By Lesley Williams,
Outreach & Partnerships Director
Welsh ICE
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A 2019 study by the UK Women’s Business Council estimated that economic growth upwards of 10% by 2030 could be unlocked if men’s and women’s entrepreneurial participation became equal – this is roughly £250 billion, according to the Alison Rose Review.
So, with such promising potential for women to go into business, we must ask – why are they only one-third as likely as men to do so?
Even more poignant is the fact that this gap widens at the three-year mark as some of these female-founded endeavours struggle to stay afloat.
This raises the discussion of what barriers are affecting women in business, making them less likely to see it to this stage than their male counterparts after already defying norms to enter the masculine domain of entrepreneurship?
And what can be done to inspire and support more women to start and grow businesses at the same rate as men?
What are the issues?
There’s actually a greater intent for women to start businesses than men with 12.5% of working women expressing interest compared with 8% of men. However, only 20% of active businesses in the UK are run by female founders.
This change occurs as women start thinking more about family and doubting the possibility of juggling a business and being a mum without the safety net of properly paid maternity leave under an employer.
Even where women in business do get paid maternity leave from the company they work at, we see an impact on their career progression and pay increase opportunities. This contributes to the widely debated, yet ever-present, gender pay gap both within organisations and across the board when comparing female-dominated sectors with male-dominated sectors.
As of 2022, there is a gap of 8% in the pay of male and female full-time workers an increase of 1% since April 2021. Until we close the gender pay gap, address perceptions of how parents should share duties and pressures, and provide equal parental leave across the board, women will continue to struggle to climb the employment ladder into senior roles and continue to struggle to grow their businesses at the same rate as men. Not only that, men will continue to be deprived of the opportunity to be as present in their child’s life as they may like to be.
Unconscious exclusion
Parenting and responsibilities of caring for elderly relatives, which are not expected of men in equal measure, can also limit women’s ability to access funding. The start-stop nature of a women’s career means that women-led businesses can seem ‘risky’ to investors. This conscious or unconscious opinion is typically placed on all women, whether they intend to have children or not. Not only this, but women angel investors made up just 15% of the investment market in 2022. Growing a bigger pool of women angel investors in Wales would go a long way to addressing bias’ that impact on a woman’s ability to access finance.
Caring responsibilities can also limit a woman’s ability to participate in networking opportunities outside of working hours, and that’s before the consideration of the golf club culture at many corporate companies, which excludes women by facilitating business meetings and relationship-building in a male-dominated environment. These events occurring without female colleagues potentially gives male counterparts the greater opportunity to learn, connect with useful contacts, and fall into favour with superiors who have the power to promote.
This concept seems outdated, as it should be, but it’s still absolutely evident today and continues to disadvantage women’s networks leading into self-employment, as well as in employment. A survey found that 92.5% of female respondents felt they would benefit from women-only networking and business mentoring events, specifically, ones run during the evening or around childcare and with the opportunity to learn from other women who have achieved success.
This has certainly proved itself to be true at Welsh ICE, where female-only courses of our after-hours business support programme, the 5 to 9 Club, are continually oversubscribed, demonstrating an appetite for female entrepreneurs to address their barriers.
However, are women-only networks always the best way to support women?
Women and men network differently. Research tells us that women’s networks will be far more supportive than a man’s, however, a man’s will hold more information to support them with the growth of their businesses. And so while I’m an advocate of female-only support made available to women in key stages of their business development and growth, which facilitates meaningful discussion on the specific gendered barriers they face, empowering and building confidence in the process, there is a point where women need to connect to a more masculine network to benefit from the contacts involved.
In this case, networking events need to consider their full audience to be as inclusive as possible, particularly in regard to timings, venue accessibility, and the marketing of events.
We need representative role models
The Alison Rose Review found that, whilst women were more likely than men to benefit from the influence of role models, mentors and fellow entrepreneurs, they were also less likely to have access to them – especially ones on a similar journey. Instead of having someone or something to blame for these apparent obstacles, what women need is representation within business by relatable role models who can inspire them to push through.
If the lack of female representation in entrepreneurship stem largely from limiting beliefs and maternal pressures, how can we expect the few no-nonsense millionaire businesswomen dominating the media to resonate with your typical women?
It’s the independent bakers and owners of local hair salons who are more likely to offer much-needed confidence to the majority of budding women entrepreneurs than the Dragons’ Den or Devil Wears Prada types, having come from similar circumstances to make a living from their passion.
These entrepreneurial women need more opportunities to be celebrated and to be inspired to take up more space to raise the aspirations of others who relate to them.
Is enough being done?
Since my start in the world of business, it’s been reassuring to see a growing number of women putting themselves out there and attending networking events. Not only that, but younger women (16-25 year olds) are showing an increasing tendency to pursue entrepreneurship, too, which makes for a much more exciting and diverse space.
The most recent Rose review also highlighted that last year, a whopping 800,000 places and opportunities for direct support were provided to female founders.
However, some of the unfortunate statistics that I’ve been fighting to change for over a decade still stand true today, which shows that there’s clearly a lot more work to be done to achieve equality.
Short term:
- Initiatives to onboard more women angel investors and mentors is key.
- The media needs to take responsibility to champion more relatable role models.
- The business support sector needs to double down on support for female founders to start up and grow businesses, as well as ensuring that all other forms of support are accessible and inclusive for all to benefit.
Long-term:
Long term improvement will come with more conscious efforts to change gendered perceptions in our society and culture, born from what researchers call the Pink and Blue syndrome – derived from the fact that everything can be gendered, and this deeply roots our understanding of the world, and beliefs around how we should behave, how we should present ourselves, and what we can achieve as men and women.
If we want to see things really change for women in business and leadership for future generations, the push needs to come from the top down. It’s the government and employers who have the real power to alleviate the obstacles of care responsibilities, childcare costs and equal parental leave, equalising opportunities for women to invest time into their entrepreneurial or professional growth and removing the gender bias’ which too often see business ambitions fall by the wayside.
Alongside this, it’s about time that the gender pay gap is truly addressed so that men can be better incentivised to take parental leave when it’s available – as this is currently an unaffordable option in most households.
