Feminist theory, Gender and Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding promotes financial democracy through advancement in ICT for minorities in finance. While crowdfunding has reduced the underrepresentation of females in entrepreneurial finance, little attention has been paid to the influence of context on the discussion on gender in entrepreneurial finance. We examine this by applying feminist theory. By this, we argue that the gender effects of certain factors that have been generally associated with one gender may vary with place. From Finland, a gender equal context, we analyse survey data from 556 contributors of the largest reward crowdfunding platform. The findings show that certain factors that prior studies have shown to be associated with female contributors are more significantly associated with males in the study’s context. The findings support the argument that male contributors in an effort to change their ‘historical dominance’ to gain traction and legitimacy within an ‘equal society’ may have to be socially and morally sensitive.