What an ancient sex strike can teach us about funding for female startup founders

It’s 411 BCE, and Aristophanes is slaying his audience in the Theatre of Dionysius with a mix of laughter and tears.

In his play Lysistrata, the title character leads the women of Sparta and Thebes in a bold and humorous campaign—a sex strike—to end the devastating war between their two cities. On the surface, it’s all fun and farce, but the true power of the play lies in the moment when Lysistrata and her fellow women seize the Treasury at the Acropolis.

The Treasury—where the men control the funds to continue the war—is the true centre of power in Athens. By occupying it, Lysistrata and her fellow women disrupt the very forces that perpetuate conflict and inequality.

It’s a daring act of resistance. In this radical move, Aristophanes was poking fun at the time rather than offering a sharp critique of systems that hoard power and wealth. Although the play is comedic, it also contains a twist where the seriousness of women’s demands emerges, revealing the depth of their struggle for equality.

In a stunning act of defiance, the leading lady addresses the Athenian Assembly—an all-male forum—demanding that women’s voices be heard in political and economic matters.

In one of the play’s most memorable exchanges, the men threaten her: “How’d you like to have your mouth shut?”

The response? “Two or three punches ought to do it.”

If you followed the US election, you might have heard that same phrase being used to invoke a culture of silencing dissenting voices, particularly those of women.

The ancient is modern

Fast-forward to today, and there are echoes of this ancient struggle everywhere.

In many ways, the stakes are still the same. While a sex strike may not be on the table, movements like 4B in Korea show that the call for collective action, particularly by women, is very much alive. What we’re seeing today is a modern-day version of Lysistrata’s challenge: the fight for a fairer share of economic power.

Why is it that, similar to those ancient times, less than 4% of venture capital globally still goes to female-founded companies—despite so much public conversation and advocacy for gender equity in funding?

Why does the capital that does flow towards women founders still face barriers to access?

Moira Were

These questions remain urgent.

Research published in October highlights the magnitude of the problem: around the world, over two billion women are denied access to equal economic opportunities. A 2023 World Economic Forum study put the financing gap for women entrepreneurs at US$1.7 trillion, while a UN report estimates an additional US$360 billion investment is needed per year to achieve gender equality.

We’ve all heard the stats: A Deloitte study showed that companies led or founded by women consistently outperform those led by men in terms of investment returns.

In Australia, for example, while 22% of start-ups are women-founded, only 0.7% of all private start-up funding in 2022 went to female-led teams. This, despite funding in the sector increasing tenfold between FY18 and FY22. This disparity underlines a modern treasury that refuses to acknowledge female contributions to business.

A recent study from the Global Impact Investor Network’s (GIIN) 2024 showed that gender investors—those who allocate at least 30% of their impact assets to women-led or -owned ventures—met or exceeded their financial expectations 90% of the time, highlighting the strong business case for supporting women entrepreneurs.

The smart money knows this gap needs to be closed, and some investors are taking steps in the right direction.

Take Blackbird Ventures, which recently reported that of the 16 new companies they invested in this year, five had women in the founding team. And by dollar amount, those investments performed better—35% of Blackbird’s total funding went to women-led teams.

Bigger strides

But that’s just one step in a much larger movement.

Not all women founders want to engage with traditional venture capital. Many are creating new models for success, driven by community and collective empowerment.

One such model is Coralus, a community-driven venture fund where women and non-binary founders are supported by a spirit of radical generosity.

To date, Coralus has raised $19 million and funded over 190 ventures through its network of 7,000+ members. This is the kind of disruptive, community-powered investment that’s beginning to challenge the status quo.

And it’s all rooted in the same lessons we can trace back to Lysistrata—disrupting the old order, challenging the patriarchal systems that hold power, and creating new ways of doing business and sharing resources.

Tell me why?

Which brings me to a larger question: why is it that after all these centuries, women are still being shut out of financial opportunities?

It’s a tragedy, not a comedy, because while we keep funding wars and building weapons, we’re not funding the innovation and ingenuity that could truly propel humanity forward.

The same forces that denied Lysistrata a voice continue to throttle our progress today, blocking new ideas, opportunities, and inventions—many of which come from women.

But if I’m being honest, the root of my despair is not just the injustice women face. It’s the fact that these same systems are failing everyone.

Look at the mental health crisis among men, the staggering suicide rates, the declining life expectancy. The systems aren’t working for men, either—except, perhaps, for the billionaires.

You don’t have to scroll very far through Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s List before you realise that women make up a tiny fraction of the ultra-wealthy. In fact, you have to scroll all the way down to #16 to find a woman’s name.

Yes, billionaires are a policy failure

And here’s the thing: billionaires are a policy failure.

They’re not a success story. They’re the result of a system that rewards the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few, while leaving the rest of us to pick up the scraps.

Every time we participate in the billionaire-driven economy, we’re complicit in holding up that system. The financial mechanisms that keep these inequities in place are the same ones that prevent women from receiving fair investment and funding.

It’s time to get real about the gender investment gap. It’s time to end the bromance with billionaires and invest in female founders. You can start small—by being a customer of women-led businesses, commissioning and procuring their products, services, and research.

But then, take it further. Invest. And invite others to join you. Build a treasury and movement that challenges the old order.

A movement to make Aristophanes look back from the afterlife and wonder, “Maybe I wasn’t so far off after all.”

Time for massive interruption

At a systemic level, it’s time for a massive interruption – bold ideas like venture capitalists halting funding for male-led businesses for two years if we genuinely want to address this persistent and worsening problem.

And before you dismiss this as outrageous, consider that for centuries, this has been the lived experience of half the population.

So really, it’s not radical at all.