# The Gaitherin: Tackling Systemic Barriers to Scale Women’s Entrepreneurship in Scotland and Abroad

**Welcome to The Gaitherin: Tackling Systemic Barriers to Scale Women’s Entrepreneurship in Scotland and Abroad!**
**Venue: Hothouse, Adam Smith Building, University of Glasgow**

Come join us on **Thursday the 9th of May 2024** at **10:00 AM** at the **Adam Smith Business School** for an event filled with inspiring discussions, networking opportunities, and interactive sessions focused on empowering women entrepreneurs.

At this event, we will focus on tackling systemic barriers faced by women entrepreneurs in scaling their businesses, in Scotland and globally. The gender gap in entrepreneurship continues to be a local and global issue, with only [13.6 percent of fast-growth companies in Scotland that are women-led](https://www.thegenderindex.co.uk/images/Narratives/2024/Scotland-Report-2024.pdf). Women entrepreneurs raise [less resources from investors than men, even when their startups are similar or identical](https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-00042-4_10). Globally, [GDP could rise by 3-6 percent](https://www.ubs.com/global/en/wealth-management/women/insights/2021/funding-gap.html) if women and men were to participate equally as entrepreneurs. While the barriers faced by women entrepreneurs are systemic, many solutions often place the burden of overcoming these barriers on women entrepreneurs. Research shows how [smarter systems can reduce the gender gap](https://vilcap.com/smarter-systems) and improve outcomes for entrepreneurs and investors. This Gaitherin event will focus on systems change to level the playing field for women entrepreneurs.

We will start with a networking session where our speakers and guests can meet over coffee and pastries to introduce themselves and explore areas of mutual interest. Next, the central part of the Gaitherin is where three or four of our guest speakers participate on an engaging panel, followed by a Q&A. We will then have a brief interactive session in which panellists and participants collaboratively identify practical solutions to systemic barriers in women’s entrepreneurship. We then close the event with another opportunity for our guests to follow up with one another, perhaps with questions that may have been prompted from the session.

The Gaitherin is a series of events where academics, the business community, and policy makers come together for engaging discussions about important subjects impacting higher education, the private sector, and the wider national and international landscape.

**Speakers**

* Chair: Professor Eleanor Shaw OBE (Dean of Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow)
* Ana Stewart (Pathways Forward Committee)
* Caren Holzman (Head of Steering Committee, Women in Social Finance)
* John Anderson (Strathclyde Business School)
* Gillian Fleming (MINT Ventures)

Paul McInally

The Gaitherin

Career & Business

Nanotechnology

Technology

Professional Networking

Business Strategy

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur Networking

Startup Businesses

Engineering

Quantum Computing

Research and Development

Biotechnology

Tackling Systemic Barriers to Scale Women’s Entrepreneurship

Adam Smith Business School

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The Gaitherin

Tackling Systemic Barriers to Scale Women’s Entrepreneurship

The Gaitherin

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