Women’s enterprise and entrepreneurship facts and statistics are listed here on the Prowess 2.0 website.  This is a useful resource for journalists, researchers and students.  Many of the source reports for those facts can be found in the publications section.

Female Entrepreneurship: key facts

• When the UK Government’s first national strategy for women’s enterprise was published in 2003, it was estimated that women constituted around 27% of self-employed people in the UK, and that only 12-14% of businesses were majority-owned by women (compared to 28% in the USA).  By 2009 that figure had increased to 29% of the self-employed in the UK and 15% (or 700,000) of the 4.8 million enterprises in the UK were majority-led by women. (GROWE Greater Return on Women’s Enterprise. Women’s Enterprise Task Force 2009)
• Men are now twice as likely to be entrepreneurially active as women but in 2001 were two and a half times more likely to be entrepreneurially active. (Stairways to growth, Supporting the ascent of Women’s Enterprise in the UK, GEM/Prowess 2006)
• The most entrepreneurial age group for females is 35 – 44 (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, London Business School, 2006)
• 48% of female entrepreneurs own businesses in the service sector, compared with 36% of male entrepreneurs (A Strategic Framework for Women’s Enterprise, Small Business Service, 2003)
• 10% of the female population are thinking about starting up a business (Women in Business: key facts,  Government Equalities Office 2008)

The economic case for women’s enterprise

• Women in the USA are twice as likely to be entrepreneurially active as women in the UK. The entrepreneurial rates for men are roughly the same in the UK as the US, any significant increase in business formation will only come from encouraging more women into business (Harding, R., ‘State of Women’s Enterprise in the UK’  Prowess, 2007)
• If the UK could achieve the same levels of female entrepreneurship as the US, Britain would gain three quarters of a million more businesses. (Gordon Brown, Advancing Enterprise Conference 2005)
• In the USA the Women’s Business Act 1988 put in place long-term infrastucture to support women’s enterprise development. Since then women’s business ownership has increased significantly.
• The growth in women’s enterprise in the USA has been aided by Federal recognition of its importance and a sustained commitment to its development over a thirty year period. Although there have been remarkable policy developments in the UK over the past five years, it will take sustained commitment to ensure an equivalent level of development in women’s enterprise within the UK. (Carter, S., & Shaw, E., ‘Women’s Business Ownership’, report to SBS/ DTI 2006)
• There are roughly 620,000 majority women owned businesses in the UK generating around £130 billion turnover. (Rt Hon Jacqui Smith, Minister for Women and Equality speaking at 2nd Prowess conference)
• If women started businesses at the same rate as men, we would have 150,000 extra start-ups each year. (Rt Hon Jacqui Smith, Minister for Women and Equality speaking at 2nd Prowess conference)
• Women starting up in business will tend to provide a more immediate contribution to the economy: Around one in five women come into self-employment from unemployment compared with around one in fifteen for men. ( ‘Promoting Female Entrepreneurship’ SBS/ DTI, 2005)
• A pound invested in developing women’s enterprise provides a greater return on investment than a pound invested in developing male owned enterprise. (Chief Executive of the Small Business Service, Martin Wyn Griffith, Speaking at the National Dialogue for Entrepreneurship, Washington DC, March 2005).

Motivations for starting a business

• Women were nearly five times more likely to mention family reasons for becoming self-employed than men. A fifth of females chose to work as self-employed to help combine ‘family commitments/wanted to work at home’ and employment in a flexible manner. Conversely, men were almost twice as likely to say that one of the reasons they became self-employed was to ‘make more money’ than were women. (ONS Regional Trends, Women in Business 2009).
• On average about 30 per cent of self-employed women and 8 per cent of men work at home. (ibid ONS 2009).

Attitudes

• A third of the female population would start a business if it wasn’t for the fear of failure (‘Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’ London Business School, 2003)
• Around 8% of women have an interest in starting and enterprise, compared with 13% of men. (ibid SBS/ DTI 2005)
• There are no significant differences between men and women in terms of their attitudes towards entrepreneurship as a career choice or as a high status activity. (Achieving the Vision, British Chambers of Commerce, 2004)
• More than half of women choose to start their business part-time, compared to just 12% of men. (Office for National Statistics 2009, Regional Trends 41)
•  Established women-owned businesses are more ambitious than their male counterparts. (ibid Women’s Enterprise Task Force 2009).

Innovation and growth

• Women are nearly three times as likely to collaborate with research institutions (universities in particular) than male businesses (11.4% compared with 3.8%) (ibid British Chambers of Commerce 2004)
• Female entrepreneurs are more likely to a product of service unfamiliar to the market, to have fewer competitors, and they are more likely to be using technology in their products or services than their male counterparts. In addition they are more likely than male businesses to be offering a product or service to the market that has been developed in the last year. (ibid British Chambers of Commerce 2004)
• Across the SET (science, engineering and technology) sectors, there are 10 times as many male-owned than female-owned companies (Labour Force Survey, Quarter 4 2006, Office for National Statistics).
• Another female business owner is by far the most inspirational figure for women deciding to start a business in SET industries (‘Under the Microscope’, Prowess/ UKRC 2007).
• Women-owned businesses win less than 5% of corporate and public sector contracts. (NPCWE / Prowess  ‘Procurement: Fostering Equal Access for Women’s Enterprise, 2009)

 Access to finance

• There is unequivocal evidence that women-owned businesses start with lower levels of overall capitalization, lower ratios of debt finance, and are much less likely to use private equity or venture capital. The level of start-up capitalization used by women-owned businesses is, on average, only one third of that used by male-owned businesses. (ibid Carter & Shaw 2006).
• Recent evidence from the UK Survey of SME Finances reported that women were charged more than men on term loans (2.9% vs. 1.9%). No other study has found such a large difference in loan terms, and this result needs further research and explanation (ibid Carter & Shaw 2006).
• Women are more likely to be offered business loans and also more likely to turn them down. (ibid Carter & Shaw 2006).
• Fear of debt is the single largest barrier to entrepreneurship for both men and women, although women are significantly more fearful than men. (ibid GEM, London Business School 2004)
• Women in the UK are twice as likely to live in poverty as men and they have more to risk by coming off benefits. On average, benefits and tax credits comprise one fifth of women’s income and less than one tenth of men’s (Fawcett Society 2005).

Business Support

• The choice of targeted female-focussed business support is important to women. The National Council of Graduate Enterprise (NCGE) reports that 98% of women chose to participate in their Women’s Flying Start Programme because it was women-only. Similarly 98% of women involved in the pioneering Enterprising Women initiative said women specific support was either important or very important to them. (Enterprising Women Evaluation and Research Report 2007).
• Women who have undergone some form of enterprise training are twice as likely to be engaged in entrepreneurial activity (GEM UK 2005).
• 70% of women-owned businesses seek advice at the start-up phase compared with 64% of all businesses (ibid SBS /DTI 2005)
• Following a sustained strategy to make its services more women-friendly, the national Business Link service increased its proportion of female clients from one-fifth to one-third, between 2003 – 2006. (Women’s Enterprise Task Force 2009 – GROWE Greater Return on Women’s Enterprise)
• Majority female owned businesses are more likely to use an accountant than majority male-owned businesses and less likely to use no external advice than majority male-owned businesses (Dr Stuart Fraser, Finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, 2005).
• Targeted Women’s enterprise initiatives complement and add value to mainstream business support services located nearby. The West Midlands Regional Women’s Enterprise Unit (RWEU) found that 58% of their clients in 2007 had not previously used ‘mainstream’ business support. A 2008 analysis found this figure had risen to 90% (Impact Assessment, RWEU 2008).

Global context

• Around 30% of all US businesses are majority female owned. The number of women-owned businesses continues to grow at twice the rate of all US firms, and they are increasing in economic clout.
• Between 1991 and 1996 the number of self-employed women in Canada grew by 44% (compared to 20% for men).
• In 2004, the average level of female total entrepreneurial activity (TEA) rate across the 34 GEM countries varied from 39.1% in Peru to 1.2% in Japan. (Global Report on Women and Entrepreneurship, GEM 2004)

Social Enterprise

• For the UK as a whole, women are more likely than men to be involved with a socially orientated start-up 5.8% of women compared to 4.9% of men. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Focus on Social Entrepreneurs, GEM 2004)
• Women are more likely than men to think that social, ethical and environmental considerations in business are important. (59% compared with 48%) (A Survey of Social Enterprise Across the UK, DTi, 2005)
• The gender gap for social entrepreneurship activity is far narrower than for mainstream enterprise activity (ibid Prowess/GEM 2006)

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women

• Women of mixed ethnicity are over two and a half times more entrepreneurial than white women (ibid GEM, London Business School, 2006)
• BAME female entrepreneurship is clustered in areas of multiple deprivation, suggesting that ‘employment substitution’ is taking place with low-paid work being sub-contracted and women having to act on their own account (ibid Harding 2007)
• The predominant source of start-up finance for many ethnic groups is friends and family. The figures are ‘other Asian’ 53.4%, Pakistani 93%, Black African 52.6% and Black Other 52.9%. The predominant source of finance for White people is bank overdraft (29.3%) as it is for Black Caribbean people (38.8%) (ibid GEM, London Business School 2004).
• For black people there is almost no entrepreneurial gender gap (black female entrepreneurial activity is 97% of black male entrepreneurial activity) (ibid Harding 2007).
• Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) for white females is 3.6% and is two and a half times higher amongst women from mixed backgrounds (10.2%), for Bangladeshi women it is (10.9%), Other Asians (10.3%) and Black Caribbeans (10.5%). The most entrepreneurial female grouping is that of ‘other Black’ at (29.9%) of all women. (ibid GEM, London Business School 2004).
• Black women are most likely to feel that ethnicity has strong impact on business (80%), compared to Chinese women (46%) and Asian women (46%). (Ethnic Minority Business Conference 2005)
• 25% of ethnic minority owned businesses report a lack of self-confidence with finance, which is above the average level (16%). (Dr Stuart Fraser, Finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, 2005)
• A survey of over 300 BAME women leaders found that over three quarters felt the leadership style of white women is more positively perceived in the workplace and 80% felt that the communication style of white women is more positively regarded. (Different Women, Different Places, The Diversity Practice Ltd, 2007)

Young Entrepreneurs

• Amongst younger age groups, 18 to 24 and 25 to 34, female entrepreneurship is still half of male entrepreneurship, but the picture amongst students is more promising with a TEA female rate of 2.6% compared to male TEA rate of 1.6% (The Enterprise Report, Enterprise Insight, 2005).
• It is amongst the 18-24 age group that individuals are most likely to think that entrepreneurship is a good career choice and that it has a high status in society (84% compared to the 75% in the next age group) ( ibid Enterprise Insight 2005).
• Every week around 550 businesses are launched by young entrepreneurs under 25, which represent 7% of all start-ups in England and Wales  (ibid Enterprise Insight 2005).
• Entrepreneurial activity amongst people with no formal education is very high in the 18-24 year old age group (14.2%).  Indeed for the 18-24 year old age group, entrepreneurial activity is twice as high in this category as it is for any other qualification level.   (ibid GEM, London Business School 2004)
• Male and female students are equally likely to participate in school enterprise education, but males are 50% more likely than females to be interested in starting their own business as a result.  In contrast the girls are significantly more interested in setting up a charity or social enterprise. (Botham, R., & Sutherland, V.,  ‘Enterprise Insight Impact Evaluation: The Hubs.’ Enterprise Insight, 2009).