“Women supporting other women who have become successful [could boost female-led start-ups]… Gaining some insight about women, from women, is necessary,” says McGee.
Wendy Simpson, who heads up Springboard Australia, believes families also have a key part to play in boosting female entrepreneurship.
“When a woman goes to her family and says, ‘I want to start this business’, more families should say, ‘That’s great’. Too often families are saying, ‘What do you want to do that for?’” she says.
“We all know… it takes a whole business community to raise up an entrepreneur. And yet there’s sometimes a mindset of ‘I did it all by myself’,” says Simpson.
“Women tend to shy away [because of that perception] because they often prefer to work in a team. We need to redefine what it means to be a successful entrepreneur.
“When we had the US visitors coming out to visit Australia [for the Springboard program], one of the things they noticed was Australia tells people to be humble and keep a low profile.
“Women who do celebrate their achievements… are told to curb their enthusiasm and stop being tall poppies. How does that help the economy?”
“Most tech companies are founded by engineers and there’s hardly any female engineers,” says Campbell.
“When I was at school all the smart kids studied French, history and Latin, so that’s what I took.
“I would have loved to learn more about computers but I went to a girls’ school and it wasn’t really an option so I never thought about it as a career.
“I wish I could write code – it would make life so much easier.”
