Female entrepreneurs work to close the gender gap

Parity is a long way off. According to the World Economic Forum it will take until more than 100 years to close the global gender gap. But a growing movement of Australian business women is determined to speed up the process.

Emma Isaacs, founder of Business Chicks. Source: SBS

More Australian women are looking for flexibility at work, and are turning to entrepreneurship to find it.

And the research is backing them up, with companies that have more women on their boards making more money.

Entrepreneur Emma Isaacs, who founded an organisation called Business Chicks which supports women in business, told SBS News women were able to bring more diverse opinions to the table.

“We all know that if we bring more women to the table that the economic shift and the workplace dynamic change," she said. 

"You see more diverse opinions and there is a direct impact on the bottom line for these organisations that are promoting women and who are looking after women.”

Business Chicks chief executive Olivia Ruello said it was time to stop talking about targets and take action.

“I don’t mean targets of 20 or 30 per cent, I mean targets of 50 per cent, because it needs to be reflective of the women that work in their organisation and the women in the country," she said.

"We are half the population so organisations need to reflect that diversity.”

Jo Burston, founder of Rare Birds, an organisation that supports female entrepreneurs, said it was vital to create the right culture and environment to nurture future talent.

“Generation Y role models in Australia are doing business a lot differently," she said. 

"They are seeing the world as a global marketplace. They are using technology to enable the growth and scalability of their businesses. But essentially the DNA of all those women is the same - a sense of tenacity, a sense of resilience a sense of never, ever giving up.”

One of the next generation of female entrepreneurs is Stephanie Lorenzo.

She established Project Futures, a charity that raises money for victims of sex-trafficking in Cambodia, when she was just 22.

She said role models and a good support group were essential to success.

“It is necessary to surround yourself with positivity," Ms Lorenzo said.

"It is necessary to surround yourself with those people that support you and want you to grow and do better as opposed to people that hold you back. 

"That can be the hardest thing - to let go of those people.”