Women in Entrepreneurship

Not only in general terms, but also with a special focus on entrepreneurship, women earn on average (OECD) 35 per cent less than men. Especially Germany shows a singnificant gap of 42 per cent without any improvements since 2006. Generally speaking, the gender pay gap stays at a higher level for those being self-employed than for employees.

Women tend to be less represented in entrepreneurship than men. However, women rank much higher than men when being self-employed without employees or in precarious forms of self-employed work. EU-wide 78 per cent of the self-employed withour employees are women. Recent data for Germany indicates as a general trend that self-employment, especially without employees and in precarious working conditions, decreases.

Causes for the gap

Women tend to face multiple barriers in entrepreneurship. Next to general barriers including education, stereotypes and the lack of confidence, women entrepreneurs tend to experiences difficulties in the access to finance and access to markets. In addition, female entrepreneurs face “double assignments” combinig their enterprise and family life. This may not only affect the time to invest into business, but also the choice which kind of business to start. Taken together, female creativity and entrepreneurial potentials are currently an under-exploited source of economic growth and new jobs that could be further developed.

References

European Commission (2014). Statistical data on Women entrepreneurs in Europe

DIW (2015). Selbständige Beschäftigung geht zurück. DIW Wochenbereicht 36/2015

OECD: Indicators of Gender Equality in Entrepreneurship

Organisation für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung

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