This sounds great but based on the recent independent review of women’s entrepreneurship in Scotland, we remain far from equity in founding and leading entrepreneurial ventures. Produced by Ana Stewart, the founder of IT firm i-design, and Mark Logan, chief entrepreneurial advisor to the Scottish Government, the Pathways report doesn’t shy away from the real challenges faced by women entrepreneurs.

Using a robust mix of quantitative and qualitative data, it shines a stark light on women's low levels of participation in business ownership in Scotland and highlights reasons for this. Having researched women’s enterprise for more than two decades and worked with female founders to support their ventures, I viewed the report’s findings and 31 recommendations with both a heavy heart and a sense that something positive might happen. There’s an exciting possibility that the dial might shift to an entrepreneurial ecosystem that provides female and under-represented founders with equal access to the resources and support needed to establish thriving businesses.

The Scottish Government needs to support the recommendations in the same positive manner it responded to the Scottish Tech Ecosystem Review, also authored by Mark Logan. Relevant institutions and actors must also collaborate and act on the recommendations.

The report states that only 20 per cent of all firms incorporated in Scotland in 2022 were female-led. As a proportion of all active businesses, the figure is even less inspiring: 16.06 per cent, slightly below the UK figure of 17.65 per cent. This echoes the most recent Scaleup Index, which shows that 16 per cent of visible UK scaleups have at least one female founder; even this low figure is up 30 per cent since 2020.

Sadly, this is not new. Professor Tom Cannon recently reflected that, since he and Professor Sara Carter published Women as Entrepreneurs in 1992, low participation has endured, despite growing research and policy interest. While the number of small firms in the UK has grown from around 2.5 million then to around 5.5 million now, only between 15-17.6 per cent have been women-led at any given time.

The report highlights the multiple demands that fall disproportionately on women – work, caring, domestic management, family – which can be difficult to combine with the intensity of starting up and growing a business. It also recognises challenges which women and others under-represented in business ownership face when accessing the often ‘invisible’ networks where entrepreneurship ‘happens’, and nuanced challenges such as not being identified as a ‘credible’ entrepreneur.

Like the UK Treasury-commissioned Rose Review, it highlights significant obstacles women-led ventures face when it comes to finance; over the last year or so, female-led businesses made up just 12 per cent of companies receiving investment, while male-led firms accounted for 73 per cent.

Ana Stewart, the founder of IT firm i-design, was a co-author of an independent review of women’s entrepreneurship in Scotland (Picture: Stewart Attwood)

The report’s recommendations should be considered an integrated set of actions which collectively can drive the systems-wide changes needed for the economic, social, community and sustainability benefits that diverse entrepreneurial ecosystems create. Recommendations including ‘Concept’ and ‘Journey’ funds will address the funding challenges responsible for many under-represented entrepreneurs dropping out of the ecosystem despite the compelling propositions they have built.

This report, alongside many other reviews and initiatives, is important and timely. All recognise the distinctive challenges women face as entrepreneurs and the need for a systems-wide approach to unlock and realise women-led firms’ significant potential. We need more and better data to understand who engages in entrepreneurship and who is under-represented. The Gender Index recommends this measure, with a platform to track progress towards full representation in entrepreneurship. With this, we can develop an evidence-based process of continuous improvement.

Only by working together can we create an ecosystem which equalises opportunities and enables all entrepreneurs to grow new ventures that contribute economically, socially, and environmentally. This type of environment is good for business and for Scotland’s citizens; to know this and do nothing, or too little, is irresponsible. By not taking the necessary actions, we are complicit in maintaining out-of-date norms, cultures and behaviours and are severely letting down the talent, ambition and purpose of young people and generations to come.

Professor Eleanor Shaw OBE is associate principal of the University of Strathclyde

International Women’s Day: Women must have equal opportunities to become business entrepreneurs – Professor Eleanor Shaw

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