Growth and Scaling Expectations
While women’s participation in entrepreneurship continues to grow globally, the gap widens when analyzing growth and scaling expectations for businesses. The challenge lies in ensuring that this entrepreneurship grows, generates employment, and scales.
According to the Women’s Entrepreneurship Report 2024/2025 by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), women entrepreneurs demonstrate lower growth expectations than men, reflected in less job creation, innovation, and international expansion.
- In 2024, only 22.3% of women entrepreneurs globally expected to generate a high level of employment in the next five years, compared to one in three men, highlighting a significant gap in expansion expectations.
- This difference is more pronounced in middle-income countries, where 17.7% of women anticipated job creation, compared to 28.7% of men.
The study indicates that this difference is not solely due to skills or experience but rather structural barriers limiting the growth of women-led businesses, such as limited access to financing, smaller business networks, and a greater burden of unpaid responsibilities.
To foster job creation and economic and social progress, the GEM emphasizes the importance of creating policies and programs that support business continuity and scalability for women, particularly in high-growth sectors where stereotypes may hinder their legitimacy and resource access.
Lower International Projection and Innovation
Differences also reflect international projection and innovation, according to the GEM. Only 11.8% of women entrepreneurs reported a high orientation towards exports, compared to 14.9% of men, making them approximately 20% less likely to seek external markets.
In terms of innovation, 40% of women claimed to offer innovative products or processes, compared to 44% of men. Although the gap is smaller, it remains constant and affects business differentiation and growth capacity.
Concentration in Low-Growth Service Sectors
The report found that the lower growth of women-led businesses relates to the sectors in which they operate, as most engage in service sectors, retail commerce, and personal services.
These sectors are characterized by low initial investment but limited scalability potential, higher vulnerability, and shorter life cycles compared to technology-based businesses.
Moreover, by focusing on smaller businesses and lower-margin sectors, women-led enterprises are more susceptible to economic shocks, limiting their capacity for expansion processes.
“Consequently, investors often perceive women-led businesses as higher risk or lower return, restricting their access to external capital,” the report states.
In contrast, technology and digital sectors offer greater innovation, job creation, and international expansion opportunities. However, few women venture into these areas.
The GEM report warns that despite over 30% of startups being led by women, programs are still needed to boost business growth and productivity through access to financing, business networks, and policies encouraging their participation in high-growth sectors.
Key Questions and Answers
- What does the GEM report reveal about women’s entrepreneurship? The report highlights that, despite growing numbers of women starting businesses, their ventures face challenges in growth, job creation, and international expansion compared to men-led businesses.
- What are the main barriers for women-led businesses? Structural barriers, such as limited access to financing, smaller business networks, and a greater burden of unpaid responsibilities, hinder the growth of women-led businesses.
- How do women’s entrepreneurial sectors impact their growth potential? Women tend to focus on low-growth service sectors, which have limited scalability potential and higher vulnerability to economic shocks.
- What are the implications of lower international projection and innovation among women entrepreneurs? Women are less likely to seek external markets and show slightly lower innovation rates, affecting their businesses’ differentiation and growth capacity.
- What policies does the GEM recommend to support women’s entrepreneurship? The GEM suggests creating policies and programs that back business continuity and scalability for women, especially in high-growth sectors where stereotypes may hinder their legitimacy and resource access.
