First-ever report on the state of female entrepreneur mental health released
First-ever comprehensive report on the state of female entrepreneur mental health reveals women are disproportionately affected and lack support, impeding their success
SEPTEMBER 9, 2020 - resurgo (www.resurgo.co), a technology startup dedicated to better mental health for entrepreneurial women, today released the world’s most comprehensive report on the state of mental health for female entrepreneurs and how this impacts their success.
Currently, there are an estimated 250 million self-employed women on the planet according to a report by Babson College and Smith College, and Start-up Guys projects this number to grow to 490 million by 2030. Women are starting businesses at record rates. Still, female-founded businesses are scaling their businesses at a slower rate when compared to their male counterparts. A report by Mckinsey Global Institute projects that if female entrepreneurs were scaling their firms at the same rate as businesses founded by men, they would contribute 12 trillion dollars to the global economy.
According to a joint study between University of Berkeley and University of San Francisco by Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Michael A. Freeman M.D., entrepreneurs are directly affected by mental health illness at a rate three times the global average (72% of all entrepreneurs versus 1 in 4 globally).
Driven by the lack of comprehensive research on this specific issue and her own experience as a self-employed woman working in the technology sector, resurgo founder Laurel Anne Stark began analyzing the data available on entrepreneurial mental health and that of women in general to paint a picture of the challenges faced by entrepreneurial women specifically.
After four years of analysis, Laurel and her team of researchers and clinical consultants found that female entrepreneurs are contending with significant risks to their mental health, in addition to those generally associated with entrepreneurship, which impede their success in business and negatively impact their overall wellbeing. Further, self-employed women lack the support necessary to mitigate these risks to their mental health, which is preventing them from making significant contributions to the global economy.
Overall, the self-reported state of mental health in the female entrepreneurs surveyed was worse than expected:
Only 32% of self-employed women described their mental health as good or great.
39% chose “just okay”.
25% said it was either poor or bad.
70% of respondents indicated they regularly experienced feeling overwhelmed.
4% of the respondents indicated they would give the money to support someone else in need.
6 respondents indicated that their mental health was in crisis
21% of the respondents indicated they would spend $500 on meeting basic needs like food or rent.
22% of respondents indicated they experienced feelings of wanting to “escape life.”
The fact that nearly a quarter of the respondents expressed wanting to “escape life” is a significant percentage and an area of serious concern, due to the possible links between the desire for escape and suicidal ideation.
Given the enormous number of high-impact risks to female entrepreneur mental health, and the large percentage of women who experience traumatic gender-based assaults, which is known to increase risk of suicide, these responses are concerning. It’s important to note that suicide exists on a continuum. The final act is the last in a series of milestones.
Although women more often attempt suicide, they are less likely to die than men, because they tend to use less lethal means. In our opinion, providing proper support for women in the early stages of the continuum is urgently needed.
Over 20% of the respondents indicated they would spend $500 on meeting basic needs like food or rent. This number was higher than expected and highlighted the prevalence of self-employed women living at or below the poverty line.
With the release of this report, Laurel seeks to open a dialogue around the disproportionate mental health challenges that affect self-employed women, spur additional research, reduce the stigma of mental health issues brought on by systemic inequality and continue the conversation about why entrepreneurial women’s mental health matters, as well as demonstrating the need for support for female entrepreneurs.
Laurel Anne Stark, CEO and founder of resurgo, comments:
“Given the lack of comprehensive research on the mental health of female entrepreneurs specifically, I am seeking to fill the void with this report and to build mental health supports to meet the unique needs of self employed women, so that they can create and contribute in the free market without facing dire health consequences. For women, business is deeply personal – there is no work-life balance. But, when women are supported to feel well, they are better positioned to do well, both in business and in life. This is the problem I hope to solve with resurgo, the first web-app designed to support self-employed women in life and business.”
Michael A. Freeman, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UC San Francisco School of Medicine; Mentor, the Entrepreneurship Center at UCSF; Author, Are Entrepreneurs Touched with Fire?, comments:
“resurgo’s State of Female Entrepreneur Mental Health report opens an important dialogue about the root causes of, and solutions to, wellbeing challenges faced by women entrepreneurs.”
Key findings from resurgo’s State of Female Entrepreneur Mental Health Report:
Female entrepreneurs experience numerous and significant risks to their mental health that are far greater than the average population. The stressors of being self-employed, amplified by being female in a culture where harassing and assaulting women is normalized, creates an escalated level of risk to good mental health.
For women, business is deeply personal, and if they aren’t well, it’s harder to do well, in business or life. Support for female entrepreneurs that does not proactively address the risks to their mental health is shortsighted and incomplete.
Factoring in unpaid labour, the third (beauty) shift and labour involved with self employment, entrepreneurial women work the equivalent of three jobs and get paid for about 50% of one.
Self-employed women are projected to contribute $12 trillion to the global economy if they were to scale their businesses at the same rates as men. Studies show female-founded firms perform better financially.
Methodology
In collaboration with the academics and mental health clinicians on the resurgo team, the report has been reviewed and documented in combination with Laurel’s personal insights after 17 years in entrepreneurship and as a business mentor to female entrepreneurs. The report consists of over 50 formal compiled and analyzed academic studies and a handful of less rigorous informative polls, surveys and newspaper articles along with resurgo’s own web polls.
The framework used is based on the Suicide Risk Assessment model, providing an academically accepted methodolgy of how to organize and contextualize many seemingly unrelated factors that affect mental health, and then assess for suicide risk with the notion that greate risk equates to greater mental health breakdown.
Put simply, to assess the risk for suicide based on this model, a health care provider would analyze a person’s history along with what’s called protective factors (ie: a stable home life, good friends, enough money for basic needs, etc.). These two elements would be weighed against known risk factors, like a sense of hopelessness and access to lethal means. This is a simplified calculation used to ascertain how at risk a person is for suicide, which arguably points to the severity of an individual’s mental health crisis.
This report is focused on providing and analyzing the prevalence of these risk and protective factors for entrepreneurial women. The report provides data on the risk factors that are prevalent in entrepreneurship in general, as well as those specific to female entrepreneurs to show that gender is a significant indicator of worse mental health in entrepreneurs. Because the data collected comes from studies conducted using different methods, in different countries, it is not a statistically perfect model, but creates a picture that supports the patterns Laurel experienced and observed in her work with thousands of female entrepreneurs over a 17 year period alongside the results of resurgo’s own web polls.
Limitations of research
Given the limited data available, a more in-depth intersectional analysis of how mental health illnesses affect entrepreneurial womxn taking into consideration their race, sexual orientation, and gender identity is not included. However, the purpose of the report is to open the dialogue around the issue of mental health for entrepreneurial women and spur further research into this issue across LGBT+ and POC communities. Read Laurel’s Statement of Accountability & Impact here.
About Laurel Anne Stark
Laurel Anne Stark is the CEO and founder of resurgo, the first-ever web app designed to support female entrepreneurs in business and life, as well as an acclaimed business and marketing consultant and mental health advocate.
In her 17 years of self-employment in the technology industry, Laurel battled and has recovered from bankruptcy, burnout and a horrible battle with alcoholism. During her years as a wife and stepmom she also experienced first-hand the negative effects of trying to do it all and be it all. In her work, she noted similar challenges in her clients’ lives, and she knew she had to take action to address the mental health crisis plaguing the world’s innovators, which led to the creation of resurgo.
Laurel is also a three-time nominee of the Canadian Women Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards presented by Women of Influence and Royal Bank of Canada, and the founder of The New Media Group, a digital communications agency. Laurel has been supporting female entrepreneurs since 2003.
