For decades, the rallying cry for women in business has been “We want a seat at the table.”
That slogan still matters—corporate boards and C-suites remain stubbornly male-dominated—but it is no longer the ceiling of ambition, or at least in these modern times, it should no longer be.
I realised that the cry for a seat at the table, while advancing the cause of women, was necessary at the point when women were actively being excluded from key decision-making spaces due to assumed incompetence by the men in power due to gender bias on their part, I think we are way past that level in the push for women empowerment.
The idea of demanding a seat at the table should be preceded by a conversation about providing value and meriting whatever position they are given. I honestly struggle to understand at this juncture in history why women are still asking for a seat at the table rather than begin to have honest conversations about building their own tables. When a seat is given to you out of benevolence or to meet a gender inclusion quota, it still feels like charity, as though those in power are throwing their less fortunate cousin a bone; it is still patronising and doesn’t put women in positions where they can wield real power and call the shots.
The concept of building your table
I first came across the concept of building your table from Media and film mogul Tyler Perry, where he talked about instead of fighting for a seat at the table in Hollywood, he decided to build his own. Today, Tyler Perry, who used to be homeless and started out writing plays and performing in theatres, now sits on a very valuable movie production company with a net worth of about 1.4 billion dollars.
After years of demanding for a seat at the table and talking about it, beyond talk, women are globally at the point where the conversation must see a significant shift from asking for a seat to now sharing strategies and plans amongst ourselves on how to build our own tables and give other women a seat at this table. A rising cohort of women is building their own tables: founding companies, shaping markets, and writing the rules of modern value creation. The conversations they need now are less about inclusion in someone else’s structure and more about designing, financing, scaling, and governing the enterprises they control.
The Data Signals a Tipping Point
- Startup momentum. Across 30 economies tracked by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, women’s startup activity has climbed to 10.4 %, nearly double the early-2000s level, while established ownership hit 5.9 %—both record highs ([GEM Global Entrepreneurship Monitor][1]).
- Economic footprint. In the United States alone, women run 14 million firms—39.1 % of all businesses—and that number grew 13.6 % between 2019-23 (WEI).
- Capital paradox. Female-founded companies raised \$38.8 billion of venture capital in 2024 and minted 13 new unicorns, yet all-women founding teams still captured just 1 % of total VC dollars (20 % when there is at least one male co-founder) (Inc.com).
- Proof of scale. Canva, led by 37-year-old Melanie Perkins, shows what ownership can look like on a global scale: 150 million monthly users and a \$25 billion private valuation in 2024 (CEO Today).
The lesson is clear: representation has improved, but ownership and capital access remain the frontier.
From Representation to Creation—Five Conversation Shifts
| Old framing | New framing women founders are exploring |
|---|---|
| “How do I get invited?” | “What problem am I uniquely positioned to solve at scale?” |
| “Mentorship from the powerful.” | “Reciprocity networks of builders trading distribution, talent, and supplier contracts.” |
| “Diversity budget line-items.” | “Value propositions that expand total addressable markets—then capture it through ownership.” |
| “Negotiating pay-equity.” | “Negotiating cap-table equity, board control, and exit optionality.” |
| “Corporate ladder.” | “Entrepreneurial flywheel: Problem → Product → Community → Platform → Policy influence.” |
Strategic Pillars for Building Companies That Influence by Value
Choose Problems With Structural Tails
Focus on arenas where unmet needs intersect with large secular shifts: AI safety, climate adaptation, care-economy tech, inclusive fintech, and creative-commerce tooling. Value compounds fastest when the market is expanding irrespective of gender politics.
Architect the Capital Stack Early
- Own the cap table. Treat every dilution decision like a constitutional amendment.
- Alternative finance. Revenue-based financing, rolling funds, community-round equity crowdfunding, and corporate venture customers can bridge the VC gap.
- Collective bargaining with investors. Women-led syndicates and angel networks are rewriting term-sheet norms to bake in parental-leave clauses, DEI metrics, and redemption rights.
Design Culture as Competitive Moat
Women founders are turning policies—on-site childcare, caregiver stipends, transparency pay bands—into talent magnets that slash attrition and boost productivity. Culture here is not a perk; it is an efficiency engine investors can model.
Leverage Digital Platforms for Distribution
The Wells Fargo study notes that digital platforms are enabling solopreneurs to break revenue records faster than men-led peers (Business Insider). Women-built brands that own their audience (newsletters, Discords, WhatsApp channels) negotiate from power with retailers, suppliers, and media.
Translate Enterprise Value Into Social & Policy Capital
Owning the company means owning its data exhaust and narrative leverage. High-growth women founders are already lobbying for childcare tax credits, procurement targets, and inclusive trade missions—policy asks that simultaneously expand their markets.
Case Snapshots
- Canva (Melanie Perkins): Democratized design, turned cost-savings for SMEs into a \$25 billion platform while pledging the majority of equity to philanthropy (CEO Today).
- Spanx (Sara Blakely): Bootstrapped to a \$1.2 billion buy-out; retained 100 % ownership until exit, proving you can skip VC altogether.
- 23andMe (Anne Wojcicki): Used consumer genomics profitability to lobby for FDA policy shifts, illustrating the flywheel from ownership to influence.
Questions to Animate the Next Gatherings of Women Professionals
- “What category-making insight do we have that incumbents ignore?”
- “How does our pricing model align customer success with our margin expansion?”
- “Which funding instruments preserve maximum optionality for future women leaders on our team?”
- “How will our supply chain choices create multiplier effects for other women-owned firms?”
- “At what valuation (or EBITDA multiple) does it make sense to IPO, dual-class, or stay private for mission protection?”
- “How do we codify a culture that lets caregivers outperform, and then publish the playbook so the ecosystem shifts?”
The Call to Build
Waiting for an invitation to the existing table keeps the power imbalance intact. Building the table, then deciding who eats, how value is measured, and how surplus is reinvested, changes the entire dining room.
Women have already proven they can scale, innovate, and outperform on capital efficiency. The modern discourse must therefore pivot from earning inclusion to engineering new institutions. Those institutions will not only redistribute equity; they will redefine what counts as value in the first place.
Whether you are still inside a Fortune 500 cubicle or already sketching wireframes in a co-working space, the question is the same: What systems will you design that future generations will inherit, not petition?
Read Also: The-search-for-funding-is-the-major-challenge-for-african-women-in-tech/
