More than 130,000 women became their own bosses over the past year, helping to generate £130bn for British business, industry minister Jacqui Smith announced today.
Although around 26 per cent of all self-employed people are women, they remain the largest under-represented group in terms of business enterprise, according to the Labour Force Survey (Office of National Statistics 2003).
Smith said the figures were a step in the right direction, but there was still a vast wealth of untapped talent and economic opportunity among women in the UK.
“Comparisons make stark reading,” she said. “If women started businesses at the same rate as men, the UK would have 150,000 new firms a year. And if the UK had the same levels of female entrepreneurship as the US, there would be around 750,000 additional businesses in the UK.”
