The benefits of women’s leadership, and their very presence, in the economy are becoming more widely known. The opportunity in 2018 is capturing those benefits with a new set of lens, intentional strategies and new investment and business-building processes.

Women’s progress is a global phenomenon. Ventures Africa, the pan-African business and innovation publication run by award-winning writer and medical doctor Uzodinma Iweala, queried its online community on the meaning of progress for women is in 2018. Progress means “demolishing norms embedded in our society that stifle women and points us towards only one type of happiness,” wrote Nicole in Accra, Ghana. “Men in denial must finally understand that though we are not the same, we’re equal.” Hear global voices.

Women solve problems they know about, but need access to entrepreneurship. Inc42, the upstart India tech pub we watch closely at ImpactAlpha, rounded up the motivations of 15 women entrepreneurs. “I was forced to look for solutions to encourage my son to read as he absolutely hated it,” says Siddhi Trivedi, co-founder of Healthy Care. “I was lucky to work with another woman with the same problem and we built a great team to develop an educational gamification app to help boys read."

Broadening access to entrepreneurship is a very intentional process. Female founders received just 2% of venture capital in 2017. Founders of color grabbed even less.

Read the full article about trying to narrow the gender gap by Dennis Price at ImpactAlpha.