Female entrepreneurs want to help others ... and make money

WOMEN start businesses to help society rather than simply to make money, a report has found.

According to research by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 66 per cent of women said they started a business to contribute to society, compared to 39 per cent of men.

The study, which was led by Aston University in Birmingham, looked at 12,646 British adults aged 18 to 80, also found 58 per cent of women were motivated to start a business that helped others in need, compared to 38 per cent of men.

When asked if building great wealth or a very high income was a motivation for starting a business, both 58 per cent of female and male respondents answered yes.

The report comes as The Daily Telegraph’s Women Mean Business campaign has called on the Government to intervene to help female entrepreneurs in the UK.

Aston University’s Prof Mark Hart, from, who led the GEM survey in the UK, said the reasons behind the results were multi-faceted.

“Women are more altruistic and tend to engage more in volunteering and have a broader base of social motivations,” Prof Hart said.

“They are more in tune with social needs in their communities.

“It’s not that they are not interested in the money. It is money plus something else, and that is what we have seen in this report. Other data sets point to this behaviour as well.”

Prof Hart added that women were “particularly keen to set up social enterprises in the most deprived areas of England.

“Again, this is about being in touch with the community, and that sense of community matters to them, in ways that for some men [it] doesn’t,” he said.

Alison Rose, chief executive officer of commercial and private banking at Natwest, who sponsored the report, said that this year’s GEM report highlighted the different motivations that entrepreneurs have for starting their own business.

“While making money and working for yourself will always be important, making a difference to society and ‘creating meaning’ are as important, if not more, among a number of demographics, particularly women, ethnic minorities and younger people,” Ms Rose explained.

“Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the UK economy and it’s incumbent upon all of us to create an environment in which entrepreneurs can flourish.

“By understanding the motivations of the individual, we can tailor the support we provide, ensuring it meets the specific needs of the entrepreneur and their business.”