What Do Women Entrepreneurs Need to Grow? A New Initiative Keeps Score

It’s one thing to encourage more women to start their own entrepreneurial ventures, but what are the elements that can ensure their future growth and success? And what countries are doing a good (and not so good) job of providing a “womenabling” environment for growth-oriented women entrepreneurs? These are the questions asked - and answered - in the new Global Women Entrepreneur Leaders Scorecard, a data-powered diagnostic tool developed by ACG Inc. with support from Dell. The research team (of which Womenable is a member) considered the elements necessary for supporting growth-oriented, high-impact women entrepreneurs - AND what data are currently available on a regular basis - gathering and combining 21 data variables into an analytical framework comprised of five main elements:

1. Business environment;
2. Gendered access to resources;
3. Women’s leadership and legal rights;
4. A gendered entrepreneurial pipeline; and
5. Potential female entrepreneurial leaders.

 

The resulting analysis, conducted among 31 economies that collectively account for 76% of global GDP, finds that the following countries provide the environment most conducive to supporting high-impact women’s entrepreneurship:

1. United States
2. Canada
3. Australia
4. Sweden
5. United Kingdom

At the other end of the list are countries that are not so supportive:

1. Bangladesh
2. Pakistan
3. India
4. Egypt
5. Tunisia

One important conclusion of the analysis is that even among highly-ranked countries there is much room for improvement, as the scores - calculated on a 0-100 scale - only reach 71 even in the top-ranked U.S. And what can all of us do to help the cause? Several recommendations for action offered include:

• Narrow the gender data gap by measuring progress of women entrepreneur-focused initiatives;
• Prioritize female-owned businesses in public and private supply chains;
• Promote and empower women in the workplace;
• Raise the visibility of female role models in business; and
• Build entrepreneurship skills for girls by investing in STEM education.

Learn more and download the GWEL Scorecard executive report and methodology at THIS WEB PAGE. A number of colorful infographics may also be found HERE.