Where Next for Female Entrepreneurship?
I was at once both unsettled and intrigued when one of the panel speakers at a recent event on midlife women entrepreneurs asked, ‘what are women for?’. While this was intended to challenge the prevailing narrative surrounding women at midlife, one that is either medical and menopause –oriented, or socially ambivalent regarding their value [8], it got me thinking about the impact of such limiting narratives in uncovering and realising the potential that exists.
In my work with female founders, I frequently come across the following headline figures:
Female-founded companies receive only up to 2% of all venture capital investment [15].
If women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men global GDP could rise by approximately 3% to 6%, boosting the global economy by $2.5 trillion to $5trillion [2].
In the UK this figure would result in up to £250bn in new economic value [13].
So, there are clear economic consequences from the prevalence of these limiting narratives. However, to make progress and realise the promise and potential outlined, it is key to delve deeper and understand the underlying complexity of motivations, circumstances and conditions that may enable or derail our efforts in achieving these additional benefits from female entrepreneurship. Unlocking the potential of female entrepreneurship requires a continuous and consistent focus to address the structural barriers, perceptions and stereotypes that impact progress. It also requires a recognition of the context-dependent nature of some of the female entrepreneurship trends across countries and regions.
The State of Female Entrepreneurship
Women’s start up activity globally has increased from 6.1% to 10.4%, on average, across 30 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) participating countries between 2001-2023. This change represents a 76% increase in start up activity for women globally. According to the GEM Women’s Entrepreneurship report (2023/24), several countries including France, the Netherlands, and Hungary have more than doubled their start-up rates over the past two decades, while Jordan, Morocco, and Poland, showed a significant drop [3].
In the UK, the growth of proportion of female to male early-stage entrepreneurs continues to rise, maintaining the trend since 2018, which is encouraging. Nevertheless, the 2023/24 GEM UK report highlights a growing perception gap between male and female early-stage entrepreneurs: fear of failure among female entrepreneurs has increased, while that of male entrepreneurs has actually fallen over the last couple of years [5].
These trends are underpinned by a complex combination of motivations, perceptions and outcomes of female entrepreneurship that need to be better understood.
Perceptions
Research suggests that entrepreneurial perceptions are the most important predictors of business start-up activity. They also correlate in important ways with intentions and motivations and can be influenced through entrepreneurship education, start up experience, and other programme offerings [1,10].
Over the past two decades, entrepreneurial perceptions have improved for women, including a 79% increase in seeing new business opportunities and a 27% increase in having start-up skills. However, women are 11% less likely than men to report that starting a business is easy, 10% less likely to report that they were undeterred from starting a business by the fear of failure, and less likely to believe they have the skills to start a business compared to men (around 50% of women; almost two-thirds of men)[3].
Despite increased rates of fear of business failure, studies suggest that this may be a result of increased interest in business start-ups among women, as the gender gap has narrowed in all but six countries [3].
Motivations
Too often, researchers and policymakers make assumptions about the factors driving entrepreneurship motivations. For example, gender role theory is an overwhelmingly popular theoretical framework for gender differences in entrepreneurial behaviour, yet fails to explain heterogeneity in start-up activity, goals, and outcomes. As supported by recent evidence, cultural definitions of what it means to be a successful man or successful woman are context-dependent, and dynamic across time and place [10]. Still, small differences in perceptions and motivations can contribute to gross differences in the types of business models, industries, and markets that entrepreneurs pursue.
Research confirms that women start businesses for very similar reasons to men, albeit with small margins of difference [3]. For example, in 2023 women were slightly more likely to report starting a business because jobs were scarce or to make a difference in the world, and slightly less likely to report starting a business to build wealth and to continue a family tradition. Nevertheless, and despite these small margins of difference these findings tend to reinforce stereotypes that women are not as capable or that men rarely struggle to start and grow businesses. These stereotypes can be damaging for both men and women, as like women, many men start businesses to make a difference in the world and due to job scarcity.
A recent report by a global bank on entrepreneurship at midlife [7], highlights the additional complicating factors at midlife, with half of women 45+ having been through at least five life experiences which test their resilience and focus, i.e. divorce, bereavement, redundancy, caring for elderly parents, their own health issues including menopause. Nevertheless, 44% of respondents stated that they set up their business because they saw a gap in the market for products and services aimed at midlife females like themselves. According to the UK census this is not an inconsequential customer group with approximately 7.2million of women aged 45 to 60 in the UK [9].
Outcomes
In a given year, women are creating far more businesses than they are exiting across all countries. The global average exit/entry ratio is 35% less for women than for men, suggesting that women are creating new sustainable businesses at a much higher rate than men [3].
Women are 36% more likely to report business exit for personal or family reasons than men, and less likely due to sale of the business, with lack of financing another reason for discontinuing business activity. Nevertheless, women were 6% less likely than men to report business closure due to lack of financing, despite the widely reported financing challenges faced by women [3].
Digitalisation, sustainable practices, and access to financing are key areas for competitive advantage in entrepreneurship, however, like other business outcomes they very likely reflect the industries, markets, and business models so more research is needed to understand how these factors may explain gender differences.
According to data from the UK Innovation State of the Nation Survey (ISNS, 2023), there exists a positive association between gender and ethnicity diversity in leadership, with likelihood of seeking external advice and in turn innovation. The effect of advice on innovation becomes stronger as firms gravitate towards gender-balanced and ethnic-balanced management.
Unlocking Potential
There are clearly economic and social benefits in ensuring that in a persistently low-growth world we are maximising the potential of female entrepreneurship.
Recognising the complexity that underpins female entrepreneurship should help reframe the prevailing narratives and target advocacy and support to address the barriers that persist and realising its potential.
The power of networks comes through very clearly in the evidence that is available. According to the recent GEM Women’s Entrepreneurship report, compared to men, women globally are about 10% less likely to know an entrepreneur and one-third less likely to have recently invested in a business [3]. Peer-to-peer networks encourage women to set higher aspirations for their businesses, plan for growth and embrace innovation [2].
So, there is quite a lot that women are for…we just need to keep looking!
Resources
Arenius, P., & Minniti, M. (2005). Perceptual variables and nascent entrepreneurship. Small Business Economics, 24, 233-247.
Boston Consulting Group (2019). Want to Boost the Global Economy by $5 Trillion? Support Women as Entrepreneurs. https://on.bcg.com/2EdMHKg
GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) (2023). Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2023/24 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report.
GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) (2025). Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2024/2025 Global Report: Entrepreneurship Reality Check. London: GEM.
GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) (2023) UK Report 2023/24. London: GEM.
Harrison, R. T., Botelho, T., & Mason, C. M. (2020). Women on the edge of a breakthrough? A stereotype threat theory of women’s angel investing. International Small Business Journal, 38(8), 768-797.
HSBC UK Midlife Female Entrepreneurs Report (2025). Fearless and thriving: How midlife female entrepreneurs are changing the game. https://www.business.hsbc.uk/-/media/media/uk/pdfs/campaigns/hsbc-uk-womens-business-growth-initiative-report.pdf
McQuaide, S. (1998). Women at Midlife. Social Work, 43(1), 21–31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23717274
Samsami, M., Peña-Legazkue, I., & Barakat, S. (2024). The role of entrepreneurial ecosystems in reducing the gender gap of entrepreneurial intention and exit rates. European Journal of International Management, 22(4), 576-591.
Samsami, M., Kolaly, H. E., González-Pernía, J. L., & Boutaleb, F. (2024). Gender roles shaping the entrepreneurial mindset: embedded in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and impacted by the pandemic. European Journal of International Management, 22(4), 551-575.
Shoosmiths report p. 3: https://www.shoosmiths.com/-/media/download-documents/diversity and-inclusion/bridging-the-gender-gulf.pdf
The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship 2019.
ERC (2023) UK Innovation State of the Nation survey. https://www.enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/publications/insight-from-innovation-state-of-the-nation-survey-isns-2023-and-2024/
World Economic Forum (2023). Empowering female founders: How we can narrow the gender gap in venture capital. weforum.org/stories/2023/12/how-we-can-close-the-venture-capital-gender-gap/.
Notable Organisations Advancing Women’s Entrepreneurship
About the author
I founded Metochi Consulting Ltd to create tailored and impactful people strategies that unleash potential for sustainable growth.
I have a deep belief that the right combination of people strategies and solutions can have a compounding effect in solving those seemingly intractable problems that leaders, owners and founders face during key transitions.
With Metochi Consulting Ltd we are your strategic people partner, connecting the dots to unleash your business’s potential.