With the upcoming International Women's Day on 8th March, it's a good time to talk about women and entrepreneurship.
There is a clear gender gap in enterprise with men twice as likely as women to start up a business and only 21% of Scotland's SMEs being led by women. To clarify why this is problematic, it has been calculated that if business ownership rates for women rose to match those of men, there would be an additional 108,480 new businesses in Scotland, leading to a 5.3% growth of the Scottish economy.
These figures have been flagged up by Women's Enterprise Scotland (WES), who, alongside a wide range of other stakeholders, including the Scottish Government, have published a framework and action plan to increase the contribution of women's enterprise to the Scottish economy.
The approach, which also ties in with the government's 'Scotland CAN DO' agenda, will focus on a range of measures to specifically support women, such as improving networks and mentoring, providing gender-specific business support, increasing the number of women angel-investors, and encouraging banks to focus on assisting the development of their female customers' businesses. And in recognition of the value of role models, an Ambassador programme has been launched, with an initial ten female entrepreneurs, growing to thirty by end of 2016.
While the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Scotland is already well-developed and growing continuously, some of the mainstream support can bypass women-led businesses, for example in instances where it focuses on high-growth enterprises to the detriment of the many women-led SMEs. The key is to level the playing field and ensure women, just like men, are given all the support and opportunities they need to fully realise their potential.
The (all-female) Converge Challenge team is particularly delighted at the number of female entries to the competition which is steadily growing year on year. In 2014, 38% of entries were from female applicants.
Some excellent examples of female entrepreneurial success can be seen in last year's overall Converge winner Claudia Chen from Savitur Metrics (University of Strathclyde), the 2013 runner-up Kanika Bansal with Medicen Devise (University of Edinburgh), and the 2013 third place winners Helen Fisher and Liita Naukushu with Beckdales Ltd. (University of Edinburgh), to name but a few.
Converge Challenge looks forward to engaging with WES during 2015 and in the future to address the gender gap in enterprise and support women in entrepreneurship.
'We're delighted to support the Converge Challenge team and look forward to meeting some of the successful female winners in the next few months' – Margaret Gibson, CEO, WES
Let's make it happen! #womensday
