Female Leaders in Businesses — more climate friendly?

A recent search into female led firms by the European Investment Fund finds that women are more likely to invest in climate friendly initiatives. Firms with a greater concentration of women in their board, have been correlated to higher track records of adopting climate friendly policies, such as renewable energy, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and practices such as recycling. For instance, female run banks are lower polluters. A key factor is the increased transparency women have in the workplace. Studies find that a higher concentration of women in leadership is directly associated to proper greenhouse gas disclosure. Proper disclosure directly translates to collective action. Women are key in advancing the fight for climate action, because the business/entrepreneur industry is extremely singular. Most firms embody a diverse range of female employees, but not a diverse range of female leaders.

This is due to the difficulty women have in starting up their own businesses, and climbing up the latter. For instance, while 42% of businesses are founded by women in the U.S (a relatively high number), and 36% perfect in the EU (slightly lower), female startups rarely receive investment/startup grants. The European investment Bank finds that only 2% of invested capital goes to all female founding teams, 5% to teams of mixed gender, and 93% to all male-founding teams. Hence female-owned businesses have a harder time getting the resources and monetary investment they need. A lack of diverse representation translates to a lack of diversified and innovative ideas; including climate friendly initiatives.

The one sentence answer to the problem isn’t just more female representation though; its more complicated than that. Most firms don’t actively discriminate or prevent females from achieving positions of power, or climbing up the ladder. Rather, its the passive obstacles that are the most difficult to overcome. Offering childcare/support is one unique way firms might be able to incentivize women to take on leadership roles. Another solution could be offering longer periods of maternity leave, or paid maternity leave for some firms. Women are the largest contributors of unpaid labor, and often have to manage unpaid labor with employed paid labor. Making it easier for women to contribute in the workplace could certainly be a place to start when talking about gender representation.