While Katherine Bennell-Pegg is not there yet, she’s now at least qualified for the career she wanted more than two decades ago in high school: astronaut. Adelaide-based Bennell-Pegg, 39, became the first qualified astronaut under the Australian flag this week after completing her training at the European Space Agency’s Astronaut Centre in Germany and now… Read more »
Women’s healthtech startup Femtek has raised $1 million in Seed funding to give women better data around their menstrual cycle. The round was led by startup incubator and early-stage investor Arcanys Ventures, which also has an office in Melbourne led by managing partner Frederic Joye, alongside Philippines-based software outsourcing and a Swiss office. Techstars and… Read more »
Startmate has taken its support of women in startups to the next level. The “Ladymates” initiative – a term was coined by Startmate’s team in the accelerator and investment program – will support more women to work, found and invest in startups. They’ve set a goal of equal gender representation in the ANZ startup sector… Read more »
2023 was a tough funding year across the market, so many founders are looking hopefully ahead to the promise of 2024. While I believe there is going to be some recovery this year for startups seeking funding, this will be gradual and geared towards the larger end of the market, as mergers and acquisitions and… Read more »
Bree Kirkham has joined Tracey Warren’s F5 Collective, a fund established to close the gender funding gap and support female founders, as chief commercial officer. Kirkham joins F5 Collective having most recently been a general partner at Flying Fox Ventures. She has more than eight years of experience in investments, operational leadership, and international expansion.… Read more »
As someone who has always been a minority in an industry, it was, embarrassingly, only in my 30s that I genuinely began to properly clock how tilted the stage is. Up until then, I was that person who said cringey things like “I genuinely don’t think I have ever experienced sexism or harassment”. Lol. Oh,… Read more »
The Queensland government’s support for women in startups has continued with two grant programs under the $8 million Backing Female Founders initiative currently accepting new applications. The Accelerating Female Founders Program provides grants worth between $50,000 and $200,000 for business support initiatives, such as mentoring and advocacy support and customised business development activities, for female-led… Read more »
Women make up just 27% of the STEM sector workforce across all STEM industries, and as they climb the leadership ranks, that number begins to drop to 23% of senior management and 8% of CEOs. On average, women still earn 18% less than men across all STEM industries. So a new podcast by Sydney tech… Read more »
Employee communications startup Traffyk.ai has launched a study to map and better understand gender disparities in leadership communication in the wake of International Women’s Day, The Leadership Listening Gap Project is a study that aims to quantify and address the issue of women’s voices being underrepresented and undervalued in leadership roles, as well as its… Read more »
We constantly hear: “I’m passionate about closing the Gender Pay Gap, and I’m trying to bring it up with friends, family, and colleagues, but I don’t know how to respond to people’s questions or arguments about it.” If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t have the tools for conversations about the Gender Pay Gap, well… Read more »
Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) came into public consciousness during the #MeToo movement after multiple women spoke out with sexual harassment allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein systematically used NDAs to silence victim-survivors. It’s a major reason it took years for his behaviour to be made public. Because of the secrecy involved, it’s also how he… Read more »
Women launching startups in South Australia will have access to government funding in a new grants program launched at _SOUTHSTART in Adelaide today. The Fearless Innovator Grants Program will offer funding to women-run early stage startups. The Malinauskas government has committed $110,000 from the Research and Innovation Fund to support Women in Innovation (WINN) to… Read more »
Statistically speaking, my daughters are underrepresented. They’re female, regionally located, and one has a disability. Recently, I asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. One wants to work in an office and drink coffee “like Mummy”, and the other wants to be a doctor. I asked them about being a scientist,… Read more »
There’s no I in team, the saying goes, and according to Atlassian’s gender gap pay figures, no W either. The difference between base salaries for men and women at the software company, reported to the federal government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) report, released this week, show the blokes are paid 17.4% more as a… Read more »
The 10 startups in Startmate’s Summer24 accelerator cohort go a long way to addressing a key concern for the sector, with six of them featuring women founders, including two all-female teams. Support for female founders has been a sore point for the sector, despite recent improvements, such as VC funds pledging to report their investment… Read more »
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Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar steps down as co-CEO 
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