Pathways Forward, the organisation set up by businesswoman Ana Stewart to drive growth in female entrepreneurialism, has added eight partners. 

The additional partners come ahead of the inaugural Female Founders Growth Summit at the Royal Bank of Scotland Conference Centre at Gogarburn in Edinburgh on 5 September. It is being held in partnership with Female Founders Rise, a UK-wide resource and community for female founders building growth businesses.  

The second cohort of Pledge partners will see Converge, The Open University in Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, SIS Ventures, Social Investment Scotland, South of Scotland Enterprise, and the University of Strathclyde committing to actionable steps aligned with the principles set out in the Pathways report. 

They join AccelerateHER, CivTech, CodeBase, Deloitte, Eos Advisory, Scottish EDGE, and the Scottish National Investment Bank as Pathways Pledge partners. 

Ms Stewart said: “We have been overwhelmed by the level of support for Pathways from across the corporate, public, and not-for-profit sectors, and the Pledge partnership centres on firm commitments to effect change across each organisation.  I would like to personally thank all of our Pledge partners to date, and we look forward to more like-minded organisations joining the fold.” 

The individual pledges are aimed to complement existing internal policies, and range from the capture and publication of enhanced gender data, gender diversity on selection panels, evidential increases in female participation rates, and the design of key programmes with integrated childcare.  The focus is on actionable and trackable pledges, with shared and published results. 

Pathways Forward was launched in September 2023 following the publication of the Scottish Government-commissioned Pathways: A New Approach For Women in Entrepreneurship report. 

In February, an advisory group was appointed to work alongside Ms Stewart to amplify and progress the recommendations outlined in the Stewart Report.