Female-powered businesses Founding and growing
In this section we look at the issues faced by female owners and founders, the challenges they encounter when trying to grow their businesses and explore potential solutions.
Evidence suggests that while there are more female-founded start-ups, fewer of these progress to more established businesses, relative to the overall population. 72% of female leaders surveyed identified professional gender-specific barriers to growing businesses at scale, and 74% identified personal barriers. Professional barriers are defined as obstacles beyond an individual’s control, typically stemming from governmental or organisational policies. In contrast, personal barriers, such as an individual’s confidence and self-belief, are within their control.
Gender-specific professional barriers for female-led business to grow at scale.
Gender-specific personal barriers for female-led business to grow at scale.
Top six initiatives that could have the biggest impact on helping and supporting female-led business to grow.
Professional barriers: Policies and procedures outside of the individual’s control
Personal barriers: Defined as those within the individual’s control