Gender in the Space industry. An analysis of the status of female entrepreneurship in European space startups

The following thesis aims at providing an overview of the condition of the space industry and contextualize, in this frame, the state of gender inclusion among founders of space-focused startups across some of Europe’s major innovation centers: UK, France, Germany and Italy. The analysis starts by providing a general introduction of the state of the art of the Space Economy, as well as prospects and projected scenarios of the market, accounting for economic growth, potential disruptive opportunities and overall impact. A further focus on the subject will highlight the effort of the public and private sector to support innovation and competition in the market. In this scenario, a deep dive in the value of diversity in the entrepreneurial ecosystem will help to properly contextualize the gender dimension on a foundational level. A brief overview on the European VCs’ inclusion of female founders’ status will close the framing of the themes in scope. A quantitative analysis will then be presented: as both the data sampled and the criteria in use are defined, a proper deep dive will investigate the landscape of the startups, accounting for territorial density, venture dimensions and funding status. A founders’ profiling will follow: they will be classified based on age, educational background and possible affiliations. This data reframing will allow to properly compare the gender issue in the space startup industry against other market segments and analyze, both on a European and country level, the progression of inclusion efforts. A last bit will narrow the focus on Bavaria: the objective is to investigate the strategy that had led the region to emerge has one of the most renewed areas of both German and European space industry, as well as one of the highest growing inclusion centers in this market segment.