I recently was invited to attend a women’s conference where the who’s who of the business world were present. To say that I was in awe of the experts I was among is an understatement. These were women I read about, was inspired to be like, and dreamed of one day meeting. Well, here I was: One less thing to do on my bucket list.

The usual meet-and-greet took place. I went up to different women and introduced myself. Thankfully I had read about them and followed their careers so diligently that not for a second did I feel uncomfortable. It was more like I was meeting an old friend for the first time. Of course, the only one who felt that way was me. Despite the fact that I am naturally quite tall, I still felt like the smallest girl in the room. And I was.

These women were hedge fund managers, financial gurus, inventors, bankers and real estate mavens, all busy imparting their greatness in order to make us feel like “That could be me one day.”

But upon hearing their amazing stories and very specific and inspiring trajectories, they all had one common denominator: They were all so very proud to admit that they never sought out any financing to grow their business. “Now, what is that about?” I thought.

It turns out, women leaders in all industries make up close to half the workforce. Yet they only access between 2% and 10% of commercial bank finance.

I have been restless ever since. How is this possible?

Well, folks, it’s true. So, yours truly made it her mission to conduct a random survey with the captaincies surrounding her. I informally interviewed 10 of the women leaders at the conference, and without a doubt, they all had issues dealing with debt. Here were there reasons: