Female innovators and gender diversity at the Getty Gallery: Leeds based entrepreneur, Carolyn Pearson, is featured in unique photography exhibition

• The infocus women in innovation exhibition is open from 18th – 29th July 2017, at the Getty Images Gallery.

• In an effort to challenge the fact that one in three women say their gender has negatively impacted their career in innovation, this unique exhibition profiles Innovate UK’s women in innovation Award Holders and ambassadors.

• With inspiring imagery by acclaimed photographer Amelia Troubridge, the pictures challenge perceptions about female innovation, inspiration, creativity and entrepreneurship.

Getty Images and renowned UK photographer Amelia Troubridge have partnered with Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to host a photography exhibition that directly challenges the perception of what it looks like to be a female innovator in 2017.

Continuing its women in innovation mission to challenge the low number of women entrepreneurs applying for funding, the exhibition is part of Innovate UK’s infocus campaign, an umbrella initiative to encourage diversity in innovation and boost the economy as a result.

Carolyn Pearson is the CEO and Founder of Maiden Voyage, a travel community for businesswomen. Prior to launching her own business, she spent more than 20 years working for leading brands such as ITV, Sony Music, KLM, the BBC and easyJet. Carolyn left her corporate career to launch Maiden Voyage in 2008, after a lonely business trip to LA inspired her create a global community through which professional women could connect and meet.

Today Maiden Voyage has a global community of both individual and corporate members in over 80 countries, as well as a team of ambassadors in cities across the world. Maiden Voyage has since also expanded into corporate solutions, providing employers with intelligence and solutions to enhance employee duty of care for female business travellers.

For her work on Maiden Voyage Carolyn has won numerous awards (including making the final of the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Awards 2016!) and is a regular speaker on the international speaker circuit on the subject of female business traveller safety.

Removing barriers for female entrepreneurs

The aim of Innovate UK’s infocus women in innovation campaign and the premise of the exhibition is to not only shine a much needed spotlight on the UK’s most promising female entrepreneurs and future leaders, but also to help directly address a key barrier to female entrepreneurship: limited access to relevant role models and identification with entrepreneurs as ‘women like me.’ Indeed, though the past two years have seen an extreme uplift in relevant search terms on Getty Images–searches for ‘female business executive’ increased by 350% and customer demand for ‘female entrepreneur’ by 66% - the diversity of content, the very core of how we define women in innovation hasn’t yet caught up. Furthermore, with only 1 in 7 applications for Innovate UK business funding coming from women, the women in innovation exhibition will help to drive awareness of opportunities to apply for game-changing business funding, in turn, helping to pave the way for future, female-led, businesses.

Boosting the UK economy with female entrepreneurship

The wider economic impact of addressing this gender imbalance is significant. Research suggests that the proportion of UK women in entrepreneurial activity is around half the level of men and that if participation is increased to equal levels, women-led SMEs could potentially contribute a massive £180bn GVA to the UK by 2025.

Dr. Ruth McKernan CBE and Chief Executive of Innovate UK says:

‘Half of the world’s population is female. Research shows that harnessing the skills of female entrepreneurs would significantly enhance UK economic growth and improve the breadth of management teams.

One barrier identified from our own analysis is the relative lack of female role models. What better way to address this than to partner with Getty Images, the world’s leading image database and Amelia Troubridge, the world-renowned photographer, to showcase some amazing women? Let’s try to actively change the image of a female innovator in 2017 and inspire more to come forward with game-changing ideas.’

Photographer Amelia Troubridge says:

‘I wanted to capture the spirit of these women and contribute visually to the re-defining of who women are today; to step away from the disempowering imagery of women that dominates the mainstream that we have become accustomed to seeing. This is at the core of what I do as a photographer; to create a visual record of the times we live in, of women who have shown so much courage and commitment. I have been constantly challenged and inspired by women that I have met through my career as a photographer. This is the first time I have had the chance to work closely with women who are genuine innovators and playing an integral part in shaping a better world for us all.’

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About Maiden Voyage

Maiden Voyage is the world’s leading specialist provider of inclusive business travel safety education for diverse and minority groups as well as a social community for female business travellers. Maiden Voyage provides traveller safety training, workshops and eLearning solutions for corporate and individual business travellers and works alongside travel industry providers to drive best practice in duty-of-care. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maiden Voyage released it’s COVID-19 Traveller Safety eLearning toolset to enable employers to prepare their business travellers for travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company has been widely featured in the press including CNN, NYT, Mintel, Forbes, BBC and the Economist and the leadership team are regular contributors to major business travel industry and security panels and events.


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