Today is International Women’s day. Despite all the progress made in the matter of gender equality, a lot remains to be tackled in the entrepreneurial world. Here you have 6 important facts to consider to understand gender inequality in the business sector:
According to PitchBook’s European VC Female Founders Dashboard, in 2024 only 1.6% of venture capital funding went to European female-founded start-ups.
While this is an increase from 1.4% in 2022, it is still a small slice of the overall pie. There is still a long way to go to achieve equality.
The OCDE published in 2023 its latest report on “Missing Entrepreneurs”, which highlights the challenges women face in starting businesses, citing barriers such as self-perceived fear of failure and skills gaps.
Self-employed women in the EU were about 30% less likely than men to be employers in 2022.
There is a large variation in the share of self-employed women and men who employ others across EU Member States. The share of self-employed women with employees ranges from less than 10% in Lithuania to 39% in Germany and 44% in Croatia.
Women were less likely than men to report that they expect their new business to create a high number of jobs.
Only 6% of women in the European Union reported than they expect their business to create at least 19 jobs over the next five years relative to 12% of men. This gap is explained by differences in motivation, as well as differences in the nature of businesses started.
Women participated in early-stage entrepreneurship at the same rate as “core age” men (i.e. 30-49 years old), there would be an additional 5.5 million “missing” women entrepreneurs in the European Union.
In both the EU and OECD, women account for about 73% of the total number of missing entrepreneurs. The cost of these missing women entrepreneurs is substantial. The long-standing gender gap in entrepreneurship continues to cost the economy in missed opportunities for job creation, growth and innovation.
Nearly half of women in the EU and OECD say fear of failure holds them back from entrepreneurship, compared to just over 40% of men. Additionally, women are only 75% as likely as men to believe they have the necessary skills to start a business, reflecting both actual skills gaps and differences in self-confidence.
Women remain less active than men in starting and managing new businesses. Between 2018 and 2022, only 6% of women in the EU were engaged in launching or running a young business (less than 42 months old), compared to 8% of men.
To bridge this gap, governments must establish stronger policy frameworks that ensure greater continuity, better resource allocation, and more cohesive support for women entrepreneurs.