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Gender dimensions of digitalisation: a comparison of Venture Capital backed start-ups across fields

ABSTRACT The digitalisation of economic activities has given rise to much hope that it will lead to greater opportunities for women and a more ‘level playing field’ in the work place. On the other hand, there are concerns that the increasing success of the companies that are driving digitalisation might mean that the male-dominated culture of software companies is becoming more prominent and potentially reduces opportunities for women. This study investigates the gender distribution of key professionals in 8164 Venture Capital (VC) funded digital start-ups, as compared to information technology hardware and life sciences and biotechnology start-ups, as well as the impact of gender on VC funding. We find that, despite extensive advances in digitalisation over the past decade, women's participation remains low and continues to have a negative relationship with VC funding in both digital start-ups and other start-ups. Thus, our findings suggest that the recent digitalisation is not ‘levelling the playing field’ on a broad scale and that companies and policymakers need to be proactive to design inclusive strategies to capture benefits from a diverse workforce in digital start-ups.