This week is Global Entrepreneurship Week – the world’s largest campaign to promote entrepreneurship. This is a global campaign Britain would do well to support, and a key moment to highlight where we do not do so well.
Britain has a gender gap in entrepreneurship, with the OECD report Entrepreneurship at a Glance published in the summer finding that men are 2-3 times more likely to own businesses with employees as women in the UK. When analysed in a global context, out of the 40 countries surveyed for the OECD research, the UK falls in the bottom quartile in terms of equality in entrepreneurship. This is simply not good enough, and there is a key opportunity now for Labour to set out how Britain can do better than this on the world stage.
The importance of closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship is not just an equalities argument either – but it comes with strong economic research to back it. The Women’s Business Council report Maximising Women’s Contribution to Economic Growth found that if women were setting up and running new businesses at the same rate as men we could have an extra one million entrepreneurs. The future is female, and as a nation we are paying the price for not better supporting our female entrepreneurs – so what barriers do we have to tackle to get there?
A key barrier to women’s economic progress is childcare – an issue that is a hot item on the national political agenda. It is fitting that during Global Entrepreneurship Week Labour secured an opposition day debate on Wednesday on childcare, calling on the government to extend free childcare from 15 to 25 hours a week for three- and four-year-olds, paid for by an increase in the bank levy. Labour called for this because we know that mothers and parents are facing a childcare crunch, with costs rising 30 per cent under David Cameron. Many mothers, who have the potential to be the next Anita Roddick or Laura Tenison, inspiring women and founders of the Body Shop and JoJo Maman Bébé, can be hindered in their progress as entrepreneurs because they cannot afford childcare for their son or daughter.
While childcare is one measure that will help mothers and British business, the challenge we face in tackling the gender entrepreneurship is not just the setting-up of women-led business, but supporting their development and growth.
During global entrepreneurship week it is important to research how other countries support their female entrepreneurs, and take the best examples from across the world.
I have previously written for Progress about the impressive Women’s Business Centres in the United States, as well as its policy intervention introducing a statutory goal that five per cent of federal contracting dollars are awarded to women-owned small businesses.
On Tuesday, India took steps towards supporting their female entrepreneurs by launching a new (state-run) women’s bank. The bank is planned to lend mostly to women and women-run businesses, will employ predominantly women, and will address gender-related aspects of empowerment and financial inclusion. While Britain’s banks have some limited tailored services for women-led businesses, the potential could be so much greater.
To see a shift in the scale of women’s entrepreneurship in the UK, climbing to the top of world tables in terms of business and equality, we need a more integrated strategy and more coordinated support infrastructure. Labour has a good track record in this space, and has good policies ready to help female entrepreneurs from 2015. This is an area for us to build on and push for Britain to address issues that can take us to a higher position in the global league table. It doesn’t just make sense for women – it makes sense for the whole nation.
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Seema Malhotra MP is chair of the parliamentary Labour party backbench business interest group. She tweets @SeemaMalhotra1
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