Argentina just hosted the Women 20 (W20) summit from 1st to 3rd October, which brings together women leaders with expertise in civil society, businesses, entrepreneurships and think tanks.

During this year’s W20 conference in Buenos Aires, the group states that by closing the gender gap in economic participation, global GDP would increase by 26 percent, or US$5.3 trillion, by the year 2025, and promoting women entrepreneurship is a new engine to realize the objective. The W20 conference also created a variety of proposals to encourage female integration in entrepreneurial activity.

They identified the main barriers for women as the initial financing of a project, followed by housekeeping duties and gender stereotypes. To counteract this, W20 proposed creating a public fund for women entrepreneurs, as well as communication campaigns focusing on gender, with the objective to motivate more women to create their own startups, and for society to place more value on female entrepreneurs. 

The W20 website states that the number of women in tech startups is much less than that of man. Argentine startup Chicas en Tecnologia (Girls in Technology) are hoping to create a more equal balance in this sector by creating clubs and training groups to show women what they are capable of.

Both the G20 and the W20 are placing more priorities on the role of women in business and startups, which in turn has encouraged governments to create initiatives that will facilitate female insertion into traditionally male-heavy markets such as technology. With more women in the sector, it is expected that gender stereotypes will slowly fade away and the next generation of women will have more opportunities and face less discrimination.