Women's Entrepreneurship Key to Economic Growth: GEM Study

We knew it was the case here. As I wrote in Women in Business a Growing Wave, the number of women-owned businesses is growing 60 percent faster than those run by men and it's predicted that one million Canadian women will own a small business by 2010 (Statistics Canada).

But women’s entrepreneurship is also a key contributor to economic growth in low/middle income countries, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2007 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship released by The Center for Women’s Leadership at Babson College.

GEM studied women's entrepreneurship in 41 countries, dividing them into two country groups (low/middle-income and high-income) based on their per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and GDP growth rate. Among the report's key findings were:

• Women tend to be less optimistic and self-confident than men about starting a business.
• Fear of failure is higher for women in all country groups compared to their male counterparts.
• Women who are employed and have built a social network of entrepreneurs are more likely to become entrepreneurs. The social and economic benefits of working are driving women’s entrepreneurship more than increased education or household income.
• There is no gender difference in the survival rate of women’s businesses versus those of men in high-income countries.

I find this third point particularly interesting in light of the growing numbers of women entrepreneurs in Canada. I think for many women the social benefits of running their own businesses are just as important as the economic ones; women are choosing to start businesses because being in business allows them to live a certain lifestyle.

More and more women are like Bree Litrop, the "mompreneur" featured in Business Bite by Bite (Edmonton Sun). As the author, Cary Castagna says, "The mompreneur trend is booming as more and more women reconsider their career paths and discover niche markets they can tap into from the family-friendly confines of home."