Women Entrepreneurs

The July issue of the OSBR is now available in PDF and HTML formats.

The editorial theme for this issue of the OSBR is Women Entrepreneurs. In this issue, we examine the reasons for the relative lack of women founders and leaders in technology businesses. Our authors discuss the entrepreneurial challenges that are unique to women and what changes may be implemented to tip the balance and increase the number of women entrepreneurs. This issue features the following articles:

Tess Jewell, a PhD student at York University and Ryerson University, describes the social and environmental factors that influence women’s career choices and participation in entrepreneurship.

Roseann O’Reilly Runte, President and Vice-Chancellor of Carleton University, emphasizes the importance of women's participation in entrepreneurial activities and their impact on regional economic development, including solutions for cultivating a more supportive environment for women entrepreneurs.

J. McGrath Cohoon, Associate Professor at the University of Virginia and Senior Research Scientist at the National Center for Women & IT, describes research to determine what gender differences might contribute to the unequal gender composition of successful founders.

Janice Singer and Deborah Dexter, Industrial Technology Advisors for the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP), describe existing programs to support women entrepreneurs and introduce Lead to Win for Women, a new program to increase the number of women-founded businesses in Canada's Capital Region.

Ruth Bastedo, President of Experience Media Group Inc., answers the question: Why is there a dearth of women on high-growth technology startup teams? She describes the challenges she has faced as an entrepreneur and shares insights into the reasons for the current imbalance.

Cate Huston, Software Engineer at Google, answers the question: Should all women aspire to be entrepreneurs? In addition to supporting women entrepreneurs, she recommends encouraging and celebrating less overt forms of leadership.

For the upcoming August issue, we offer a rare unthemed issue and we welcome general submissions on the topic of open source business or the growth of early-stage technology companies. This is a great opportunity to publish your insights without having to wait for a relevant issue theme. Please contact the Editor, Chris McPhee, immediately if you are interested in submitting an article for the August issue.