Take concrete steps to close the gender gap
Women entrepreneurs can boost our economy, writes Prabha Mitchell
Saskatchewan is a province of firsts.
Medicare, ATMS, air seeders, air ambulances, wind turbines, even Girl Guide cookies — they all got their start here.
Women Entrepreneurs Saskatchewan (WESK) has just released the first public report on women entrepreneurship in Canada. What did we learn?
Only 13.7 per cent of small businesses in Saskatchewan are majority female-owned, compared to 15.7 per cent nationally and 17 per cent in the top two provinces, Ontario and B.C.
Forty-two per cent of women entrepreneurs said financing and access to capital is their biggest hurdle. Not only are women business owners less likely to seek external credit, they’re almost twice as likely to be rejected for a loan because of insufficient collateral. We know undercapitalized businesses fail. They have difficulty hiring employees, creating new products and services, and growing.
Women entrepreneurs lack networks, mentors and training — three critical drivers for business success. Twenty-seven per cent of female entrepreneurs who participated in mentoring programs reported easy access to funding, compared to 19 per cent overall.
While women entrepreneurs tend to be more educated than men, they lag behind in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) degrees. For every four STEM graduates, there is only one woman — and only six per cent of tech founders are female.
Immigrants are much more likely to become entrepreneurs than non-immigrants. And female small business owners are slightly more likely to be born outside Canada than male owners (25 per cent vs. 20 per cent).
With 16 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population Indigenous (compared to five per cent nationally), identifying and addressing the barriers Indigenous women confront in starting and growing a business here is critical.
So what can you do to close the gender gap?
Closing the gender gap is an immense economic opportunity for us all, with the potential to add $150420 billion to the Canadian economy by 2026.
Government & Policy-makers: ■ WESK urges our provincial government to create an Action Plan for Women Entrepreneurs to boost economic growth.
Founders, CEOS & Leaders:
■
Diversity boosts innovation and growth. Recruit women as business partners. Hire talented women. Create opportunities for women to scale their business, career and skills. If you’re a male leader, “sponsor” a woman entrepreneur. Create opportunities for women to be mentored or directly mentor women. If you’re a female entrepreneur, be the mentor you wish you had.
Boards: Set a target to
■ recruit more women. Then start!
Lenders & Investors: Fund
■ women-owned businesses. Make the terms fair. Talk to your team about conscious and unconscious bias. Prabha Mitchell is the CEO of Women Entrepreneurs Saskatchewan.