The
Industrial Society has urged the Government to offer more support to female
entrepreneurs and called for the formation of a National Centre for Women’s
Enterprise.
The
society has also called for a raft of other measures for businesswomen
including improved national policies, business support, a women’s business
charter, better access to finance and an office for women’s business ownership.
The
call follows a new report – Unequal Entrepreneurs: Why female enterprise is an
uphill struggle – which paints a bleak picture of the opportunities for women
starting their own business.
Women
make up only 26 per cent of the UK’s self-employed, a figure which has been
static since 1990.
The
report also states that women who succeeded in starting businesses face sexual
stereotyping and have to rely more heavily on their personal savings than men.
“In
the British labour market, women are still second-class citizens. They lag
behind men in terms of pay, promotion, benefits and more. They are drastically
under-represented in management, and routinely invisible in the boardroom,”
claimed Industrial Society chief executive Will Hutton.
The
figures show that women business owners have less access to start-up capital,
less management experience and are often younger than their male counterparts –
43 per cent are under 44 compared to 30 per cent of men.
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