The Know Daily - Thursday 11 April 2024

_{Read in 5m 48s ∙ Listening to Peggy Gou ∙}

Giant anteaters are returning to southern Brazil, where they had been considered extinct for more than a century. It’s a “huge win” for the environment, said Mongabay, as the creatures play an important role in their ecosystems - and their much-celebrated return is being credited to a rewilding project in neighbouring Argentina.

👩‍💻 Fintech falls short

The fintech industry may be booming, but it’s falling short on gender equality. Here’s why that matters.

First things first - what’s fintech?
Fintech, or financial technology, refers to firms using new technologies to compete with traditional financial services. Big names include Klarna, Revolut and Monzo - and it’s big business, with the global fintech market projected to reach a value of $556bn by 2030.

Got it. But fintech has a gender problem?
Yep. Writing in The Conversation, academics Chloe Fox-Robertson and Dariusz Wojcik note a “striking underrepresentation” of women in top roles. Their research, published last month, found that women account for just 4% of CEOs and 7.7% of entrepreneurs within fintech. 

What’s the reason?
There are a few, but researchers summarise them as the “triple glass ceiling”: longstanding male dominance in the industry, the continued privileging of masculinity and rigid gender stereotypes.

This includes sexist assumptions that women will be less committed to the business if they have children - leading to less companies hiring women - and the prevalence of networking within the industry, which women are less likely to participate in due to caring responsibilities.

The fact that many fintechs are also startups is another barrier to equality, given that female-founded startups received less than 2% of all venture capital funding invested in Europe and the US in 2023.  

Why does this matter?
Fintechs claim to innovate - but researchers argue that this can’t happen if the same types of people remain in top roles. And, if there’s not enough diversity at the top, it makes it much harder for fintechs to meet the needs of the public they claim to serve.

Nevertheless, there are companies challenging the notion of a fintech ‘boys’ club’. Leading online pension provider PensionBee is female-led, while Anne Boden became the first female founder of a British bank when Starling gained its licence in 2016.

What else is going on?
Away from fintech, investment in femtech - companies which use technology to better women’s wellbeing - is moving in the right direction. The UK is becoming a “hotbed” for the sector, with female-founded startups such as Daye and Thyia (which offer at-home smear tests) giving women greater choice over their gynaecological healthcare.