Female resilience at the time of Covid, and why investors should care
By: Imogen Hunter
Welcome back to our Linkedin weekly appointment. Our first article of 2021 focuses on the impact of the pandemic on women in business. Albeit a global phenomenon, the economic consequences of Covid-19 have not been felt equally across demographic groups.
Women, for example, have been impacted disproportionately worldwide. According to CNN, in the US, 140,000 jobs were lost in December. All of them were held by women. In the UK women are 47% more likely to have lost their job because of Covid-19. Before the pandemic, the World Economic Forum predicted that it would take 257 years before there was economic parity between men and women. This could be pushed even further back as a result of the crisis.
Among women, those hardest hit are entrepreneurs. In India, for example, over 70% of women entrepreneurs faced a decline in business revenue due to Covid-driven restrictions.
With that being said, the pandemic has also presented some catalysing changes, from which positive outcomes have emerged. Print Print, a UK-based online printing service, analysed hundreds of print orders received from start-up businesses between April and November 2020, and 78% were from female customers. That’s more than 3 in every 4 orders. The pre-lockdown figure showed a 50/50 gender split.
What’s particularly encouraging is that this new wave of female entrepreneurship spans largely overlooked sectors and geographies, building much-needed solutions from the ground up.
Rebekah Brown built MPowder, a brand providing nutritional powders for the three stages of menopause, secured £500k seed funding from Reckitt Benckiser, a great achievement considering not only the pandemic, but also the largely stigmatised menopause category.
Indian Srishti Tehri founded the social initiative “Artisans of Banjara” to improve the conditions of the artisans of the once-bustling Banjara market in Rajasthan who were struggling to keep their livelihood. Srishti set out to bring their crafts to buyers across the country. She designed a logo, posted photos on Instagram and brought the excitement of a flea market to a digital and home-confined audience. The response has been phenomenal.
Caroline Haegeman founded Box42, a date-night subscription box to help bring back the romance in relationships struggling under emotional strain. The box has a theme, snacks, non-alcoholic drinks, curated playlists and ‘mood setters’, such as candles. Adoption is encouraging and the Company is looking to break-even soon.
Why is this interesting to Kitchen8? Firstly, these stories demonstrate that in times of crisis hustle and ingenuity count most. Secondly, an investment into a massively underfunded and underrepresented sector during a global recession can bear equally disproportionate returns. Thirdly, as much as the coronavirus pandemic risks losing decades of female progress, it is also a time for women’s inherent resilience to shine through and for investors to start championing a more diverse set of perspectives.
