn group, The Future Laboratory, and follow us on @TheFutureLab. LSNglobal.com 04 05

Partner Foreword How will women thrive in a changing world? Female Futures

Women can power ahead by harnessing new Report Contents UBS Unique technologies. That matters, because at current rates, it will take 169 years to close the global pay gap 04 22 between men and women¹. And at present females Partner Foreword From Utopia to Dystopia only hold 5% of technology leadership roles². How will women thrive It’s 2027 and how has gender in a changing world? equality progressed? We look So how can women capitalise on new technologies and 10 at potential future scenarios, ways of working? You will find the answer to this question Trends Rising how we got there and what and more in the Female Futures Report from global 06 From Incubation Networks challenges women still face. consultancy The Future Laboratory. The report is a result Overview and Forever Learning to Fluid of extensive research and insights gathered from the Mindsets and Flexible Futures, The Future Laboratory’s world’s first Female Futures Forum. In its pages, you will we look at the top six emerging 30 analysis of how and why the trends that will affect women. learn how, together, we can improve women’s opportunities latest trends are unfolding Toolkit to get ahead in business; for example, through better around the world, and what they Future female strategies, technology, education, investment, and focusing on mean for the future female. including the opening of what needs to change to help females be their best. 18 echo chambers, adopting Generation Z: new growth agendas and We hope it inspires you, and provides ideas and insights Entrepreneurialism going gender-neutral. on making the business world a better place for everyone. The vital skills and knowledge Dr Mara Harvey, head of UBS Unique that members of Generation Z Olga Miler, global programme architect, UBS Unique are learning to take matters into their own hands and create a system of growth. UBS commissioned this report to support its efforts in better serving women through UBS Unique. We launched our five-year plan in January 2017 because we knew women deserved more: a financial services company that recognises every woman for her individuality.

UBS Unique is meeting women’s needs by changing the way we do business, and pledging to make one million women more financially confident by 2021. We are also supporting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially its fifth SDG: ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’. To find out more, visit www.ubs.com/unique

¹ The Global Gender Gap Report 2016, World Economic Forum ² https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/10/the-lack-of-women- in-tech-is-more-than-a-pipeline-problem/ https://girlswhocode.com

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Overview If we carry on just talking, women won’t achieve economic parity with men until 2186, according to the World Economic Welcome to the future. and secure new funding to help Forum. And that means And it’s a future that it to grow and flourish; how that even our grandchildren will be female if we can they need senior older women will not see gender equality turn encouraging and to step out of female-only echo in their lifetimes. supportive talk into chambers, and offer them a strong and defining action hand up the business ladder. Women and men are missing over the next decade. out on the huge productivity, What struck us most was When we began planning our possibility and potential that not just what they said, forum, we discovered a growing could come from unleashing but the way they said it. mainstream narrative around female innovation and We heard an entirely new the emancipation of females, entrepreneurialism. As UBS language that described a around gender equality, and says so powerfully: ‘One solution UN WOMEN BY DDB DUBAI AND IC4DESIGN, EGYPT need for them to grow as around greater inclusivity of to revive stuttering economies much as their businesses. of female entrepreneurialism women in all walks of life. requires neither drilling nor WHAT WILL THEY SAY ABOUT YOU? BY today would we be able to innovation and could add up For this generation of women, NIKE, MIDDLE EAST But when we dug a little address the structural, systemic to £9.3 trillion ($12 trillion, life and work are the same deeper, our research revealed barriers holding women – and €10.7 trillion) to the global thing. They talked of a world future scenarios in which female that women are still one their businesses – back. economy by 2025: women.’ of ‘nurturing’, ‘nourishing’ entrepreneurialism thrives or of the greatest untapped and ‘patience’, a world in dies. Their visions are a telling consumer markets, and that This report begins by setting But we travel to the future which a business reveals and exploration of how and why a the equality gap still exists in the record straight on the too, exploring how a variety develops identity and educates positive female future could pay, in the funding of female success of women in business, of impressive Generation Z beyond comfort zones. happen – and why it might not. businesses, and in which and in launching their own female entrepreneurs have created business success. gender faces the greatest threat businesses. We knew that only For them, a business is not a We would like to thank all of from future automation. by understanding the state means to a billion-dollar end, it’s the attendees, and our sponsors We made powerful discoveries. a way to expand their personal UBS and the Women’s Business The expectations, values and world to create something Council for all of their support needs of these women are of value to leave behind. in helping to stage the first different enough from those of ever Female Futures Forum, previous generations to have These insights offer clear signals and we hope that, just like an exciting and transformative about how, in a female future, these female entrepreneurial impact on the future of work and we will need to work, how and businesses, it will grow into business – if we listen to them. why we will run businesses, something much more. and what employers will need to And listen to them we did. We offer employees in the future. Tracey Follows heard them describe how they Chief strategy and innovation had developed DIY mindsets But we took the process of officer, The Future Laboratory to set up businesses within a investigation one stage further. system that doesn’t cater for We asked our forum attendees to their ideas or ambition; how imagine the world in 2027, and they long for training in the WOMEN EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM to use their collective experience FUTUREGIRLCORP WORKSHOP, LONDON skills needed to run a business, BY FABRICA FOR UNITED COLORS OF to create three very different BENETTON, GLOBAL

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‘Having found your way into the echo chamber, you then realise that it’s the double bind. You need to be in the echo chamber to understand the system, but then you realise that the system doesn’t want you, or that 90% of it doesn’t want you. But the echo chamber is where the power is now and where it will likely be for quite a long time to come’

SAM BAKER, CO-FOUNDER, THE POOL 10 11

FEMALE FUTURES: most important yardsticks for Of those receiving venture Women will use these trends measuring a good life are a Trends Rising capital funding, only 8% to recalibrate, re-organise and happy family life (77%), having globally are women. redefine what it means to be a close group of friends (64%) an entrepreneur around a new and being surrounded by a A powerful new drive But dig deeper, and you find set of priorities that will force happy community (41%) with a different story. Advances for radical equality governments and businesses to a strong social purpose. in female equality could add by women at home sweep away old ideas of power, $12 trillion to the global diversity, fluidity and privilege. The E-motional and in the workplace economy by 2025, according 1 https://girlswhocode.com Economy could hold the key to to McKinsey. Women will our political, economic control three-quarters of the Hard-headed considerations Fluid Mindsets and social salvation world’s discretionary spending about the bottom line will as we wrestle with by 2028, according to Ernst make women a visible and A lack of diversity in race and the modern demons & Young’s Growing Beyond powerful part of the post-AI age, as well as gender, is one of our post-crash, – High Achievers report. workforce as female traits of the main obstacles to female post-truth world. Women directors and CEOs MONKIFESTO CAMPAIGN BY MONKI such as emotional intelligence, equality in the workplace. CELEBRATING AND EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH 10 STATEMENTS in the board room boosted empathy, vulnerability and But over the next decade, On the face of it, it’s still a man’s company return on equity by intuition become the future these barriers to the hiring Flexible Futures Generation Z teenagers see world. It will take another 169 36% between 2010 and 2015. drivers of business. and promotion of women in entrepreneurship as a way years – until 2186 – before the senior roles will fade away as Flexible working and living to make a statement about global pay gap between men At The Future Laboratory, According to the World Generation Z – now aged 17 to opportunities create a level themselves, and the sort of and women finally closes at its we believe that these are Economic Forum, by 2020, 27 – arrive in their millions. playing field across which world that they live in, and current rate, according to the merely the most obvious signs emotional intelligence will be women can escape the age-old they are 50% more likely than World Economic Forum Global of the emergence of a series the sixth most sought-after Made up of 47% ethnic expectation that they will accept Millennials to care about using Gender Gap Report 2016. of influential consumer and skill, ahead of judgement minorities, Generation Z is the chief burden of childcare. It work to make a positive impact, Globally, only 5% of leadership technology trends driving us and decision-making and the most ethnically diverse seems that the men and women according to a recent study by jobs in the technology sector are towards a female future that negotiation. L’Oréal recently generation in US history, of Generation Z will be a driving design agency Seymourpowell. held by women, according to rewrites the narratives around reported that sales staff hired according to the US Census force in making flexibility a Girls Who Code1. gender, career and family. for high emotional intelligence Bureau. This is a generation viable and inspiring lifestyle ‘They are creators with a sell £70,350 ($91,000, with a fluid, borderless and choice in the decades ahead. global social circle, confident €81,440) more annually gender-neutral mindset and heavily politicised,’ says than colleagues hired for that seems certain to sweep In a recent survey of Generation Thalia Mavros, founder and more traditional skill sets. away old certainties around Z in the US by Northeastern CEO of The Front. ‘They are the male/female divide. University, almost two thirds very fluid with gender, race (63%) said they want to be and ethnicity, and are ready to This level of inclusivity expected entrepreneurs who create stand up for what they believe.’ by a future Generation Z their own businesses and workforce is illustrated by the personal brands, and shape Generation Z teens shun way in which this age group their work/life balance around the traditional financial was captivated by 15-year-old what works for them. and material trappings of headscarf-wearing Rayouf success in a favour of a new Alhumedhi’s demand for emojis set of more female-friendly that she could relate too. metrics. In Singapore, the GOOD NIGHT STORIES FOR REBEL GIRLS Halogen Foundation found this PRIMARY IS A NEW SHARED OFFICE SPACE IS A CHILDREN’S BOOK THAT TRADES generation thought the three THAT IS DESIGNED TO PROMOTE WELLNESS PRINCESSES FOR FEMALE PIONEERS IN THE WORKPLACE, NEW YORK

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BECAUSE OF LIFE, WE MADE LIFEWEAR BY UNIQLO AND DROGA5, GLOBAL 14 15

Forever Learning Virtual In stark contrast to the Entrepreneurs traditional ‘take one for the Education has traditionally team’ culture of , been a male-centric, front- Digital tools will help to level businesses are beginning to loaded affair: a binge of out the inequalities between accept that a female point of learning up to 21 with the the sexes over the next decade, view is an asset rather than a expectation of 40 years or creating a borderless world liability in the working world. more of unbroken and linear epitomised by open dialogue and career progression to follow. collaboration across continents Ellevest, a new digital assets But in a future of increasing and countries, and the growth platform, caters for female healthy longevity, this model of a network of female-friendly investors who see risk in is no longer fit for purpose. virtual support networks. a different way from their male counterparts, and new With lifespans of up to 150 Over the next decade, the co-working spaces such as being forecast for our children, emergence of AI- and VR- HIRE (THE FUTURE) ME BY MICHAEL Shecosystem in Toronto life-long education to train and powered mobile devices WILLIAM LESTER ‘I am passionate about economic promote lifestyle values such retrain us for a succession of #BUILTBYGIRLS MOBILE APP will empower women in empowerment for women,’ says as sustainability, collaboration, different careers will be far more developed economies to run Incubation Sharmadean Reid, who founded community and wellbeing that suited to a gender-equal future School of Doodle taps into businesses, train and seek Networks nail salon Wah Nails without have been shown to appeal in which both sexes have flexible this change. ‘Rather than mentorship anywhere and any business background. to professional women. jobs and equal childcare duties. trying to change the world at any time to nourish their A new wave of action-orientated, to support girls, it’s more entrepreneurial instincts. peer-to-peer support systems ‘Women deserve a workspace ‘FutureGirlCorp is my way of ‘The three-stage model of efficient to support girls so are emerging to offer advice, and culture that empowers and helping the next generation of education, work and retirement they can change the world,’ It’s a development that will moral support and access to inspires them to be their best,’ female business entrepreneurs just can’t hack it over 100 years,’ says co-founder and creative spread to emerging economies finance for women seeking says Shecosystem founder Emily get off to the best possible start.’ says Andrew Scott, professor of entrepreneur Molly Logan. as levels of connectivity improve. to break through the glass Rose Antflick. ‘Sometimes it’s economics and former deputy The first iterations of this trend ceiling without adopting the worth building our own table dean at London Business School. The learning platform can be seen in the doubling of ultra-competitive strategies rather than fighting for a seat is set up as a virtual the amount of time that women of their male colleagues. at a table where we don’t really collective comprising 80 teen spent watching entrepreneurial want to be in the first place.’ ambassadors, six teen editors videos on YouTube between Radical Brownies provides and 32 teen content-creators. 2015 and 2016. girls of colour with practical Achievements are rewarded tools to help them engage with virtual currency that can New apps such as BumbleBizz with what matters to them. be exchanged for internships and BuiltByGirls are jump- FutureGirlCorp offers or one-to-one tutorials. starting remote networking practical advice, business opportunities by matching modelling, finance and women with their career marketing to help women peers and mentors online. to build global corporations, The founders of both are on not cottage industries. a mission to break out of the male-dominated Silicon Valley echo chamber with mobile platforms that enable female founders to connect with experts anywhere in the world. GIRL GARAGE BY DESIGN STUDIO H TEACHES GIRLS PRACTICAL SKILLS THROUGH FUTUREGIRLCORP WORKSHOP, LONDON HANDS-ON DESIGN AND BUILDING, CALIFORNIA

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‘Women’s daily investment decisions are the single most untapped opportunity for social change’

DR MARA HARVEY, HEAD OF UBS UNIQUE 18 19

FEMALE FUTURES: Their model for success consists members of Generation Z Rather than seeing independent of constructing a set of guiding entering the workforce see living as proof of their success, Generation Z principles and values, and success as a patience game. they will be willing to return to or Entrepreneurialism applying them scrupulously to stay at home with their parents They are driven by a dream of every aspect of their personal for longer in order to ensure they building a business that will be and professional lives. have the emotional and physical a legacy to their own values and A system of growth is support to pour 100% of their Conformity of purpose is beliefs, and in which investors LIV LITTLE, FOUNDER, GAL-DEM needed. By taking matters energy into career-building. SIANA BANGURA, FOUNDER OF the only way that future will join them for a mutually into their own hands, they HAUS OF THE LIBERATED businesswomen will be able beneficial, life-long journey. Failing to immediately fly the Born out of diverse Generation Z are not fully equipping to deal with the triumphs and nest will be seen as a valued networks that focus on value and themselves with all of the DIY Pioneers disasters of entrepreneurship. privilege and a fundamental information exchange, they will tools needed to fulfil the ‘There is nothing safe about foundation for mental and realise that access to information responsibilities that come Sisters are learning to do it being an entrepreneur,’ says physical wellbeing, rather and connectivity across race, with a growing business. for themselves. An emerging Hannah Hauer-King, co-founder than as evidence of a failure class and gender offers a path The basic fundamentals tribe of successful young female of Damsel Productions. to build a fully rounded life of functioning as a entrepreneurs are creating a at the first opportunity. to success and promotion. Consequently, they will to business, such as taxes, template of self-reliance for HANNAH HAUER-KING, CO-FOUNDER, DAMSEL PRODUCTIONS ‘You have to look after yourself build a borderless circle of trust, setting up a limited future women to follow. and I don’t think people mark empowerment and leadership. company and applying Powered by a strong self-belief that as highly as they should for funding are difficult. ‘How can what we’re doing True progress demands that built on their experience of when they’re starting out,’ For today’s Generation pollinate and make others access to more information and building success from the ground says Phoebe Gormley, founder thrive even more, and be a connectivity is agile. In this Z entrepreneurs, these up, these entrepreneurial of Gormley & Gamble. are skills and a language CLAIRE ARNOLD, ART DIRECTOR AND mutually beneficial, long- way it is not about race, class outsiders are offering themselves CO-FOUNDER AT SISTER STUDIO ‘The only way you are going worth learning. lasting and nourishing or even gender, as the value as role models for women to be successful is if you work relationship for both sides?’ of exchange and diversity of who want to do things in your business around who ‘Think tanks, incubators, ‘Basically, it’s the least safe asks Jacob Joyce, co-founder of peer-to-peer networks is the business on their own terms. you are as a person as well. workshops, apprenticeship thing you can possibly do. SorryYouFeelUncomfortable. currency for Generation Z. Our power comes from being If you don’t survive, your schemes – the sooner the better. ‘I thought, how am I going to able to voice opinions and to ‘The cross-pollination of people business won’t survive.’ ‘Everybody in the world VCs getting access to VCs – I’m grow if I’m not being given the have it accessible to people.’ and ideas is invaluable, both has different skill sets. We sure many young people ask resources to do so? My whole emotionally and financially.’ Anti-echo Chambers can’t just limit this to being ‘what’s a VC?’ – it is a practical, thing is that I’m a proponent Legacy-builders a conversation for women critical part of the process that Living within a safe echo of do-it-yourself culture. If Self-help only,’ says Louise Leolin, co- should be made more accessible.’ chamber of female-only clubs you have no resources, there Long-term vision, rather than founder of DinoByte Labs. Claire Arnold, film-maker and has to be a way,’ says Siana get-rich-quick strategies, will lie Stress-related burn-out is often a and networks is a danger that creative director, The Fifth Sense ‘We will need to use technology to Bangura, founder of Haus at the heart of a vibrant female side effect of high-flying success, tomorrow’s leading female break out of these echo chambers of Liberated Reading. future. Increasing numbers of and one that future female entrepreneurs will recognise, to access all of the different skills young female entrepreneurs business leaders will take care to and go to great lengths to avoid. and mindsets that we will need Total Control are focusing on learning and avoid. They have seen the toll it to help each other, and to ensure leaving a legacy as opposed has taken on the hard-charging By practising a strictly Bleisurite that more of us can succeed.’ to starting up and selling. women of previous generations as lifestyle – one in which business they tried to have it all, and they and leisure activities blend Unlike their older Millennial will adopt strategies to safeguard and converge seamlessly – PHOEBE GORMELY, FOUNDER OF predecessors, who are now their wellbeing to allow them This Generation Z research was GORMELY & GAMBLE tomorrow’s female business in their early 30s, younger to pursue long-term goals. LOUISE LEOLIN, FOUNDER, carried out in association with leaders will ensure they retain Millennials – in their mid- DINOBYTE LABS the Women’s Business Council control over all of their life. to late 20s – and the first

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‘We need to equip young women with courage but we also need to equip them with critical thinking. They need to look at the world and say: ‘Do you know what? Some things are not set up for people like me. I’m going to use that to power me and work twice as hard’

SARA SHAHVISI, DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMES, FEARLESS FUTURES 22 23

THREE FEMALE FUTURES: A simple Gap Report 2016. Now I don’t What obstacles Flexible working, feel I have to compete with From Utopia image search of and challenges do championed by my peers, male or female, to Dystopia the word CEO women still face women, is also illustrates how because competition hinders having some The danger of a male backlash far we’ve come. the collaboration on which the negative effects. new digital economy thrives. still exists. There are extremist male rights groups, similar to In developed economies, and the anti-immigration parties At The Future the cities of the more affluent How did we get here? of the Turbulent Teens, Laboratory we know emerging economies, men who are angry that 37.5% of A decade ago, business finally What will ensure that the where tomorrow Female Utopia and women have much more American women in the 25–34 woke up to the bottom-line female future remains starts – inside each balanced roles in the home age group have a university How would you describe benefits of investing in the of our . Our too. Most men do the school degree compared to 29.5% of empowered and positive? individual hopes, fears female entrepreneurialism run some or all of the time, recruitment and training of men* – a figure unchanged In 2017, a policy was introduced and aspirations will in 2027? and childcare is equally female entrepreneurs and from that found by the US to ensure that companies with come together to shape distributed across the genders. leaders. Research showing that Empowering, inspirational, Census Bureau in 2017. more than 250 employees Our society values balance companies with three or more the political, economic collaborative. Just some of the declared their gender pay gap and social policies of and wellbeing in every area female directors, or a female Emotional words I could use to describe CEO and director, performed in a move towards greater the decades ahead of life, and gives us the social intelligence is today’s today’s female entrepreneurs, 36% better in terms of return parity. In 2027, this will be and decide just what infrastructure to achieve it. the women who have given us an on equity was finally taken fourth most sought- extended to all companies. sort of female future equal footing in the boardroom A simple Google image search seriously. Venture capitalists after skill, ahead Many businesses have lost our daughters and after centuries of being excluded of the word CEO illustrates began to plough more of their of decision-making clients and collaborators granddaughters inherit. from the top table of business. how far we’ve come. A decade resources into female-led and negotiation. because of reported inequality, ago, the search revealed rows of so there is a real incentive for Over the past 10 years, we businesses, driving a virtuous Starting with that premise, white males, whereas now the businesses to close any pay gaps. finally reached a tipping circle of female recruitment. we staged a workshop results are much more diverse. The time has come for women with a group of successful, point in the number of women In recent years, there has also Serving a similar purpose, to ensure that the pendulum inspirational and creative in senior positions, and the been an upsurge in the number moves are under way to limit Many businesses has not swung too far in women and asked them to whole language and ethos of of female venture capitalists the time a CEO can stay at one have lost clients our direction, and that we imagine, debate and map business was transformed. and female peer-to-peer funding company to about five years. encourage men to stay in out the initiatives, decisions, Traits traditionally considered and collaborators platforms, further boosting At the end of their period in education longer to avoid them triumphs and disasters that innately female, such as because of reported opportunities for investment. control, they will relinquish might lead to 2027 – and three empathy, emotional intelligence, inequality. becoming second-class citizens. their position to make way vulnerability and intuition are Encouraging for someone from a different very different female futures. Flexible working, championed now valued and taught across entrepreneurialism has been gender and social background. by women, is also having some all successful companies. made a priority and there negative effects. Too many has been a dramatic increase workers now crave face-to-face Emotional intelligence is today’s in the number of mentoring time with their colleagues fourth most sought-after skill, schemes for young business- because they work alone ahead of decision-making minded entrepreneurs, often from home, communicating and negotiation, surpassing starting at school. From solely by digital devices. predictions made by the World minimising gender bias in Economic Forum Global Gender STEM subjects to rethinking the school calendar to better accommodate working parents, there has been major reform in the entire education system.

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Female Plateau The overall More women in senior positions Previous Similarly, there has been little feeling is still one have meant a more collaborative generations have support for measures and In the 20th and early of hope, but the business mindset, with female opened the gates, policies to share childcare more 21st centuries there were pay gap – while staff trying to create a virtuous now our generation evenly between the genders, huge gains for women closing – remains. circle of enablement for like- has to walk or to ensure that the school minded colleagues. Platforms calendar doesn’t disadvantage in the workplace, with through them. such as BuiltByGirls and single working mothers. equal pay and female BumbleBizz, both founded entrepreneurialism over a decade ago, continue to What obstacles high on the agenda How would you describe connect users with experts and How did we get here? and challenges do What will drive a new era of governments and female entrepreneurialism mentors across the world. women still face? of female empowerment? Generation Z was the most organisations across the in 2027? Women in the US are 1.5 times ethnically diverse generation in – which 40% The education system is finally world. But in 2027 that more likely to start a business Progress has been slow but US history. Consisting of 47% of new business has relied being reformed to positively progress towards gender than men, according to The steady for the past 10 years. ethnic minorities, they had a on since 1974 – has only just encourage girls to take STEM State of Women-owned Business equality has hit a plateau The overall feeling is still one fluid mindset, little patience begun to trickle into female- subjects, and to ensure that report 2015 by American and radical new ideas of hope, but the pay gap – while with old ways of doing things, led companies. A decade ago, female role models appear as Express, and female students are needed to realise the closing – remains. The fact that and entered the workplace women received less than 10% heroes in text and reading continue to outperform their dream of a female future. we need to separate Female more determined than their of that funding, and less than books as much as male ones. male counterparts both in school Entrepreneur of the Year Millennial predecessors to 3% if the CEO was female. The Future Laboratory talks to and university education. Several organisations are from Entrepreneur of the Year make gender equality a reality. the Young Female Entrepreneur Technology companies continue now focusing on changing shows there is still some way There is a continued sense that of the Year for 2027 and asks Natural entrepreneurs and to be male-dominated. Ten language and perceptions of to go to achieve true parity. being women is a privilege, her how to re-energise the graduates of business studies years ago, in a PwC survey female entrepreneurialism; that we have the power to Most FTSE 100 companies courses reconfigured for the of UK students, 78% couldn’t for example, inspiring and role of women in society. instigate change. Previous have at least one woman in digital age, Generation Z women name a famous female working empowering women to build generations have opened the the boardroom, but white, understood mentoring and peer- in technology, now it’s about global corporations, not just gates, now our generation middle-class men still dominate. to-peer support and funding, 65%*. We’re moving in the right kitchen table businesses. has to walk through them. Tokenism has replaced real and did their best to put it into direction – but far too slowly. Greater emphasis is also being and radical progress for women practice at work to put them placed on life-long learning. leaders and entrepreneurs on an even footing with men. Generation Z was Most FTSE 100 As automation threatens jobs despite research from index companies have at Unfortunately, they faced the most ethnically and the population continues provider MSCI showing that least one woman in a lot of resistance from the diverse generation to age, the government is now female-led businesses deliver the boardroom, but male old guard. In 2017, the in US history. offering incentives for people better returns on investment, white, middle-class UK government ordered to reskill regardless of career and suffer fewer bribery men still dominate. companies with more than 250 stage to remain employed. and fraud scandals and employees to publish details battles with shareholders. of the gender pay gap for their workers. But this was never extended to all companies – and so the pay gap has remained wide for the past 10 years.

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Female Dystopia Their initial spirited fight for We need to Finally, venture capital funding What can turn this Women were hit the equal pay and opportunities has move away for female-led businesses has situation around for hardest by the rise A decade ago, the march given way to apathy as a male- from the heavy fallen. Ten years ago, women the next generation of of the machines. of women towards led business world refused to reliance on male- received less than 10% of that female entrepreneurs? By 2020, men had boardroom and pay parity accept the positives that women centric digital funding, and less than 3% gained one job for bring to the boardroom even in technologies if the CEO is female. Those We need our grandparents to every three lost to a seemed unstoppable. step up as mentors. They are a the face of research proving it in business. numbers have now decreased machine, but women But progress towards was great for the bottom line. to 7% and 2%, respectively*. generation of game-changers gender equality faltered and rule-breakers who began only gained one With fewer and fewer women in job for every five amid educational the struggle for female equality positions of power, old survival What obstacles How did we get here? and power. They lost their way lost to a machine*. failures and funding of the fittest competitiveness and challenges do at the end of the last decade, shortages, leaving rules, leaving little room for Talk about female-friendly women still face? but we need them to inspire female entrepreneurs diversity and no support for social and work initiatives in the Female entrepreneurship and us – and more importantly, the the idea that collaboration or last decade never turned into and business leaders leadership has a mountain next generation – to believe emotional intelligence are the action. Just as in 2015, women with few champions or to climb. A decade of rising that we can be empowered route to higher profit margins. are less likely than men to be role models in a male- inequality in education, pay at home and at work. shown ads for highly paid jobs dominated landscape. Flexible working has and recruitment was made during a , and We need to move away from largely died out too, further worse by the impact of a The Future Laboratory speaks technology hubs all over the the heavy reliance on male- disadvantaging women who new wave of automation on to one of the last female CEOs world are run by men, for men. centric digital technologies in feel they have no choice but to women in the workplace. of a FTSE 100 company about business. Encouraging more sacrifice their careers to look Reports of sexism and what went wrong, and why. Women were hit the hardest face-to-face interactions will after their children. There harassment in these companies by the rise of the machines. By increase emotional intelligence is very little empathy in the – where the majority of 2020, men had gained one job for and empathy, and build How would you describe boardroom these days. jobs and entrepreneurial every three lost to a machine, networks that enable women to female entrepreneurialism opportunities are to be found but women only gained one job support each other and excel. in 2027? these days – mean that women With fewer and fewer for every five lost to a machine*. are far less likely to apply All is not lost. We can In a nutshell, deeply depressing. women in positions for jobs with them. A vicious This lack of females in many step outside of the echo As one of the last female of power, old circle has been created. workplaces led to the ladder to chamber of female-only business leaders, I try to survival of the fittest the boardroom being almost conversations and use our motivate the next generation of competitiveness rules. Education has let down girls too. dismantled for more than half skills to re-invent business and women but I’m largely met by While 90% of teenage boys study of the world’s population. There entrepreneurialism to work disillusionment and despair. coding or other technology- are now almost no female for women as well as for men. The system failed to deliver related subjects, just 40% of role models to look up to and, on the promise that their hard teenage girls do*. Promises that since 2012, the proportion of work would be rewarded, and these vital skills would be made working age women engaged many are retreating into old- compulsory to ensure a level in early-stage entrepreneurial fashioned but secure notions of playing field for both genders activity has continued to fall housekeeping and childcare. have fallen by the wayside. from 6.3% to just 3.2%*.

* Statistics in this section are hypothetical

FEMALE FUTURES 028 029

‘You’ve got to have the culture coming up underneath. If you can change the conversations happening around the coffee machine, then that’s really powerful’

DAME CILLA SNOWBALL, GROUP CEO, AMV BBDO, AND CHAIR, WOMEN’S BUSINESS COUNCIL 30 31

FEMALE FUTURES:

Toolkit Invest in female talent Adopt a new growth agenda Investors and venture capitalists must be much more ambitious In a business context, growth about funding female-led is often seen in hard, economic Open the echo businesses, and increasing terms as figures and percentages chambers Our three female the current woefully low on a balance sheet. Now it’s time future scenarios clearly numbers of female start-ups. It’s time to dispense with the to adopt a less transactional illustrate the path notion of building women- definition in order to attract Female-only investment funds that could lead to a only groups and clubs. They more talented women, and and funding mechanisms that tomorrow in which were an important starting ensure that they flourish in an encourage women to invest point for many current female entrepreneurial environment. empowered and equal in other women’s businesses entrepreneurs, but they women entrepreneurs are a good start. But men Emotional and personal growth have outlived their purpose are able to make the must get the message that will need their own metrics and cannot lead to the most world a socially and investing in women-owned in a female future, and that optimistic female future. economically better APRIL 2017 ISSUE OF THE ATLANTIC and women-run businesses is , USA means businesses must adopt place for all of us. a win-win proposition because, Now men have to become new values around being as our research shows, they an integral part of the family-orientated, patient, To take the crucial next steps on Transform female Go gender-neutral are often the most competitive, conversation, working with long-term and equal. that path, we will need to make education successful and profitable. Big women to overcome the Diversity is a term that five bold and radical changes to A new growth agenda accepts Today’s school curriculum banks and other financial real-world obstacles that needs to be dropped from the way that the next generation a broader sense of business teaches our children many institutions must lead the way. block women from an equal the business lexicon in order of women are educated, and responsibility that continues languages. But tomorrow economic inclusivity in the for women to flourish in the financially and emotionally to encompass investor and it will need to help them world of work that will benefit future. The teenagers of supported and mentored: shareholder expectations, but learn the language of everyone in the longer term. Generation Z assume gender also embraces the future of innovation, investment and equality as a starting position, At the same time, women the environment, and even entrepreneurialism too. Girls and regard talk of diversity as need to redouble their efforts the planet. Only then can a will need to be put on an equal an admission of an unequal to give their younger sisters business create the sustainable footing with boys as both are system trying to correct itself. a hand up the career ladder and authentic growth that a taught how to do business as a as they progress themselves. Business needs to take a lead female future will demand. core life skill for what looks likely Connecting, mentoring and from this young demographic to be a radically freelance future. sharing their experience – and and start talking about Education for girls can no GAL-DEM X LEVIS SKINNY 501 IN yes, promoting women – will feminine and masculine longer stop at the school gate. COLLABORATION WITH DAZED AND have far more practical impact qualities rather than about CONFUSED. PHOTOGRAPHY ABIOLA In a world of work facing future than writing books on female gender per se. This is the route RENEE, ILLUSTRATION MARIEL NO, waves of automation and digital STYLING HELMI OKPARA empowerment, or speaking to valuing in both sexes what disruption, they will need life- on inspirational panels. are traditionally seen as soft, long learning and retraining feminine qualities, and thus from childhood into old age. It is putting women entrepreneurs a prospect for which Generation on a level playing field with Z teens – raised on constant their male counterparts. INTANGIBLE MATTER BY LUCY online learning – are already HARDCASTLE, I-D AND CHANEL showing a great appetite. GENDER EQ APP BY DESIGN FIRM DOBERMAN CHARTS GENDER BIAS THROUGH VOICE RECOGNITION

FEMALE FUTURES The Female Futures Report contains insights from The Future Laboratory designed to provoke innovative thinking and give you the confidence to take decisions today that will result in growth tomorrow.

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