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It’s a well-documented phenomenon: women-led startups receive less venture capital funding than their men-led counterparts. In 2023, according to the World Economic Forum, women-led startups accounted for two percent or less of venture capital funding invested in Europe and the United States.
Researchers continue to investigate why this gap exists. According to recent work by Julie Nguyen, a PhD candidate at the Desautels Faculty of Management, and her co-authors, benevolent sexism could partly explain why women-led startups are vastly underfunded compared to men-led startups.
“There has been a lot of discussion about sexism in entrepreneurship,” Nguyen said. “But most of the time, the spotlight often falls on overt sexism – the type that outright demeans women’s ability and character. What’s less talked about is the more subtle and socially accepted form of sexism called benevolent sexism.”
What is benevolent sexism?
Benevolent sexism describes a set of patronising attitudes towards women that focus on so-called “positive” attributes that nonetheless reinforce gender inequities. Cloaked in affectionate and protective language, benevolent sexism portrays women as wonderful yet fragile and in need of protection from men, explained Nguyen.
Individuals who subscribe to benevolent sexism might view women as “warm,” “moral,” “refined,” and “should be cherished and protected.” But even though they sound like compliments, these kinds of statements reduce women to restrictive gender stereotypes and undermine women’s agency and independence. Plus, because these statements sound positive and supportive, they’re less likely to be challenged by both women and men, explained Nguyen.
This veneer of positivity masks the negative impacts of benevolent sexism on women’s lives and careers. For example, according to a different study, benevolent sexism is part of why fewer women hold positions of power in organizations. They receive less challenging, career-building assignments because they’re viewed as vulnerable people to be protected, not colleagues of equal capabilities and stature.
How does benevolent sexism impact women-led startups?
Nguyen’s study suggests benevolent sexism negatively impacts women-led startups, but not in the ways you might think.
Her team invited 1,272 participants to evaluate an early-stage startup founded by either a man or a woman. Each proposal was identical and had all the qualities of a successful startup. The only difference between them was the founder’s gender.
The results? At first glance, benevolent sexism does not seem to directly impact women. Whether evaluators held benevolent sexist attitudes made no difference in how they assessed women-led startup proposals. However, evaluators who endorsed benevolent sexism saw men-led startups as more promising than evaluators who didn’t hold such beliefs. Benevolent sexism inflated the perceived promise of men-led startups, while women-led startups were treated normally, explained Nguyen.
Nguyen’s results suggest that gender inequity is not just about unfair barriers against women. It involves giving unwarranted advantages to men while women receive the standard treatment, which further entrenches gender inequities among startup founders.
Fighting benevolent sexism
Benevolent sexism is masked by a veneer of positivity. The first step to fight it, Nguyen suggested, is awareness raising.
“If we are serious about supporting women-led startups, we have to raise awareness about these biases to all stakeholders, including entrepreneurs, investors, and mentors,” she said.
To reduce the impact of benevolent sexism in startup evaluations, it’s crucial to limit reliance on intuition, which often allows bias to slip in, she added. Adding structure, accountability, and transparency to the process can help counteract this.
Not unlike equitable hiring practices, startup evaluators can standardize and establish their evaluation criteria before reviewing any startup proposals. This helps remove personal feelings and biases from the equation, focusing instead on the contents of a proposal. They should also provide clear justifications for their evaluation and funding decisions.
Many well-meaning initiatives advise women to change their communication and negotiation styles for the industries they hope to participate in. However, to achieve true equity for every entrepreneur, regardless of their gender, the focus should be on addressing the unfair system, rather than suggesting women need to contort themselves to fit in an unfair system, said Nguyen.
“With this research, we call for fixing the system rather than fixing women,” she said.
Nhu Julie Nguyen is a PhD candidate at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, supervised by Professor Lisa Cohen. Her research employs big data analytics, natural language processing (NLP), experimental designs, and surveys to explore the factors influencing individual and organizational success.

Hanieh Mohammadi
This article was written by Eric Dicaire.
Inspired by the research article “Benevolent Sexism and the Gender Gap in Startup Evaluation” by Nhu Julie Nguyen, Ivona Hideg, Yuval Engel, and Frédéric Godart.
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