Women's Entrepreneurship Globally
North America
Europe
Asia
Latin America
Africa

Women's Entrepreneurship Globally
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 2004 Women's Entrepreneurship: Issues and Policies report, women entrepreneurs play an important role in the entrepreneurial economy, both in their ability to create jobs for themselves and to create jobs for others.

However, the topic of women in entrepreneurship has been largely neglected, both in society in general and in the social sciences. Not only have women lower participation rates in entrepreneurship than do men, but they also generally choose to start and manage firms in different industries than do men. The industries (primarily retail, education and other service industries) chosen by women are often perceived as being less important to economic development and growth than high technology and manufacturing. Furthermore, mainstream research, policies and programs tend to be "men streamed," and too often do not take into account the specific needs of women entrepreneurs and would-be women entrepreneurs. As a consequence, equal opportunity between men and women from the perspective of entrepreneurship is still not a reality.

Better qualitative information and quantitative data and statistics are required to profile women entrepreneurs (e.g., demographic information, and barriers to start-up and growth). This would also assist in promoting awareness of the role of women entrepreneurs in the economy. Using a frame of reference such as that developed in the report could be valuable for the analysis of this information.

In Europe (both European Union countries and other European countries), estimates indicate that there exist more than 10 million self-employed women. Using the United States ratio between the number of employees and self-employment, it may be estimated that employed women in surveyed European countries could employ around 15 million persons. This is a conservative estimate.

The scarce availability of reliable and valid data continues to be one of the key obstacles to understanding the challenges specific to women's entrepreneurship and their impact on economic growth. However, sex-disaggregated statistics and sex-based policy analyses have become somewhat more widespread in recent years. Examples include the OECD Labour Force Statistics (2000) and the work of the Observatory of European SMEs (1996). In addition - in response to the OECD Conference on Women's Entrepreneurship in 1997 - a number of countries have initiated efforts to obtain better statistics on the topic.

In Germany, there are a total of 1.03 million women-owned businesses. Women-owned and managed businesses having annual turnover (sales) of at least Euro 16,620 number 522,000, represent 18% of the total in this group, and provide jobs for 2 million employees. Their turnover is in total € 232 billion, approximately 6% of the overall turnover, or 11% of the turnover gained by owner-managed firms.

In Sweden, the entry size for new firms differs between men and women. Women have on average 0.6 full-time employees and men have on average 1.7 full-time employees. Furthermore, while women-owned businesses have been smaller than their male counterparts, the difference in size seems to be diminishing.

In the United Kingdom, women represent 26% or 824,659 of the 3.2 million self-employed. Approximately 14% of businesses are women-owned. They are concentrated in services, retail, catering, etc., and more than 40% of women business owners run their business part-time.
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North America
According to the National Women's Business Council, the number of U.S. women-owned businesses continues to grow at twice the rate of all U.S. firms, and these firms are increasing in economic clout. One in eighteen women in the U.S. is a business owner. Women-owned firms are becoming increasingly diverse - in terms of race, industry and size. Women of color now own one in five women-owned firms, and women of all colors are expanding into non-traditional industries, such as construction, manufacturing, agriculture, and transportation. Despite this impressive growth, we know that women in business still continue to face challenges. Primary among them are: access to capital, access to markets, access to training and technical assistance, access to networks, and the need for legitimacy - to be taken seriously as business owners, employers, and contributors to economic growth.

The number of women-owned firms in the U.S. includes:

As of 2004, there are an estimated 10.6 million privately-held businesses in which a woman or women owns at least 50% of the company. Among them, 6.7 million are majority-owned. The 10.6 million women- and equally-owned firms employ 19.1 million people and generate $2.46 trillion in sales. Majority women-owned firms employ 9.8 million workers and generate $1.19 trillion in sales. Majority-owned, privately-held women-owned firms account for 30% of all businesses in the country. Equally-owned firms represent another 18% of all firms. Thus, nearly half (48%) of all privately-held U.S. firms are at least 50% owned by women. Eighty-five percent (85%) of privately-held majority-owned women-owned firms are sole-proprietorships with a single owner, as are 68% of other privately-held firms. Subchapter-S, C Corporations and Partnerships account for 15% of privately-held majority-owned women-owned firms, and 32% of all other privately held firms. Based on number of owner estimates for all multi-owner firms - majority-women-owned firms, equally- owned firms, and majority-men-owned firms - there are an estimated 15.6 million women business owners in the U.S. as of 2002. Between 1997 and 2002, an average of 424 new women-owned firms were started every day, translating into nearly 775,000 start-ups per year and accounting for fully 55% of new firm start-ups. An estimated one in five women-owned businesses is owned by a woman or women of color. As of 2002, there are an estimated 1.2 million privately-held firms that are majority-owned by women of color. These firms employ over 822,000 people and generate over $100 billion in revenues. In number, they are growing at twice the rate of all women-owned businesses and four times the rate of all U.S. firms. The largest share of privately-held majority women-owned firms is in the service sector, with more than half (51%) of women-owned firms in services. An additional 15% of firms are in retail trade and 9% are in finance, insurance, or real estate.

In Canada, The Prime Minister's Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs (2003) assembled statistics from Statistics Canada on women entrepreneurs (given in Canadian dollars, or CAD). They found that:

There are more than 821,000 Canadian women entrepreneurs, and they contribute in excess of CAD 18,109 million to the economy annually. Between 1981 and 2001, the number of women entrepreneurs increased 208%, compared with a 38% increase for men. However, average annual sales for women-owned firms are significantly lower. In 2000, women-owned SMEs averaged CAD 311,289 in sales, compared with CAD 654,294 in sales for firms owned by men. [Top]

Europe
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Gender Statistics Database, women employers and own-account (self-employed) workers in early 2000 represented:

Austria 134,500 or 34% of total   Belarus 25,150 or 33% of total Belgium 155,576 or 29% of total Bulgaria 128,000 or 34% of total Croatia 86,000 or 30% of total Cyprus 12,031 or 20% of total Czech Republic   189,032 or 27% of total Estonia 13,000 or 30% of total Finland 95,000 or 32% of total Georgia 209,244 or 33% of total Greece 316,518 or 25% of total Hungary 114,800 or 31% of total Iceland 7,000 or 27% of total

Ireland 45,900 or 16% of total Israel 59,400 or 24% of total Italy 1,169,978 or 24% of total Kyrgyzstan 177,210 or 42% of total Latvia 37,400 or 38% of total Poland 1,185,000 or 36% of total   Republic of Moldova 227,380 or 48% of total Romania 832,079 or 32% of total Russian Federation 1,850,767 or 45% of total Slovakia 46,100 or 26% of total Slovenia 29,086 or 27% of total The FYR of Macedonia   20,435 or 22% of total Turkey 739,000 or 11% of total

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Asia
According to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), women accounted for the following percent of total employers and own-account (self-employed) workers in 1998:

Australia	32%
Indonesia	31%
Japan	29%
Korea	27%
New Zealand	32%
Philippines	34%

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Latin America
According to research conducted by Gina Zabludovsky based on data from Unidad Mujer y Desarrollo; Pobreza y Desigualdad desde una Perspectiva de Género. CEPAL (ECLA) 2002 - 2003, women business owners in Latin America in 2002 represented the following per cent of all businesses in each country:

Argentina	28%
Bolivia	39%
Brazil	30%
Colombia	33%
Costa Rica	32%
Chile	29%
Dominican Republic	42%
Ecuador	34%
El Salvador	48%
Guatemala	39%
Honduras	37%
Mexico	30%
Nicaragua	39%
Panama	26%
Paraguay	38%
Peru	37%
Uruguay	46%
Venezuela	37%

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Africa
According to the International Labour Office (ILO), it is difficult to capture exact figures on women's ability to create employment for themselves and for others in some developing economies in Africa. As a result, the ILO used convenience samples that still lead to substantial evidence that even women living under very difficult conditions can have an important economic impact by creating new employment through firm growth. Employment which is created by these women is often directed towards other women. Below are some examples of the sample results:

In Zambia, a sample of 118 women entrepreneurs owning 144 firms were interviewed (some owned more than one firm). They provided employment for 1,013 persons, of which 973 were full-time employees. This represents an average of 8.2 full-time employees per firm. In Tanzania, 128 women entrepreneurs were interviewed. They provided full-time employment for 752 persons, which corresponds to an average of 5.9 persons per firm. In Ethiopia, 123 women entrepreneurs were interviewed. They provided employment for 852 persons, of whom 596 were employed full-time. This corresponds to an average of 4.8 full-time employees per firm. [Top]