According to the latest report by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), women’s participation in entrepreneurship has increased globally over the last several years. It shows that Women entrepreneurs remain active across all industries, sectors, and product and service markets to close the gender gap across the world.
GEM’s new report, 2022/2023 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report, titled Challenging Bias and Stereotypes, was released on November 13. This report was led by researcher Amanda Elam at the Diana International Research Institute at Babson College.
The report shows a significant gender gap in established businesses owned by women for more than 42 months. It is found that nearly one in every three entrepreneurs running established businesses is a woman. Globally there are 80 women for 1 man in startup activity and 1.47 women solopreneurs for every 1 man.
The report opens on High-potential women-led businesses poised to drive innovation, economic growth, and job creation in countries around the globe. There is a rise in Solopreneurship that offers positive economic opportunity to work independently and flexibly than a traditional job.
Key findings
GEM’s new report is an analysis of annual women’s trends across 49 countries, five global regions, and three national income levels. It surveyed about some 175,000 individuals.
- Globally, One in six women reported to start a business in the near future. Women Entrepreneurial intention rates are high in low-income countries with 28% and low in high-income countries with 11% to start a business
- The report noted that one in ten women entrepreneurs are starting a business at earliest. Women’s startup rates are found high in low-income countries.
The new GEM report highlights continuing to support women entrepreneurs who are building high-growth, high-innovation, and large-market businesses. The report recommends few suggestions for women entrepreneurs-
- Understand the importance of segmentation for effective programmes for women entrepreneurs. Good research on gender differences within specific sectors and segments is needed to control for the inevitable influence of gendered structural differences in entrepreneurial activity rates.
- Support digitization costs and access to technology for women entrepreneurs for small businesses, especially in the context of the gender digital divide and implications for markets in emerging economies and rural areas.
- Celebrate sustainability. Governments can provide incentives in procurement processes that benefit women-led firms that place sustainability practices at the centre of their business strategy.
It is now the time to focus on supporting women entrepreneurs and business owners to more effectively scale their high-growth companies.The factors may include improving financing opportunities, family support policies, and mitigate potential gender bias. The policymakers are considering all these factors that enable more parity between genders when it comes to starting and growing high-potential ventures.