How Successful Are Female Entrepreneurs in Europe?

I’m always on the lookout for how my entrepreneurial sisters are changing the face of business around the world.

I wrote about the awesome momentum women in business in the US and Canada are achieving in this post and more recently in my spotlight on Female Entrepreneurs.

This week I want to focus on European Entrepreneurs as the facts I found were surprising: Scandinavia is stifling opportunities for women, French entrepreneurs are performing well, Slovakia is lagging behind the EU yet Hungary is keen to grow their female entrepreneurial community.

Here’s the scoop:

Scandinavia Stifles

Government monopolies are stifling entrepreneurship so much so that Scandinavian nations, especially Sweden and Denmark, are among the bottom countries when it comes to women’s share of entrepreneurs.

Apparently policy makers in Nordic countries have been attempting to increase the number of managers and female entrepreneurs in the private sector for years, with relatively little success. In Sweden, the share of companies run by women has in fact decreased during the past 20 years.

Recently the Norwegian government decided to force publicly listed firms to have at least 40% female board members or face liquidation. We’ll see how that impacts the situation.

Germany Grinds

The share of female entrepreneurs setting up businesses is increasing slowly, but women still account for only 29% of all German start-ups. There are about 520,000 companies managed by female entrepreneurs, which is 18% of all German companies but – for a range of reasons – they produce only 5.6% of the total turnover of German firms.

Even Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is unhappy with the level of female representation in the labour market and in politics. She knows her own Christian Democratic Party (CDU) has too few women in key positions with just four female ministers out of a 15-strong team. At least she’s setting an example as head of the government.

There’s a huge under-representation of women in top positions -  just 21% of senior decision-makers are female. In Germany’s 600 most important companies there’s a measly 42 women out of 1,721 board members and that’s been declining since 2005.

Jutta Glock, a very well-known professor and lawyer in Berlin argues that it is scientifically proven that companies with at least three women on their board are more successful – naturally!

France forging ahead

Despite a strong performance as entrepreneurs, women still earn on average 17.9% less than men in France. There are no female CEOs at the 40 biggest French companies and the board of directors of these companies include just 8.8% of women.

Only 29% of businesses are created by women even though they usually hold higher-level degrees, apparently because they are less experienced than male entrepreneurs and they invest less money!

The French state implemented a funding system exclusively for women in 1989 after realising that banks were more reluctant to lend them funds to start their own business.

United Kingdom unimpressive

The number of women who are self-employed has grown in recent years, but much of the growth is in women working part-time and among those focusing on more flexible working patterns to fit into domestic commitments.  I’d personally like to see this change as there’s a wealth of talented females in the UK who it to themselves to start their own businesses and take their ideas to the world.

Czech Republic courage required

Female entrepreneurs make up just 9.6% of total female employment which is pretty poor next to the 20% of working men categorised as entrepreneurs.

Most female entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic focus on providing services in areas like cosmetics, hairdressing, massage and cleaning as they do not tend to take risks according to Helena Cetlová, president of STAM, a regional organisation of female entrepreneurs and managers.

Lenka Š?astná from the Association of Female Entrepreneurs and Managers (APM) agrees that most women prefer being employed to starting up their own business as it’s too time-consuming in addition to taking care of babies. Women are also facing problems adjusting to the ways of “male business networking”.

Italy increasing

Female-run companies have been increasing at a higher rate since than those owned by men at every level with 25.5% of businesses owned by women. Compared to 2007, the small army of women managers has performed relatively better than their male colleagues, particularly in business services such as information technology, professional services and advice.

Plus research proves that companies with a stronger female presence have fared better during the economic crisis. These companies have also offered higher yields and generally performed better economically.

Yet Italian women occupy only 4% of leading positions in business, occupying just 167 out of 2,831 seats on company boards. Of the 1,200 chief financial officers (CFOs) at the most important companies in the country, only 70 are women.

Slovakia supports

In 2008, women made up around one in four of all enterprises in the Slovak Republic and they’re concentrated in the services sector, and are very rare in the industrial sector.

In Slovakia female entrepreneurship is influenced by significant regional disparities. Even though the number of new entrepreneurs in Slovakia is rising, it lags behind the rest of the EU in attracting women to start up their own business.

The economy ministry says female entrepreneurs in Slovakia have equal opportunities when trying to access state support. But organisations defending the interests of Slovak women running their own businesses expect more to be done to promote female entrepreneurship like the initiative ‘Best Female Entrepreneur of the Year’ award for promoting female entrepreneurship and motivating Slovak women to start to run their own business.

Hungary on the hunt

In Hungary 8.33% of entrepreneurs are women compared to 15.17% of men. Women are twice as willing to start individual entrepreneurial activity as men, but when it comes to heading up limited companies, men dominate the top positions, where women run just one third of large companies.

Female entrepreneurs are supported by the economy and transport ministry. Several organisations, including the Centre for Young Entrepreneurs in Budapest, use this resource to fund projects. The social affairs ministry is tyring by offering several programmes for enhancing the participation of women in public and economic life. Sadly, the presence of women in high-profile positions is not yet mainstream in Hungary.

Wondering where I got my sources from? Here’s the link.

If you’re a female entrepreneur in Europe let me know your thoughts. What’s the situation like in your country and for you personally?

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