About a week ago, this post was going viral on LinkedIn.
Is the phrase “female founder” inhibiting or empowering?
Ashley Sumner, the CEO and founder of Quilt, posted a photo of herself with the words “I am a female founder.” In the caption, she says: I am a founder. Putting my gender in front of what I am belittles what I’ve accomplished, and reminds women how few of us get to where I am. I’m ready to drop the gender and get right to the work I’m doing. Who’s with me?
As evidenced by the 500,000+ engagements and almost 19,000 comments it has garnered in just over a week, this post and sentiment are certainly thought-provoking.
Many women in business agree with Sumner in rejecting the phrase “female founder/CEO.” Says Michele Romanow, serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Clearbanc, and host of The Revisionaries podcast: “A female CEO is a CEO. Separate societal problems from your own mindset. Yes, only 7 percent of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are female, but the second you label yourself as a female founder, it limits you to that title. I have not once heard the term ‘male CEO.’ Females should not be labeled with a title inhibiting their growth.”
Sumner believes she should be celebrated for the work she has done in becoming a founder and CEO. And, like Romanow noted, men don’t say they are “male founders/CEOs”—so why should a woman say she is a “female founder/CEO”? Isn’t the “female” qualifier irrelevant to the nature of the job and her ability to do it?
But on the other hand, we very much still live in a patriarchal society—and the patriarchy is especially apparent in entrepreneurship. In fact, almost two-thirds of women still face everyday sexism at work. Only about 11 percent of startups are founded by women, and in 2020, women-led startups received just 2.3 percent of VC funding. Folks on the other side of this debate would argue that the “female founder” designation is a celebration of doing something that women have been discouraged and prevented from doing for so long. They would say it’s an empowering, bold way to send a message and show other women what they can accomplish. Yes, putting “female” in front of “founder” implies that a female founder is not the “typical” type of founder—but that is true. We aren’t. That’s clear from the statistics. It’s not to position us as less than, but it’s to recognize and draw attention to the achievements of women, the strides we are making, and the obstacles we are overcoming every single day to do so.
Ultimately, this is something that every female leader should think about on her own. Ask yourself if, for you, “female founder” challenges the status quo or reinforces it. (And spoiler alert, there’s no right answer.) When it comes to things like this, we can (and should!) have the conversations, but the most important thing for women to do at the end of the day is respect each other’s decisions. Gendered qualifiers may or may not benefit women in the long run, but judging each other for personal choices certainly doesn’t.
