International Women’s Day feels different this year – with one of the most powerful countries in the world pushing to scrap Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, women appear to be on the battleground for basic rights and respect, in and outside the business world. 

It feels women have globally lost a sort of moment built up by the MeToo and TimesUp movements, as social media takes a different kind of hold over the collective consciousness, heroin chic aesthetics rear their skeletal heads, and one of the world’s most powerful countries elected a man facing several rape allegations, again. 

In Scotland, the mood feels different, though. Women in entrepreneurship seem empowered despite the statistics showing otherwise – UK female founders earn just 2% of all equity funding according to a report from Charles Stanley. 

As of October 2024, only 13.7% of the entire UK population of high-growth businesses had at least one female founder, despite the number of businesses led by women more than doubling over the past ten years. 

While there’s plenty to feel optimistic about, we shouldn’t be under illusion as to the scale of the problem: Women only make up around a quarter of tech roles (and just over a quarter of cybersecurity roles). Beyond this, a recent PwC Women in Work Index saw the UK record its worst gender pay disparity in a decade.

Despite this, we’re seeing clear intention in Scotland to attempt to address not only the imbalance in tech, but also the broader macro-entrepreneurial ecosystem that’s been so heavily weighted against women.

There are now specific government initiatives to support women in business, such as the Pathways Forward initiative, galvanised by the Pathways Report authored by Ana Stewart and Mark Logan. 

The Scottish Government is even expanding its funding for female entrepreneurs, with £4m to go towards increasing the number of female founders in the nation. 

To speak about the important work being done in Scotland to prop up women in entrepreneurship, DIGIT spoke with Ana Stewart, chair of Pathways Forward, author of the seminal Pathways Report, and partner at Eos Advisory, to highlight what IWD means to her. 

IWD: Just Another Day? 

With all the noise from Washington, Stewart sees her organisation as an opportunity to bring stability and focus to entrepreneurial issues. 

“I think we need to just focus on what we think the right thing to do is, and be quite steadfast in continuing on our strategy.”

Stewart also sees her work as important outside the sphere of women’s issues. She says: “It’s not just women that are challenged – men are also affected, anyone in underrepresented groups are affected by the noise and the geopolitical instability. 

“All we can do is try to help and keep some stability and focus on making sure that entrepreneurship stays on top of the agenda because it’s absolutely integral to the economy.” 

As for International Women’s Day, Stewart’s plans remain largely steadfast. 

“There’s two sides to it,” Stewart said.

“On the one hand, for many of the people we are supporting – the founders – it means a lot because it provides an opportunity to amplify the challenges they face or amplify the great things they are doing. There’s a lot of events highlighting women in entrepreneurship.

“But everybody is working hard all year round, and we don’t just offer lip service on one day, when in fact, we need to take action and we need to be doing things. 

“As an organisation, this is one of 365 days a year that we’re working on projects and trying to accelerate change in action through our pledge work.” 

And as Stewart said, that action has been non-stop since the Pathways Report was published back in 2023. The report, commissioned by the Scottish Government, delved into the barriers and challenges women face in entering entrepreneurship, from education as young people all the way through to funding rounds, the burden of care, and societal sexism. 

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The Evolution of Pathways 

When Stewart was first approached to write the Report by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, who was then a cabinet secretary for finance, she said she felt obliged. 

“I just wanted to do the right thing,” she explained. “I wanted to contribute, and feel useful, having experienced many of these things first hand.”

Having founded her own company back in the 1990s, moving through funding rounds, navigating the VC landscape, to eventually becoming an investor herself, Stewart felt her experience ticked all the proverbial boxes to write a report on women in entrepreneurship. 

In the 18 months since the report was published, £4.6m has been invested in Pathways related recommendations – of which there are 31 – with a further £4 million pledged this year by the Scottish government. 

The Pathways report evolved into Pathways Forward, an advocacy group which works with the public and private sectors to boost investment and support for entrepreneurs, working to enact all 31 recommendations set out in the report. 

From there, around 27 companies – and counting – have taken the Pathways Pledge to enact these recommendations, to support women founders and gender parity in their organisations. 

Since writing the report, Stewart says the reception has been encouraging. 

“It’s gone way beyond what I could ever have imagined,” she said. 

“I’m absolutely humbled by the massive engagement and the actions and the initiatives that are going on out there in Scotland. It’s affecting thousands of women in a really positive way, and that’s thanks to all of the organisations and industry leaders taking part.”

Direct Impact 

The thing that separated Pathways from previous reports on gender in entrepreneurship was its holistic approach to the matter. Entrepreneurship does not exist in a vacuum, outside of societal influences. It is determined by a country’s mindset, educational attitude, and access to the business world. 

What might demonstrate this best through two events Stewart attended the week before IWD, one hosted by the South of Scotland Enterprise and one hosted by Scottish Enterprise, both were supported by the Scottish government. 

The South of Scotland Enterprise, aimed at prospective or would-be founders from various backgrounds, provided a platform for “making entrepreneurship visible as an opportunity, as an option, to people who may not have access to the idea of being an entrepreneur,” Stewart explained. 

The programme also incorporated microgrants, a recommendation from the Pathways Report. 

“Giving small grants to women that are going to start a business that may have otherwise been prohibited from doing so, is fantastic.” 

But the programme was also available to men in the South of Scotland, which Stewart sees as the entire point of Pathways – to support everyone, holistically, to create a better system for entrepreneurship. 

Women in rural regions can be “geographically constrained,” so opportunities directed locally “are reaching really talented people that maybe don’t know they have this talent or haven’t had the opportunity before.”

Similarly, the microgrants recommended by the Pathways Report provide those thinking of embarking on a startup journey with greater flexibility, without the amplified financial risk of starting a business women often face due to things like the burden of care. 

“These microgrants are really helpful because it just gives them the ability to take that step and not fear that they’ll be on the street the next day because they haven’t got the funding to try and take their idea forward,” she explained. 

“It’s really empowering for them to be able to embrace whatever idea and vision they have, and to turn that into something real without exposing them to a huge amount of risk.” 

The Scottish Enterprise initative, Pathways to Scale, was aimed at women further along their entreprenrual journeys as they begin to scale their business ideas.

It provided an opportunity for founders to scale and get connected with investors, as well as with eachother, to build a wider network and community of female founders. The event was a culmination of the programme, celebrating the cohorts which had progressed through the mentorship and trianing programme.

Looking to The Future 

As Stewart said, the 8th of March is another day for her organisation to continue working on improving the state of entrepreneurship in Scotland. 

One of Pathways Forward’s key focuses for the coming year will be expanding the Pathways Pledge cohort. 

“We all want to see change and I’m trying to make sure that everyone has a role to play in changing the system, having an impact, and taking all these small steps. 

“Individually, they may not have the impact, but when you do them collaboratively, these small steps combined can have a much bigger collective impact.”

Stewart says that the hope is to build on that momentum t to drive the programme forward. 

Equally, though, she clarifies the importance of enacting all 31 recommendations detailed in the pathways report – “one or two won’t shift the dial.”

This includes not only finance and support for founders, but starting to make change at the “seed stage” – “And I don’t mean in investment, I mean at a very young age and in all groups that are not immediately connected to becoming an entrepreneur.”

Interventions in early education, ingraining an entrepreneurial mindset, “are foundational, they’re absolutely pivotal to help get more entrepreneurs coming into the system to start with.”

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Where the Real Work Lies 

While Stewart remarked on the surge of progress and support her initiatives have received after her report was published, she sees several avenues of improvements, a myriad of pathways to progress still yet to be tread

Ranging from changes in government policy, more funding, better education, getting VC boardrooms more involved, pushing toward more gender parity in funding boards, Stewart sees all as vital steps to be taken. 

“But I really think we need a system that works for all. Not ‘here’s a system for women, here’s a system for men. It should be: ‘Here’s a brilliant system that actually works for everyone.’”

For Stewart, this looks like a system where “we’re capturing all the talent and the opportunity that’s there to help people thrive and build businesses in Scotland, a cohesive system which can be customised from within, to ensure that we’re capturing everyone to achieve better outcomes.”

Stewart points out that everyone wants, and can benefit, from a high growth economy. 

“That does require a much more significant investment from Scotland, from the government as well as engagement and investment from the private sector.”

Stewart further hopes to see more alignment between the public and private sector to improve the coordination of solving the persistent societal challenge. 

But equally, Stewart wants more men to be involved in the movement. 

“A vibrant entreprenurial economy will benefit everyone, not just women. Men have a real important role to play,” Stewart insists. 

Stewart wants more good people involved. 

“It’s really not about blame here, it’s about the system being outdated. Society has evolved – we need to keep up in order to  tap into our population. 

While 51% of the population in Scotland is made up of women, Stewart posits that there’s “a significant amount of men  that are also not tapping into the system because it’s not right for them.

“Counter to the noise of some economies in North America, Scotland has the opportunity to buck the trend and fully leverage the talent that is untapped in this country that will drive our future economy.”