Opinion by: Elena Sinelnikova, co-founder of Metis and CryptoChicks.
Women lead top crypto exchanges. They also earn 15% more than men, according to Pantera Capital. We have come a long way indeed.
Yet Web3 is nowhere near harnessing the feminine community’s potential and embracing its leadership — both at economic and cultural/psychological levels.
Only about 13% of Web3 projects have female founders, and they receive merely 6% of the industry’s total funding. Web3 events — conferences, hackathons, afterparties — are primarily male-dominated. And then there are predators lurking around.
Web3 promises inclusion and fairness for all — onboarding more women and creating safer places are necessary. Women comprise around 50% of the global population, have over $31 trillion in spending power, and control 85% of consumer spending in the United States. Dismissing and, at worst, disempowering their leadership just doesn’t make sense for Web3.
Empowering the marginalized benefits all
Creating more women-centric corners in Web3 means more inclusivity and accessibility for everyone. It’s about breaking the monopoly of the hypermasculine “bro code” that tends to exclude anything, or anyone, remotely feminine.
The idea of a feminine frontier represents a cultural shift in Web3. It’s a call to build and nurture spaces where care, collaboration, empathy and emotionality — the so-called feminine characteristics — are celebrated and not looked down upon.
Every human being — woman or man — thrives in such spaces, whether we accept or even realize. It’s evident from the number of men attending and actively participating in “women-only” conferences and events.
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The beauty and strength of feminine spaces emerge from the experience of facing marginalization in all shapes and sizes. Along with sisterhood, these experiences drive women to be more receptive, accepting and giving.
These qualities are also recurring concepts in any textbook definition of inclusion. That’s why diverse voices feel more heard and at home in feminine communities. It’s also okay to have loads of fun while discussing serious matters and cutting-edge ideas to change the world.
Building the feminine frontier
Onboarding more women to Web3 and creating more women-centric spaces will make the industry more inclusive internally and complement its external mission of fostering inclusivity in finance.
Breaking generational stereotypes is, however, as challenging as replacing legacy business structures, if not harder. Women themselves are made to feel they are inferior, let alone being told so by others. That significantly complicates the problem.
Statistical data showing that women-led businesses achieve significantly higher income growth or return on equity doesn’t seem to make a difference. Even the fact that companies with female leadership grow approximately twice as fast as their male-dominated counterparts fails to have the desired impact.
The problem isn’t altogether rational or cognitive but rather psychological and deep-seated. You must unlearn a lot before you can learn new ways or see yourself in a new light. Education, mentorship and holistic support are critical as a result.
Women-centric communities are doing great at this. From cohorts to scholarships, they provide young, aspiring women the means to make it big in Web3. Not mere pep talk and lip service.
As these female-centric communities grow, they’ll create more visibility overall for vibrant and inspiring women leading Web3’s evolution in different capacities. This evolution will create a positive loop, motivating more young women to take the leap and stake their claim on emerging tech paradigms.
Given the proper training and skills development — besides vision — women supported in this loop should be well-equipped to empathize with the users’ community worldwide.
Web3 products and services can be more oriented toward solving real, even mundane, pains instead of fanning speculation to the moon. Feminine sensibilities will inevitably manifest themselves in Web3 codebases and technology since coding is a means of expression.
What we’re seeing now — and calling for — is a movement to break the status quo that hampers Web3’s potential as an inclusion-first industry. Helping more women participate in the narrative and creating the space for them to actively contribute is mission-critical.
The frontier is feminine, especially with women and their allies putting so much dedication into building it. Of course, the end is still far, but the journey has undoubtedly begun.
Elena Sinelnikova is the co-founder of Metis and CryptoChicks. In 2021, Elena was named one of 12 shortlisted honorees of Canada’s Top Women in Fintech and Blockchain by IT World Canada. In 2022, Elena was announced as one of the Top 20 Most Influential Women in Blockchain by Hardbacon.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.