Women are more successful at raising money on Kickstarter then men, was the conclusion drawn by The Wall Street Journal in a August 2014 article.
However, in many categories, they still reflect the larger fundraising market in terms of percentage of women leading crowdfunding campaigns. Games (7.7%), comics (14.7%) technology (16.9%) and design (25.5%) are most under represented. However, instead of writing it off as “to be expected”, the women of Kickstarter, are doing something about it.
A number of projects are popping up that encourage the next generation of females to get into math, science, design, technology and entrepreneurship.
Here are 4 inspiring examples that are all within the top 100 funded projects in their category, at the date of release:
Jewelbot (400% funded) Programmable friendship bracelets that teach girls the basics of coding. Two women team up to help young women get excited about coding and technology. Open source bracelets start simple with alerts from social media or friends but become more advanced as the user learns more and pushes to see what is possible.
Gobble (72% funded) Two female designers who met on Instagram have designed a collection of funanimal inspired homeware made with recycled paper fibers. By combining non-toxic inks and water based adhesives, their range is recyclable too. Gobble chose to focus specifically on children’s products in hopes that they could do more than just popularize a better for the earth material, but to also help bring along the next generation of eco-friendly designers.
IBesties (100% funded) Again, two women bonded over the idea that “you can’t be what you can’t see” and designed collection of dolls, books & online “edutainment” that promotes entrepreneurship and technology learning for young girls.
Stembox (110% funded) Created by a biologist at a cancer research center to bring young girls to science and technology. Stembox is a subscription service that delivers a regular stream of science experiments targeted at young girls without the focus of today’s products that are largely makeup and bath.
“That’s the spirit of Kickstarter, be the change you want to see” says Kira Pan, co-founder of Gobble. “We think using a material that is recycled and can be recycled which can eventually replace plastic is a really big deal. There are a lot of ways we could have brought this to market, however, we think inspiring and involving the next generation of designers and consumers is the greatest way to effect change and create more female designers and entrepreneurs who care about sustainability. It may not be the fastest way, but we hope it’s the best.”
As with many socially-charged topics, it often takes a new generation of “clean slate” thinking to significantly shift attitudes and behaviours. At this point in the game, we are not going to bring more women into science and technology mid-career, but we can influence the next generation of women to make different choices.
With so much talk about gender equality it is refreshing to see an opportunity to actually get involved in change instead of just debating it.