Women still own way less startup equity than men

Female entrepreneurs have less equity in their own companies than do male entrepreneurs, according to a new report from Carta.

Why it matters: This directly contributes to the gender wealth gap.

By the numbers:

• Women represent 13% of startup founders but own just 7% of founder equity.
• Women make up 34% of startup employees but hold just 20% of startup employee equity.
• Female employees are 31% of all equity owners, but hold just 6% of total startup equity.
• Women are only 20% of equity holders worth at least $1 million, 15% of those with $10 million or more, and only 12% of those with $100 million.

Between the lines: “What we hypothesize is that within founding teams, not everyone gets the same amount of equity,” Carta marketing chief Emily Kramer tells Axios.

• Other possible explanation include female founders selling bigger stakes to investors than do their male peers, and creating bigger employee options pools.

Women also are under-represented among startup employees with large equity grants.

• CEOs get more than twice as much equity as the next highest compensated executive, yet only 13% are women.
• In the C-suite, women are most represented among chief marketing officers (32%) but it’s the position with the lowest median equity.
• Junior and mid-level engineers receive more than twice as much equity as other employees, yet women only make up 20% of entry-level engineers and that percentage decreases with seniority.

Go deeper:

• Carta's first report on the topic from last year
• The gender wealth gap