Business & Finance

Statistics on Canadian Women in Business

What Women Entrepreneurs in Canada Are Like

By Susan Ward, About.com Guide

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The number of Canadian women in business has been growing strongly for over 20 years now. (See, for instance, my article Women in Business a Growing Wave.)

But what is the typical Canadian woman in business like? What kinds of businesses do Canadian women entrepreneurs choose to start and develop? How many women-owned businesses are there in Canada?

I've put together this collection of statistics on Canadian women in business to answer these questions and others like them. You can use them for market research or reports if you like, as long as you properly cite the sources.

Canadian Women in Business in Summary:

The numbers of Canadian women entrepreneurs are still growing but not as strongly as they were ten or even five years ago.
On average, women business owners are younger and have fewer years of management or ownership experience compared with male business owners.
Women entrepreneurs are much more likely to choose to start and run small businesses in the retail and service sectors.
Women entrepreneurs do not make as much money as male entrepreneurs although the gap appears to be closing.
Canadian women business owners are on average less likely to engage in international trade compared to Canadian male business owners.
Women in business perceive more barriers to doing business than their male counterparts.

Statistics on Canadian Women in Business

Jung, Owen. (2010). Women Entrepreneurs. Small Business Financing Profile. Ottawa: Industry Canada Small Business and Tourism Branch, October 2010.

Majority female-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (i.e., 51 to 100 percent of the ownership of the business is held by women) constituted 16 percent of SMEs in Canada in 2007.

From 1999 to 2009, the number of self-employed women grew by 13 percent compared with 10 percent for men.

Women business owners were generally younger than their male counterparts in 2007, averaging 48.5 years of age compared with 51.1 years of age for male business owners.

In 2007, 51 percent of women business owners had more than 10 years of management or ownership experience compared with 74 percent of male business owners.

Historically, majority women-owned SMEs have been concentrated in the retail and service sectors (Carter 2002). In 2007, majority female-owned SMEs still tended to favour sectors related to wholesale/retail (17 percent), professional services (15 percent) and tourism (13 percent). The gender difference, however, was only statistically significant for tourism. There were fewer majority female-owned SMEs in agriculture/primary, manufacturing and knowledge-based industries than majority male-owned firms, but the gender differences were not statistically significant.

The percentage of majority women-owned SMEs that were micro-businesses (fewer than five employees) was 81 percent in 2007, just higher than 79 percent for majority male-owned micro-businesses. Majority women-owned firms were less likely to employ 20 or more people, on the other hand, than majority male-owned firms.

Majority women-owned firms (have) exhibited a strong performance in terms of average total revenue, jumping from $335 000 in 2000 to $525 000 in 2004 and $563 000 in 2007. Notwithstanding these increases in revenue, the average total revenue generated by majority women-owned firms in 2007 was half of that reported by majority male-owned firms.

Majority female-owned firms were just as likely to seek financing as majority male-owned firms in 2007 but were less likely to be approved for debt financing than majority male-owned firms and typically received significantly smaller amounts of debt financing than majority male-owned firms.

Women business owners were less likely to use multiple sources of financing to start up a business.

In 2007, 44 percent of female business owners operating majority women-owned businesses indicated that they intended to expand the size and scope of their business within two years, compared to 38 percent of majority male-owned businesses.

Majority female-owned firms face more perceived obstacles to growth than majority male-owned firms. In 2007, rising business costs was the top perceived obstacle to growth for both majority female-owned and majority male-owned firms; however, female business owners appeared to be more concerned about this obstacle than male business owners. Moreover, majority female-owned firms were also significantly more likely to be concerned about rising competition and insurance premiums than majority male-owned firms.

Action Strategies to Support Women's Enterprise Development. The Canadian Taskforce for Women's Business Growth. November 2011.

In 2010, over 900,000 of the 2.6 million self-employed workers in Canada were women (Statistics Canada, 2010).

Canadian women business owners are on average less likely to engage in international trade compared to male counterparts – even after controlling for factors known to influence internationalization such (as) growth intention, firm size, sector, investment in research and development and geographic location.

Key Small Business Statistics July 2011. Statistics Canada.

Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey reports there were 910 000 self-employed women in Canada in 2008, accounting for about one third of all self-employed persons. (Although not all of the self-employed would identify themselves as entrepreneurs, the number of self-employed women provides an upper limit for the number of female entrepreneurs.) Between 1998 and 2008, the number of self-employed women grew by 6.4 percent compared with 11-percent growth in male self-employment.

Accommodation and food services industries have the highest share of businesses that are majority-owned by females, at 22 percent, whereas SMEs in agriculture and primary industries have the lowest level, with only 5 percent of businesses majority-owned by females.

Featured Research. Women Entrepreneurs of Canada. December 11th, 2007.

"Where women differ from their male counterparts is how they view growth. Women business owners view growth to be less important, less likely and of lower value than men. They view the personal demands related to growth as negative and adding stress to their lives. An overwhelming 84% of women feel their business has reached a size they are comfortable with and don't want to grow. This compared to 37% for men. They feel they lack the managerial experience, spousal support and peer support networks needed to grow.

In addition, women are also more likely to operate businesses in the service sectors rather than in knowledge and manufacturing industries, which traditionally enjoy higher growth potential and profitability."

There are more small business statistics on Canadian women entrepreneurs on the next page...