All the Enterpreneurs I Know Are Woman: or Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? 

Words by Johanna Moyano

First I thought, had I somehow insulted or insinuated they weren't? But I realized it was an echo (echo, echo) of what I had said in a million more words. Almost all the woman I know, hang out with, call friends, are entrepreneurs. 

And so the debate began later that day with friends, colleagues and frenemies, is it just MY friends? Is it my field (but they are not all in media or "bloggers" not by a long shot) I had to know for sure. According to a Gulf News article just this month apparently "Only 7.6 per cent of women are early-stage entrepreneurs compared to 11.8 per cent of men" which of course tells me nothing about the UAE specifically. Still the numbers are growing every year and there is no doubt that something is stirring.

I'm a social person, that is to say I know a lot of people. I know a lot of men (some might argue I have more close male friends then female friends, but thats another article entirely). Of them I know exactly 3 enterpreneurs, of the woman I know 8 Entrepreneurs.

So here is the question. Why is that? Are the women braver? Less willing to toe the corporate line? Or are the men here just happier in their jobs and don't NEED to go and venture out on their own. Does that make men less fearless or are these woman just more adept at seeing a gap in the market and running full hilt towards it?

Oh the worries, Oh the uncertainty of it all.  Here is another theory. Do we have a better support system? My friends and I don't compete we collaborate. We share, we call each other when all the funny memes  in the world cannot make us laugh. It's tough out here for an outlier.

Plus there are cyclone bombs and the threat of World War III looming over all of our heads, I mean can I live?  Here is an observation: women are collaborative, they support each other and throw business in each others faces (as well as shady truth bombs) Ive seen men throw lots of things but business doesnt tend to be one of them...

But I digress. Enter WoMena a manager-led investment platform of angel investors who moved to the UAE in 2013. These fierce young woman decided to focus on the UAE specifically because, according to them "There’s a lot of funding here that’s not yet stimulated, and most importantly, Dubai has this insatiable desire to innovate and grow bigger, despite all of the challenges that we go through in this region.... almost half  of all the entrepreneurs presented to our investors are women, and women do prefer to invest in other women" 

And why shouldn't they? Men have been investing in other men since the dawn of time. In fact they have done it for so long and so well that they dont need to anymore. Lions don't split up a carcass nice and neat; I've seen NatGeoWild its like a boozy brunch at 5pm...a hot mess.

Many woman are risking everything to try something, in so many cases, that no one else has tried before. They are betting on co-working spaces, I see you NEST, they are working on health inspired yogalicious getaways, I see you Alma Retreat, they are providing motivational and informed speakers, rock on MenaSpeakers. And last but not least this platform you're reading. Right. Now.  

Then I remember that even in the wild the Lionesses, not male lions, do the majority of the hunting for their family units. Approximately 90 percent of the time to be precise. I salute these woman of all walks of life and I'm scared excited for each one when they come to me overworked and uninspired. I remember that those wily lionesses ..they hunt in packs. Cause you know, they see the gaps, gauge the risk and together...they attack.