Women are growth-focused, debt-comfortable and actively applying for finance. Valiant Finance’s new research shows the barrier is not their confidence.
What’s happening: New research from Australian fintech Valiant Finance has found that female business owners are just as confident as their male counterparts about securing finance, directly challenging the narrative that a so-called confidence gap explains the funding disparity between male and female business owners.
Why this matters: With women now owning or leading 35% of Australian small businesses, the gap between their growth ambitions and their access to capital is not a personal failing.
For years, the narrative around women and business finance has leaned on a convenient explanation: women are less confident about borrowing, less comfortable with debt and less likely to back themselves when it comes to growth.
New research from Australian fintech Valiant Finance suggests that explanation is not just incomplete. It is wrong. The research, which surveyed 147 Australian business owners across industries including trades, retail, professional services, hospitality and technology, found that 59 per cent of female business owners and 61 per cent of male business owners are confident in their ability to secure finance. The gap is negligible. The confidence levels are, for all practical purposes, the same. What is not the same is what happens when they try to access it.
The myth the data dismantles
The Valiant Finance research paints a picture of female business owners who are growth-oriented, financially engaged and actively participating in the lending market. Seventy-eight per cent of women surveyed are comfortable taking on debt to grow their business. Fifty-seven per cent see finance primarily as a growth enabler. Women in the survey were more likely than men to have applied for finance in the past three years, and 73 per cent said they would apply again in the next 12 months if needed.
These are not the behaviours of a group held back by lack of ambition or risk aversion. They are the behaviours of business owners who are ready to borrow and grow.
Natalie Ip, Head of Commercial and Development at Valiant Finance, says the data forces a reframe of the entire conversation. “Women know what products exist, they just don’t know if they’ll be approved,” Ip said. “When asked what would help, the top response was ‘increased confidence in approval’, not more education. They’re growth-oriented, actively applying for finance, and ready to borrow. But they’re hitting friction at every step. It’s not their confidence that needs fixing. It’s the system.”
What women are actually experiencing
The gap between how male and female business owners experience the lending process is stark. Only 33 per cent of women believe lenders often or always treat male and female founders equally. Among men, that figure is 61 per cent. Forty-three per cent of women report that gender has negatively impacted their ability to access finance. Among men, 93.5 per cent say gender has never been a hurdle.
The specific barriers women cited in the research are concrete and consistent. They include being asked about partners and children during assessment processes when men are not asked the same questions, time-in-business penalties that disproportionately affect women who have taken career breaks, earnings assumptions that do not reflect the reality of how many female-led businesses generate revenue, unclear approval criteria and decision-making processes, and communication that is condescending or treats them as secondary decision-makers in their own businesses.
“Patronising treatment erodes confidence even among capable founders,” Ip said. “Our survey showed that women felt they’re being treated as if they’re not the primary decision-makers in their own businesses. And when women experience inconsistent treatment and lack clarity on approval criteria, they step back because the process feels stacked against them.”
Where the system is failing
Perhaps the most telling finding in the research is the relationship between knowledge and application behaviour. Seventy-seven per cent of women said they understand finance products well. Yet 59 per cent have avoided applying because they lacked information, specifically information about whether they would be approved.
The distinction matters. These are not women who do not understand the products available to them. They are women who have learned, through experience or observation, that the process itself is unpredictable and that the criteria applied to them may not be the same as those applied to their male counterparts. The rational response to an opaque and potentially biased process is to avoid it. That avoidance is being misread as a confidence gap.
What needs to change
Ip is direct about what the research is asking of the lending industry. “We’d like to see the system change to one that is designed around partnership, not permission,” she said. “Too often, women are subtly treated as if they need validation, extra proof, or a co-signer mindset to be taken seriously. It should only be banking information that matters like credit score, amount, dependents, assets, and debts.”
She also calls for greater female representation among brokers and lenders to reduce bias and improve understanding, and for more compassionate advice throughout the process.
With women now owning or leading 35 per cent of Australian small businesses, the commercial case for fixing the system is as clear as the ethical one. The research does not describe a group that needs encouragement or education. It describes a group that is ready to grow and is being slowed down by a system that has not kept pace with who is actually running Australian small businesses today.
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