As someone who has always been a minority in an industry, it was, embarrassingly, only in my 30s that I genuinely began to properly clock how tilted the stage is. Up until then, I was that person who said cringey things like “I genuinely don’t think I have ever experienced sexism or harassment”. Lol. Oh,… Read more »
The Queensland government’s support for women in startups has continued with two grant programs under the $8 million Backing Female Founders initiative currently accepting new applications. The Accelerating Female Founders Program provides grants worth between $50,000 and $200,000 for business support initiatives, such as mentoring and advocacy support and customised business development activities, for female-led… Read more »
Women make up just 27% of the STEM sector workforce across all STEM industries, and as they climb the leadership ranks, that number begins to drop to 23% of senior management and 8% of CEOs. On average, women still earn 18% less than men across all STEM industries. So a new podcast by Sydney tech… Read more »
Employee communications startup Traffyk.ai has launched a study to map and better understand gender disparities in leadership communication in the wake of International Women’s Day, The Leadership Listening Gap Project is a study that aims to quantify and address the issue of women’s voices being underrepresented and undervalued in leadership roles, as well as its… Read more »
We constantly hear: “I’m passionate about closing the Gender Pay Gap, and I’m trying to bring it up with friends, family, and colleagues, but I don’t know how to respond to people’s questions or arguments about it.” If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t have the tools for conversations about the Gender Pay Gap, well… Read more »
Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) came into public consciousness during the #MeToo movement after multiple women spoke out with sexual harassment allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein systematically used NDAs to silence victim-survivors. It’s a major reason it took years for his behaviour to be made public. Because of the secrecy involved, it’s also how he… Read more »
Women launching startups in South Australia will have access to government funding in a new grants program launched at _SOUTHSTART in Adelaide today. The Fearless Innovator Grants Program will offer funding to women-run early stage startups. The Malinauskas government has committed $110,000 from the Research and Innovation Fund to support Women in Innovation (WINN) to… Read more »
Statistically speaking, my daughters are underrepresented. They’re female, regionally located, and one has a disability. Recently, I asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. One wants to work in an office and drink coffee “like Mummy”, and the other wants to be a doctor. I asked them about being a scientist,… Read more »
There’s no I in team, the saying goes, and according to Atlassian’s gender gap pay figures, no W either. The difference between base salaries for men and women at the software company, reported to the federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) report, released this week, show the blokes are paid 17.4% more as a… Read more »
The 10 startups in Startmate’s Summer24 accelerator cohort go a long way to addressing a key concern for the sector, with six of them featuring women founders, including two all-female teams. Support for female founders has been a sore point for the sector, despite recent improvements, such as VC funds pledging to report their investment… Read more »
Plant-based leather substitute startup Alt. Leather has raised $1.1 million in an angel round to replace the alternative of petroleum-based synthetic leathers. The Melbourne-based startup, founded in 2022 by Tina Funder, was backed by Startmate, The Austin Group, Robyn Denholm’s family office Wollemi Capital Group, and LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund, along with strategic angel investors. … Read more »
An AI-based Sydney software startup that checks sewer pipes for preemptive maintenance has raised $5 million in a Series A to ramp up its push into the US market. VAPAR, cofounded in 2018 by engineers Amanda Siqueira and Michelle Aguilar, was backed Dutch water technology specialist VC PureTerra Ventures, supported by US engineering and construction… Read more »
Last year Blackbird Ventures made a massive bet on a New Zealand rental accommodation app, just six months after it had turned down a $200,000 pitch for cash. In August 2023, Blackbird instead tipped $7 million into a A$9.5 million Seed round for Kiki. The startup’s cofounder Toby Thomas-Smith, said Blackbird’s New Zealand partner, Samantha… Read more »
Bootstrapped brand collaborations startup Collabosaurus has been acquired by marketing guru Lauren Swidenbank. The terms of the M&A deal were not disclosed. Swidenbank is CEO and founder of Cali Social, a performance marketing agency specialising in female-first brands. She said the acquisition as a strategic move to expand into tech and leverage Collabosaurus’s unique position… Read more »
For two years we have seen both a criminal and a civil court case, play out to its sad completion, the result of a workplace safety issue, which led, allegedly to rape. Despite the vulgarity of the trials, which are the bluntest of instruments for remedy, through these trials, we have had the very rare… Read more »
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