School students
- Design
- A survey before the workshop and a survey after it
- Responses
- 406 before the workshops, 194 after
- Cohort
- Grades 7 to 12
The gap in access to capital is not a mystery. It is a wall.
We generate evidence, uncover the barriers, and turn insights into practical tools to advance women’s access to capital.
400+students reached through financial literacy workshops
670survey responses across three studies
3research cohorts
18countries in the international comparison
Where is the wall?
Five dimensions that shape the capital access profile
Explore the key areas that can create barriers or opportunities on the path to capital.
The paradox
The capability is there. The capital is not.
The gap is not about capability. It is about access.
Worldwide, women are only 35% of STEM graduates, a share that has not moved in ten years. The UAE is a clear exception, which makes it the right place to study the break between education and access to capital.
Where the funding goes
Out of every 100 dollars
Each brick is 1% of venture funding.
Global benchmark (US data, 2018)
- All-female founding teams2.3%
- Mixed-gender teams10.4%
- All-male teams (remainder)87.3%
Source: Harvard Kennedy School, Women and Public Policy Program.
Middle East and North Africa (2024)
- Female-founded ($27.6M)1.2%
- Co-founded by men and women ($192M)8.3%
- Male-founded (remainder)90.5%
Source: Wamda 2024 review ($2.3B total). Shares calculated from the published amounts.
30
years without movement: the 30-year average share for all-female teams is 2.4%.
¼ vs ½
Women founders receive about a quarter of the funding they seek. Men receive about half.
78¢ vs 31¢
Revenue per dollar invested: women-founded startups against men-founded.
$2.5–5T
Potential gain in global GDP if women and men took part equally as entrepreneurs.
Sources: Harvard Kennedy School; Boston Consulting Group.
Why the wall stands
Three layers of barriers that hold each other up
Researchers at Harvard Kennedy School identify three levels that explain why the gap resists change.
Industry-wide
A history of male dominance, networks of similar people, and few role models. Only about 11% of investing partners are women.
Organisational
Informal processes for selection and evaluation repeat the existing inequality, with little data tracked.
Interpersonal
Stereotypes and a masculine culture. Investors tend to ask founders different questions depending on their gender.
67%
of questions put to male founders are about growth and ambition: How will you grow?
66%
of questions put to female founders are about avoiding loss: How will you avoid losses?
Source: Kanze, Huang, Conley and Higgins, Academy of Management Journal, 2018.
Our field research
Three studies, one question
Published studies document the systemic side of the wall. Our research asks about the other side: why does financial knowledge not always become confidence and action?
BeforePre-session surveyKnowledge, confidence, self-efficacy
WorkshopFinancial literacy sessionSaving, budgeting, investing
AfterPost-session surveyThe same questions, to measure change
University students and working women
- Design
- Bilingual survey (Arabic / English)
- Measures
- Behavioural barriers to investing among adult women
- Responses
- 43
International comparison
- Design
- Comparison survey of young women from 18 countries
- Responses
- 27
- Setting
- Future Entrepreneurs Summer School, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
First findings · School workshops
After one workshop, students' confidence with money decisions rose from 2.7 to 4.6 out of 5.
Students at Emirates National Schools, Grades 7 to 12. Ratings are self-reported, and the comparison is between group averages before and after the workshop, not per student.
“It was a really fun lesson and I learned something I wanted to know about from before.”
Grade 7–9 student, post-session survey.
58% → 84%
Grades 7–9: 58% knew what a budget is before the workshop; 84% said afterwards they can build a simple budget with confidence.
95%
of Grade 10–12 students had never heard of venture capital or angel investing before the workshop, and 95% had no money invested.
41%
said they do not invest because they do not know how to start. 35% know nobody who invests; 34% worry about losing money.
91%
believe invisible barriers, such as social expectations and a lack of role models, hold girls and women back financially.
Grade 10–12 figures are from 182 responses before the workshop. Source: Beyond Capital's Wall workshop surveys, 2026.
First findings · UAE
Half rate their investment knowledge as low.
43 women in the UAE: 27 full-time university students, 14 working professionals and 2 working while studying. 29 are Emirati. One response was excluded on data-quality grounds. All respondents are women. The sample is small and not random, so these results are exploratory.
Share of 43 women. Mean knowledge 2.3 out of 5; mean confidence 2.7 out of 5.
53%
name family as their main source of financial information. Only 7% named banks or financial professionals.
30%
hold no investment or return-bearing savings. 40% hold gold, commodities or crypto; 16% hold stocks.
47%
think women in the UAE face more challenges than men in accessing funding. 30% say similar; 7% say fewer.
67%
said answering the survey made them more aware of the challenges women face.
Source: Beyond Capital's Wall UAE survey, 2026.
First findings · International comparison
They know the concepts. Few of them invest.
27 young women at the Oxford summer school. Three quarters were under 18. All respondents are women. The sample is small and not random, so these results are exploratory.
Share of 27 young women. Mean knowledge 3.2 out of 5; mean confidence 3.0 out of 5.
1 in 27
holds stocks or shares. 11 have no investment or return-bearing savings at all; 16 have a savings account.
59%
say their family mainly manages their money. Only 15% manage it fully on their own.
33%
name social media as their main source of financial information, the most common answer. One named banks or financial professionals.
56%
think women in their country face more challenges than men in accessing funding. Nobody said fewer.
“I understand the basics, but I still feel like I need more knowledge before putting money into investments.”
Anonymous participant, International Comparison Survey.
30% do not personally know any woman working in finance or investment. Source: Beyond Capital's Wall International Comparison Survey, 2026. Countries: Australia, China, Dominican Republic, Germany, India, Ireland, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan.
Full results and detailed methodology will be published in the white paper now being written.
Capital Access Diagnostic
What is holding you back?
About ten questions, under three minutes. An exploratory research tool that does not predict funding outcomes. Your answers are not saved or sent anywhere.
For investors and policymakers
Five interventions the evidence supports
The other side of the wall cannot be opened from the founder's side alone.
Ask every founder the same questions
67% of questions to men are about growth; 66% of questions to women are about avoiding loss.
Kanze et al., 2018
Structure the evaluation
Informal processes repeat existing inequality. Written criteria make comparison direct.
Harvard Kennedy School
Put women at the decision table
Firms that hired 10% more women as investing partners saw 1.5% higher fund returns and 9.7% more profitable exits.
Harvard Kennedy School
Track and publish the data
The share going to all-female teams has not moved in thirty years (average 2.4%). What is not measured does not change.
Harvard Kennedy School
Start financial education early
After one workshop, mean confidence with money decisions among Grade 7–9 students rose from 2.7 to 4.6 out of 5 (self-rated).
Beyond Capital's Wall surveys, 2026
What holds students back
What students say stops them from investing
Reasons for not investing given by Grade 10–12 students before the workshop. Select a barrier to read more.
The funding journey
Six stages, and a barrier at each one
The first two stages can be worked on today. The next four sit on the other side of the wall. Select a stage.
Compare
Three cohorts, side by side
Select a measure to compare school students, women in the UAE and the international group.
Method
How the data was collected and how the diagnostic works
Every number on this site comes from one of our surveys, from a cited published study, or from a clearly labelled assumption.
Research purpose
To understand why financial knowledge does not always become confidence and action among girls and young women, and to turn what is learned into a practical diagnostic.
Research questions
What do students and young women say holds them back from investing? How do self-rated knowledge and confidence differ across the three cohorts? Do confidence and understanding differ before and after a financial literacy workshop?
Study population
Girls and young women: school students in Grades 7 to 12 at Emirates National Schools, university students and working women in the UAE, and young women from 18 countries attending a summer school at the University of Oxford.
Cohorts
School, before the workshops: 406 responses (224 from Grades 7–9 and 182 from Grades 10–12). School, after the workshops: 194 responses from Grades 7–9. Women in the UAE: 43 responses. International group: 27 responses.
Recruitment and sampling
All three are convenience samples, not random samples. School respondents were students who attended the workshops. International respondents were participants in the summer school. Additional methodology details will be added after final research review.
Data collection
Self-completed online questionnaires in Arabic and English. Responses are anonymous. Before and after responses in the school study are not linked student by student, so they are compared as group averages.
Survey instrument
The full diagnostic instrument: exact wording, answer choices, assigned dimension, scoring direction and weight. Questions Y1 and Y3 use the same wording as the research surveys, which is what allows the benchmark comparison.
Diagnostic dimensions
What each dimension measures.
Scoring method
Each answer is scaled from 0 to 100: for a five-point question, ((response − 1) / 4) × 100; for a four-point question, (response / 3) × 100 with responses numbered from 0. A dimension score is the mean of its answered questions, all weighted equally; no question is reverse-scored. The overall Capital Access Profile is the mean of the calculated dimension scores. It is a summary index, not a probability. Barrier level is 100 minus the dimension score; it is the same information shown the other way round, not a separate measurement.
Benchmark construction
Each benchmark is the mean of the 1 to 5 self-ratings given by a cohort to the knowledge question and to the confidence question: Grades 10–12 before the workshop (182 responses), women in the UAE (43) and the international group (27).
Scenario assumptions
Each “What if?” scenario raises the dimensions it is mapped to by one fixed illustrative amount, capped at 100. The mapping is shown beside the simulator. The amount is an assumption of the simulator, not an estimated causal effect, and the scenarios do not estimate the probability of receiving funding.
Missing-data handling
In the diagnostic, a skipped question is never counted as zero. A dimension is calculated only if at least half of its questions were answered; otherwise it is reported as not calculated and left out of the overall profile. In the surveys, 47 responses were excluded during data cleaning.
Limitations
The samples are small and not random. All measures are self-reported. The cohorts differ in age, and some questions are worded differently between surveys. Ratings collected soon after a workshop tend to run high, and the before and after comparison does not establish that the workshop caused the difference. The diagnostic is a research-informed exploratory instrument and has not been established as a validated psychometric scale.
Ethics and privacy
Survey results are reported only in aggregate, without names. The diagnostic asks for no name, email or phone number, and answers stay in the visitor’s browser: they are not stored or sent anywhere. Additional methodology details will be added after final research review.
Sources and references
Published figures on this site come from the sources listed at the end of the About section. Figures from our own surveys are labelled as such where they appear.
About
Founder & Research Lead
Hind Al Blooshi
Founder & Research Lead, Beyond Capital’s Wall
Grade 12 Student · Abu Dhabi, UAE
Hind began by teaching younger students about saving, budgeting and investing. Over time, she noticed that financial knowledge did not always translate into confidence when making financial decisions.
That observation became the starting point for Beyond Capital’s Wall, a student-led research initiative exploring the barriers between financial knowledge, confidence and access to capital. Hind founded the initiative and leads its research and development.
- Financial literacy workshopsReaching 400+ students
- NYU Abu Dhabi Summer AcademySheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Scholars Program
- Future Entrepreneurs Summer SchoolSaïd Business School, University of Oxford
- Finance internshipADNOC
Sources
- Harvard Kennedy School, Women and Public Policy Program. Advancing Gender Equality in Venture Capital.
- Wamda. 2024 in review: MENA startup investments.
- UAE Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, 2025 data, reported by Gulf News, January 2026.
- UNESCO Institute for Statistics / GEM Report. Share of women in STEM graduates stagnant for 10 years, 2024.
- Boston Consulting Group. Why Women-Owned Startups Are a Better Bet, 2018; Want to Boost the Global Economy by $5 Trillion? Support Women as Entrepreneurs, 2019.
- Kanze, D., Huang, L., Conley, M., Higgins, E. T. We Ask Men to Win and Women Not to Lose. Academy of Management Journal, 2018. Academy of Management summary.
A fairer, more inclusive future for capital.
Find out in under three minutes which barrier is tallest for you, and what to do next.