Post by Michiel Scheffer 🇪🇺

Womens day raised the question of gender balance in the EIC. I spoke twice on that topic today and last week. I made a segmentation between demographics, concrete measures and symbolic actions. On the latter one I said that I was impressed by the positive reception of the EIC gender statement of June 2025. So might have to repeat that. I also shared the quota of the board, and that no loss of quality would happen if we had a women only EIC Board (sorry men), However I highlighted that tangible and effective measures are needed. The WomenTechEU program is a successful program, but its continuation is not guaranteed beyond 2027. There is a positive gender bias in the evaluation of the EIC Accelerator. But symbolic actions nor tangible actions, move the demographic needle. It is extremely difficult to get gender parity in the EIC. We should firmly try, but we are also depending of women aiming for a career in STEM and entrepreneurship.