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Diversity Students

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Citypreneurs is committed to championing diversity and inclusion in tech and entrepreneurship.

We believe that a culture of diversity and inclusion attracts the best talent and is key to creating inclusive and profitable innovations for sustainable cities. In fact, research shows that diverse teams tend to be more successful and innovative by tapping into different perspectives, experiences, knowledge and approaches, leading to developing smarter tech and tapping into new markets.

WHY ADDRESS GENDER?

Achieving gender equality means achieving equal representation on all levels, including age, sexuality, nationality, race, religion, socioeconomic class and education. It is underpinned by equality of opportunity, experience and reward for everyone, and allows us all to participate in shaping the future we want to see.

However, change is of the essence:

Only 17% of startups worldwide had a female founder in 2017

U.S. female-founded startups received only 2.2% of venture capital investment in 2018

A global survey found that 37% of startup founders felt bias against their age, while 28% and 26% felt bias against their gender and race, respectively

Curious about unconscious bias?

Take a bias test here

WHY BEGIN WITH STARTUPS?

To improve gender equality in tech and entrepreneurship, we need to design the ecosystem for it. This means attracting, including and supporting female founders by creating spaces for women to learn about available opportunities, to develop skills, and to be exposed to examples of success.

Check out the following resources to learn more about how you can create an inclusive and diverse work culture for your workplace:

Oakland-based tech startup Clef created an open source inclusion handbook that covers employee policies, resources, and more.

Project Include offers a community for accelerating meaningful, enduring diversity and inclusion in the tech industry.

Diversify your current talent pool and identify gender-biases in your job ads and candidate-screening process.

Take part in UNDP's Gender Equality Seal Programme for Public and Private Organizations.

Address wage gap issues by making transparent performance reviews, employee feedback, salaries and promotions internally and within the industry.

WHAT CITYPRENEURS IS DOING

To this end, our members strive for equal gender representation at all levels of our ecosystem, from our startups and investors to our organizing committee, and we encourage you to do the same.

We are working on connecting our ecosystem with:

FINANCIAL CAPITAL

promoting equality of opportunity through our competition, with potential funding opportunities worth US$ 50 million

VISIBILITY CAPITAL

(a) having equal numbers of male and female speakers and stakeholders representatives 

SOCIAL CAPITAL

building a community of changemakers through mentoring and networking opportunities with experienced innovators, policymakers, and investors

...

(b) creating diversity metrics to offer more transparency and provide our members actionable ways to promote gender equality

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