It’s a great time to start and grow ventures for woman entrepreneurs in the United States and Europe. But the picture is not quite so bright for women in many other parts of the world.
This year’s Female Entrepreneurship Index, which is compiled and released by the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute, once again finds that America offers the most supportive ecosystem for women business owners. This determination followed an extensive review of 77 countries using “an established theoretical framework to measure entrepreneurial environment ecosystems and individual aspirations.”
GEDI gives each country a score between 0 and 100, and it gave the United States an 82.9. The rest of top five include Australia, the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Netherlands, while other European nations, including France and Iceland, round out the top ten. All of these countries received scores above 65. And the good news in these countries doesn’t end there: Women business owners are said to be earning more degrees, and researchers noted an uptick in “gazelles,” which are fast-growing women-run companies.
Yet despite the positive trends, there are also causes for concern. Perhaps the most sobering statistic? Some 47 of the 77 nations studied received a score of less than 50, or more than 60 percent of all countries reviewed. Latin American countries, in particular, actually regressed, with GEDI noting that “Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, and Panama all dropped by at least 5 ranks.”
Moreover, female entrepreneurial engagement in the global technology industry has decreased, according to GEDI.
In addition to highlighting advances and setbacks this year, the report also offers recommendations on how various regions can better their environments for female entrepreneurs ranging from increased access to financial training for women in Sub-Saharan Africa to bolstering skills-related confidence for East Asian women.
To read more about the state of female entrepreneurship throughout the world, download the full report here, and check out their accompanying infographic below:
