More than a decade ago, PR specialist Kari Owers argued on this site that women in business deserved better media coverage. Her point was simple: visible female founders and leaders create the role models that pull more women into entrepreneurship. The column was written in 2013, when Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In had just topped bestseller lists and Anita Roddick’s legacy still shaped the conversation. Today, the platforms have changed, but the underlying problem has not.
Social media movements such as #WomenInBusiness and #FemaleFounders have given women a megaphone that did not exist in 2013. Mainstream titles now run dedicated series: the Financial Times‘ “Women in Business”, The Telegraph‘s “Women Mean Business” and The Times‘ “Power 100 Women” list. Yet men still dominate the business pages, both as journalists and as expert commentators. The question is no longer whether women can build successful companies; it is whether the media treats those successes as serious business news.
What the 2026 numbers show
The economic and leadership data tells a story of partial progress. Women now account for roughly one in three UK entrepreneurs, according to the 2024 Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship. That figure reveals how much further the UK has to go, and why media visibility remains part of the solution.
Entrepreneurship is rising, but not fast enough
ONS data from 2025 shows that around 1.6 million women are self-employed in the UK. The proportion of working-age women starting businesses has risen steadily since the first Rose Review in 2019, yet the gap between male and female entrepreneurship rates remains significant. If women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men, the UK could gain up to one million additional businesses and add as much as £250 billion to the economy, the 2024 Rose Review estimated.
Funding remains heavily skewed
Capital is where the gap is most visible. All-female founder teams received just 2% of UK equity investment in 2023, according to the British Business Bank’s Small Business Equity Tracker 2024. Mixed-gender teams received a larger share, but the majority of venture capital still flows to all-male founding teams. The female founder VC funding gap is not a pipeline problem alone; it is also a perception problem, with investors less likely to see women-led ventures as high-growth prospects.
Boardroom progress is uneven
Boardroom representation has improved, but leadership has not. The 2025 FTSE Women Leaders Review, which reports on 2024 data, found that women held 42.6% of FTSE 350 board seats. Yet only 10 women led FTSE 100 companies in the same period. The picture in the mid-market is also troubling: female CEOs in the UK mid-market hit an eight-year low in 2026, suggesting that board diversity is not yet translating into the top job.
Why media visibility still matters
This matters because role models shape what people believe is possible. Research by Women in Journalism and the Reuters Institute continues to show that men dominate both front-page bylines and expert commentary in national newspapers. In business journalism, the imbalance is starker: female founders are too often framed through lifestyle, work-life balance or childcare angles rather than strategy, investment and growth.
That framing matters. A profile that leads with a founder’s family responsibilities rather than her funding round sends a subtle message about what is newsworthy. Over time, those choices shape public perception of who is a serious founder and who is running a side project.
When girls and young women see women leading companies, pitching to investors and negotiating deals, they are more likely to see entrepreneurship as a viable path. Without that visibility, talent is lost before it ever reaches a boardroom or a business plan.
How women in business can claim more media space
Waiting for the industry to change is not a strategy. Women founders, directors and senior managers can take practical steps to raise their profile and reframe the narrative.
- Document your wins. Keep a running record of revenue milestones, new contracts, hires, awards and product launches. Journalists need concrete evidence, not vague claims.
- Build journalist relationships before you need them. Follow business reporters on LinkedIn and X, comment thoughtfully on their articles, and offer expert comment on industry trends. A warm contact is far more useful than a cold pitch.
- Position yourself as an expert. Use LinkedIn, trade press and podcasts to share insights on your sector. You do not need to be a FTSE 100 chief executive to be a credible commentator.
- Refuse the lifestyle frame. When interviewed, steer the conversation back to strategy, market opportunity, revenue and growth. If a journalist asks how you balance work and family, answer briefly and pivot.
- Amplify other women. Share, quote and celebrate female founders in your network. Visibility is not a zero-sum game; the more women appear in business media, the more normal it becomes.
Five practical steps to raise your profile
- Audit your current media presence. Google yourself and your company. Is the coverage about strategy or lifestyle?
- Identify three journalists or publications that cover your sector and engage with their work regularly.
- Draft three story angles about your business that focus on growth, innovation or market insight, not personal narrative.
- Join a women in business network to share contacts, speaking opportunities and media leads.
- Set a monthly reminder to pitch or comment on at least one industry story.
Women in business have never been short of achievements. The task now is to make sure those achievements make the headlines, are reported as business news, and reach the next generation of founders. If you are running, growing or contributing to your company’s success, get out there and grab the PR. If not for you, then for the women who need to open the newspaper or scroll through their feed today and feel inspired.
