Deborah Jackson, founder of Plum Alley, talks about this need:

Plum Alley Fund was not created to be another niche crowdfunding site. It arose from a problem we saw with women’s access to capital, and was a natural extension of Plum Alley’s mission to support and advance women economically.  For years I have been watching women as they go about raising money for their ideas and companies. It has not been easy and data shows there is huge disparity in women raising capital versus their male counterpart. Time and time again, I hear women say “if I just had enough money to build that prototype or buy the materials I need, I would go for it.” So many women, including some of our entrepreneurs featured on Plum Alley Commerce, have visions and ideas yet to be translated into creations. At the same time, I know so many women and men (husbands, fathers, boyfriends and brothers) who want to support women in reaching their dreams or doing good for the world.

For women creators, there are distinct advantages of using Plum Alley Fund over other crowdfunding platforms. Many projects will be created to solve problems and needs that are unique to women.   Crowdfunding for Women Only

IT workplaces can become hostile or even toxic environments for women. Not only are they more male-dominated than other types of firms but they also tend to be governed by “cultures of engineering” in which male technical prowess is an organizing principle for social relations. The following project seeks to expand on this important theoretical field to address the implications of these cultures of engineering in an increasingly global era. Little attention has been directed, first of all, to the issue of whether there might be different kinds of discriminating environments across national contexts. Common types of discrimination experienced by women engineers in the Global North may be less prevalent in other parts of the world. Moreover, there may be hidden advantages for women engineers in Global South settings, which are useful in alleviating tensions in the Global North, and vice versa. Second, there has been surprisingly little research attention given to the global dynamics of IT workplaces, even though the high tech industry is in a stage of rapid change.   Global Circuits of Gender- Women and High Tech Work

Since CEO Jeff Bezos’s 60 minutes showcase of Amazon’s unmanned drone delivery service, many have written the interview off as just another PR stunt to boost holiday sales. Considering the technology is estimated to be over a decade away, the doubters are most likely correct. When digging deeper though, Bezos’s latest octocopter obsession illuminates Amazon’s purpose perfectly, becoming the largest retailer on the planet (and not just online).

Unfortunately, these droning delivery men also reveal what Amazon believes to be their core hurdle in achieving this goal: competing with local brick and mortar retailers who also sell 95% of Amazon’s products. To combat this, Amazon has spent billions of dollars building Amazon Prime (guaranteed 2-Day delivery), purchased numerous urban locker shipping companies to circumvent the “I wasn’t home for my package” problem, and even brokered a deal with the US Postal Service to begin delivery on Sundays.

This intense focus and spending begs the question though: Do Amazon shoppers truly value and care about receiving their items almost immediately?  Insights for Entrepreneurs from Amazon’s Drone Program