Women match men in business start-ups for first time

Women in Scotland have reached a “landmark moment” in business, with the number of female entrepreneurs matching the number of men for the first time.

A report has found that women were starting and running new businesses at virtually the same rate as men last year.

The global entrepreneurship monitor (GEM), an annual measure of entrepreneurship, found 8.6% of working-age women in Scotland were running or setting up a new business in 2023 compared with 9.8% of men, something the report describes as “statistical parity”.

This compares with 7.2% of women and 10.5% of men in 2022.

The report was compiled by the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde.

It said that 300,000 people in Scotland were engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial activity in 2023.

Women making up roughly half of that number was described by one of the report’s authors as “momentous”.

Prof Sreevas Sahasranamam of the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow, told BBC Scotland News: “It is a landmark moment because for the first time ever we are seeing that there is statistical parity between early stage male and early stage female entrepreneurial activity in Scotland.

“That is quite momentous because just four years ago, in 2020, we were seeing there was a difference between male and female entrepreneurship rates of an almost four percentage point gap.”

But Prof Sahasranamam added that overall the climate for creating business opportunities could be better.

He said: “It is worth highlighting that a panel of entrepreneurship experts judged the context for entrepreneurship in Scotland to be generally mediocre, with the level of support for women’s entrepreneurship worryingly evaluated as ‘less than satisfactory’ scoring under three out of 10.”

Genna Masterton transitioned from her career as a primary teacher to an educational tech entrepreneur.

She is passionate about creating better, happier lives for children and registered her company Kinoro in March this year. It’s an online coaching tool for adults to help children.

It was inspired by her teaching days.

She wanted the pupils to be ready to learn and be motivated and said her coaching tool was born out of a frustration that she couldn’t help every child, all the time. So she went from teaching to tech.

Her first few years as an entrepreneur have been challenging – and rewarding.

“I think the highs are when you do find yourself in the right environment of people that don’t underestimate your ambition and want you to become an investable woman. When you do something innovative and create a business that can scale internationally, there’s no stopping you,” she said.

Genna realised she was taken seriously, with support to make connections to investors all over the world.

But she was also aware that her male counterparts might have one meeting with someone and raise investment where on average it might take her 100 meetings.

She added: “You either give up and just don’t try or you’re going make it happen so that the women coming after me or alongside me, we make it easier for those coming next”.

The hope is for her business to go global.

She said: “I was frustrated (as a teacher) that what I had created wasn’t scalable. By starting a tech business I could achieve that impact I wanted to have with children and families at scale.

“I think it was definitely about future me – thinking about having flexibility myself around starting a family.”

The GEM report also stated that one in five new business-owners were non-white. At over 24%, this was the highest level ever recorded.

Despite progress being made in the diversity of Scotland’s entrepreneurs, certain issues were holding people back.

Professor Stathis Tapinos of Strathclyde Business School at the University of Strathclyde, said: “While Scotland reached new milestones with female and minority ethnic early-stage entrepreneurial activity, concerns remain around rates of established business, fear of failure, and the general context for entrepreneurship in Scotland with worrying evaluations by the expert panel.

“Understanding these and other issues related to entrepreneurial attitudes, perceptions and activity in the country is important for policy and practice as entrepreneurship has important implications for the economy and many societal dynamics.”

The study also found that with 9.1% of its population involved in starting or running new businesses, Scotland scored the lowest of the four home nations.

Wales was top at 11.5%, followed by England with 10.8% and Northern Ireland with 9.7%.

The Scottish government said that people should be given the right support and encouragement, regardless of gender or background, and that the report showed strong entrepreneurial activity in Scotland.

Employment and Investment Minister Tom Arthur said: “People must be given the right support and encouragement, regardless of gender or background, to make business ideas a reality, and this report shows strong entrepreneurial activity in Scotland.

“I am encouraged by the progress on female participation and remain committed to ensuring women-led businesses reach their full potential. The Scottish government will continue to play a prominent role in enabling entrepreneurship.”

He said that the deputy first minister had recently announced a £5m package of support, including a £2.6m investment across programmes which enhance early-stage entrepreneurship, with further targeted support for those from under-represented backgrounds.