Jacqueline Hausotte has carved itself into a male domain. Eight years ago, the Leipzig native founded a stonemasonry business. Now she stands between gravestones and granite blocks, the company dog strolls across the yard.
Proportion of women in the start-up sector is 20 percent
Hausotte’s stonemasonry business is now the largest in Leipzig. But the journey, she says, wasn’t easy: “As a woman, it’s even more difficult to simply convince people that you can do it as a woman. It’s this point, this: You have a husband after all. Or: “You have to take care of children. These are exactly the points that continue to come up and stand in the way of women.”
Politicians have been wanting more female founders for years. Their share in the start-up sector is now 20 percent. The goal of a balance between men and women still seems a long way off.
Women have lower start-up capital and less access to networks
One The hurdle is the lack of risk capital, says Franziska Teubert, head of the Federal Association of German Start-ups: “We see in many numbers, including in our own surveys, that female founders still receive less capital than male founders. That is of course a disadvantage if they are Want to build a start-up. The second reason is: They have less access to networks. A lot still happens in this scene because you know someone or are introduced. Female founders have a harder time getting into these networks.”
Carolin Maier has also experienced that start-up networks are male-dominated. Nevertheless, the 26-year-old wants to revolutionize knowledge management in medium-sized companies with artificial intelligence. Your company is called Prodlane and is based in the SpinLab startup center in Leipzig: “We are developing an artificial intelligence assistant so that you can chat with the company’s knowledge. That means you upload documents, this huge desert of Powerpoints, PDFs, Excel files – everything “Flies around like that. And then you can interact: ask questions, have things written. All the advantages that artificial intelligence has.”
Support offers for female founders
Maier says men appear more self-confident in the start-up scene. Women could step up their game. It helped her that there are special funding offers through the SpinLab. The incubator’s spokeswoman, Linh Pham, says these are also necessary. “You really have to start from scratch, break down social structures and traditional, conservative role models. This will be a process that will take some time. But it’s important to talk about it and show success stories.”
One hurdle: founding a company often coincides with starting a family. And even the most committed founder has to stay at home to give birth to a child. Unfortunately, there is no good insurance for self-employed mothers, says startup association leader Teubert: “One idea could be to actually extend maternity protection to the self-employed. In other words, to integrate the self-employed into this group and make a solidarity-based levy. That would be a first step “To say: In these first weeks after birth there is a certain financial security. And then you can start doing business again.”
Steinmetzin Hausotte managed it with a lot of strength without this help. Your son has grown as the company has. Hausotte now also provides training so that young women don’t have the same thing happen to her when she was interested in the profession. At that time she was told: Steinmetz, that’s not for girls.
2024-03-08 04:00:42
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