Female company founders on the rise
Switzerland is still experiencing something of a start-up boom. More and more companies are being founded by women. A study by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW shows that there are now twice as many female company founders as 20 years ago.
The majority of entrepreneurs are still men. But female entrepreneurs are gaining ground in the start-up scene. This is shown by the study "Female Entrepreneurship: Unternehmensgründungen von Frauen im Fokus" conducted by the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW for the third time after 1999 and 2009. The results show that the proportion of female company founders has doubled to 31.6 percent in the last 20 years. This means that almost every third company is now founded by a woman.
Women business founders are different...
However, women differ from men in some respects when it comes to starting a business. For example, female entrepreneurs are less likely to be aged 50+. They are also less likely to have university degrees. However, this should even out due to today's female majority at universities, according to the study's assessment. The data also show that women are more cautious when starting a business. They prepare better and more intensively when it comes to the various issues involved in starting a business, have more side jobs and start smaller and less innovative companies.
Overall, both female and male founders consider themselves successful and have a positive outlook on the future. There is a striking difference in the wages of female founders. In 72% of the cases, this is lower than in a comparable salaried employment, while for the founders it is only 52%. Nevertheless, there is a high degree of satisfaction among female founders. This is because they see their goals achieved: to pursue a meaningful activity, to be independent and to realize their own potential.
Female entrepreneurship needs further support
So everything's hunky-dory? Not quite, according to the study authors. There is still room for improvement. More female role models are needed in the startup scene and in the media. These could contribute to raising awareness of female entrepreneurship. "It needs the involvement of a wide variety of female and male actors in the entrepreneurial ecosystem," the study notes. It is still necessary to break through traditional role models and gender-specific stereotypes so that a natural affinity for both self-employment and professions in start-up-intensive industries can develop. The opportunities that digitization offers for female entrepreneurs, for example, were also highlighted about a year ago by the a study of another university of applied sciences examined.
Reduce inhibition thresholds
In addition to raising awareness, measures are needed to relieve women of family work. After all, starting a business requires resources that are not always easy to combine with family life. More offers for childcare and the inclusion of the life partner are therefore obvious. It would also be desirable to provide more support for programs for female entrepreneurs. Last but not least, women themselves need to make better use of their own entrepreneurial potential: according to the study, networking, finding co-founders or outsourcing work could help overcome knowledge deficits or uncertainties and compensate for fluctuations in orders. This could reduce further barriers to self-employment.
Source: University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW - School of Management
