Collab4Good and Hen House Coop are pleased to bring you a lunch and learn session with Sarah Curtis-Fawley, who will share the findings from her MBA thesis research on 'Accelerating Opportunity - Towards a Gender Inclusive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem' that she recently conducted in South Australia.

South Australia has promised to accelerate “economic growth and prosperity” by making the state a “global leader in entrepreneurship” (FIXE 2019). According to data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, currently there is a large gap between female and male engagement in entrepreneurship in South Australia. To achieve the State’s ambitious growth goals, the ecosystem must foster more inclusion so that women are inspired and encouraged to start and scale businesses.

Sarah's research investigated how male and female founders navigate and experience the entrepreneurial ecosystem of South Australia in order to highlight potential areas of opportunity to support nascent female founders. An extensive literature review on gender and entrepreneurship led to the development of a conceptual model, which posits that men and women develop and claim an ‘entrepreneurial identity’ in disparate ways, which in turn compounds the disadvantages women face in terms of the accrual of social capital. A less robust entrepreneurial identity and lower social capital has the effect of limiting aspiring and nascent female founders’ access to critical resources, information, and supports, which makes their entrepreneurial “process” more challenging than that of men.

Sarah will share findings from her research as well as a range of recommendations to cultivate increased female participation in entrepreneurial activity, as well as discuss the implications and opportunities for social enterprise and social entrepreneurship as a necessary focus area for a gender-inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem in South Australia.

This is an online only event and registrations are essential to receive the Zoom link - please register here.