Last Saturday, November 19, we celebrated the International Day of the Entrepreneurial Woman. According to the latest ´GEM Special Report on Female Entrepreneurship´, Spain has more than 650,000 women entrepreneurs. In the last ten years, the distance between male and female entrepreneurs has been reduced by 30%, according to data from the same document.
More women entrepreneurs but fewer opportunities
The Entrepreneurial Activity Rate (TEA) among women has increased by 7% in more than 60 countries around the world in the last two years. At the moment, the global female TEA stands at 11%. That of our country fell during the crisis, but it is now more stable, around 4.5%.
In this sense, it is important to highlight that the GEM report shows how women entrepreneurs in Spain have fewer opportunities to set up a business if we compare it with those of other countries. Despite the fact that Spain has highly prepared and capable women to launch their project, the facilities and opportunities are insufficient and even more so when compared to the rest of Europe. In fact, according to data from IDC European Women in VC, startups founded by women only received 1.8% of all investment in Europe.
But the impetus and motivation they have. Because more and more women register in the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA). Currently there one autonomous for every two autonomous in our country. Especially in the service sector there has been a significant increase in recent years.
The female entrepreneur in Spain is between 25 and 34 years old and 70% start a business because they detect an opportunity or a need in the market. They are prepared women, and more than half have higher education. 20% trust the growth of the business and being able to generate employment and offer more than 6 positions in the coming years.
Closing the gender gap contributes to improving the global economy
However, the gender gap continues to weigh on both women and the economy in general.
ClosinGap, together with the CEOE Foundation, has prepared the report “Opportunity cost of the gender gap in SMEs and the self-employed”, which shows how Ending these gender inequalities in SMEs would mean 2.8 million contracts.
In our country there are currently 1.8 million unemployed women. Ending this gap would end female unemployment, but it would also mean that more than a million women enter the labor market, since they are not part of the active population and it would be necessary to cover these needs. Specifically, it would be necessary for a million women to become part of this active population. This would mean an increase in the female activity rate in the national global calculation until reaching 58.6%, compared to the 53.7% that was on average in 2021.
All of this, in economic terms, as stated in the report, would contribute 131,100 million euros of Gross Value Added to the Spanish economy. That is, what is equivalent to 10.9% of the GDP registered in the year 2021.
“SMEs and the self-employed are the engine of our economy. Many times with little visibility and with challenges that do not always grab big headlines. That is why it is necessary to know the gender gap and how it is impacting our country”says Marieta Jiménez, president of ClosinGap.
Lack of leadership
These inequalities become more noticeable in positions of responsibility or in those with the highest salaries. Specifically, according to Gary Mullan, CEO of Prosperity Digital, “The number of startups led by female founders does not reach 10%”. Despite the fact that the Women Business 2022 report states that 32% of leadership positions are headed by women worldwide. “There is still a lot to do until reach figures that denote equality within the leadership”.
And the same goes for higher-paying positions. Programming is one of the professions with the highest demand today and also one of the best paid. Well, it is also one of the most prominent due to the gender gap within the digital sector. Specific, There are only two women for every ten men in these positions in Spain. and only 5.7% of companies have women experts in technology or digitization.
But this gap can be an opportunity. Data from the European Commission ensure that in 2030 jobs related to technology and the digital sector will grow by 11%, and more than 300,000 jobs will be created. Therefore, “This represents a clear opportunity to promote the inclusion of professionalss”, as Mullan points out.
It will be necessary to hope that in the following editions there will be increasingly better data on women entrepreneurs and their role in the economy.