Female entrepreneurship: Key learnings

Webinar

15 November 2024

By Platform

On 12 November 2024, the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform hosted a webinar on female entrepreneurship.

Webinar recording

Webinar agenda

Navigate the agenda below to the topic of your interest.

The webinar has been designed and moderated by Mart Veliste and Rene Tonnisson, Thematic Experts for a Smarter Europe.

00:00:59 Introduction by Mart Veliste to the topic

00:11:05 Keynote speech by Eva Merloni about the WeGate network

00:23:54 Q&A: How can one become a gate in your community? Do you have certain criteria in place?

00:26:38 Q&A: You mentioned you do an annual barometer survey, what was the most surprising result from last year's survey?

00:29:10 Q&A: You mention your network is self-sustainable and works with membership fees, however what other financial instruments do you have?

00:31:45 Q&A: You mentioned internal constraints that women put on themselves, could you elaborate on that?

00:33:55 Presentation by Carla Oulid Aissa Hauser on Elles Osent en Grand Est

00:39:55 Q&A:What are the keys to daring that you mentioned in your presentation?

00:41:20 Q&A: Could you tell me about the international dimension of the programme?

00:42:57 Q&A: What is the balance between business administration and self-development and motivation?

00:45:00 Q&A: How did you use to finance the collaboration with Quebec?

00:50:08 Presentation by Stacey Phelan on Gender-based business supports to encourage engagement – Powerhouse Women in Business Network

00:57:59 Q&A:What has been the biggest lesson or takeaway when implementing the Powerhouse?

01:00:01 Q&A: What is the international and European dimension of the network?

01:01:57 Q&A: What is the balance between business administration and self-development and motivation? Panel discussion

01:03:47 Q&A:Are there also programmes that support female entrepreneurs in parenting? And are partners and men also included somehow to help delegate parental tasks?

01:06:56 Q&A: What is the important component that should be there when you do business support for female entrepreneurs?

01:13:20 Q&A:The topic of female entrepreneurs could be more broadly addressed, by e.g. investors and policymakers. How can we make the topic more inclusive?

01:19:49 Q&A: How can the general business community step in and make a structural change?

Key learnings

Women comprise over half of the European population but only 34% of the self-employed and 30% of start-up entrepreneurs. Encouraging women to become entrepreneurs is not only needed to make economies fairer but can also increase economic development by bringing more bright ideas to the market.

Female entrepreneurs can provide society with different solutions to management, employment and other business problems.
The challenges around female entrepreneurship are not on the women as such but on the system dominated by men. The system needs improvement so it would be more natural for women to take on entrepreneurship and to get unbiased support from policymakers, business support organisations and the investor community.

However, this need for change needs to be internalized by men as well. It is not enough for women to “empower themselves”. A guide to policymakers in eliminating systemic barriers is the WEbarometer, a pan-European survey conducted annually by WEgate.
A characteristic common in programmes supporting female entrepreneurs is a specific emphasis on encouragement and a push to boost the self-belief of female entrepreneurs.

Considering that there are many obstacles on top of the usual challenges associated with setting up or running a company that only female entrepreneurs face (biases in the system, societal expectations for female roles in the family, etc), the sharing of success stories and getting peer support is more needed than perhaps for male entrepreneurs.
The last point also feeds into the necessity to have a good programme or community manager, someone who is a personable person who is also able to be empathetic and provide friendship while also of course bringing in a large professional network.

However, that is not to say that those programmes would not also provide skills training on usual business management topics.
Programmes focused on women also need to be aware that, while regional differences exist around Europe, they still tend to be the ones who are more in charge of family matters, which means that more flexible programmes where occasional absences are accepted or where sessions are held at the end of the workday would enable more women to take part.

Providing some further support with childcare, e.g. an opportunity to delegate parental and family tasks to somebody else during a training session, can go a long way. At the same time, the entrepreneurial journey is also often pursued by women as it can provide greater flexibility to manage work and family responsibilities.