Within the framework of our participation in the FEMACT-Cities project, we at the County Administrative Board of Skåne primarily work on how we can increase the proportion of female entrepreneurs and how the amount of venture capital that goes to female entrepreneurs can be higher.
Women and men have differing motives for engaging in the entrepreneurial activity of managing a business. Women tend to prioritize self-fulfillment, a flexible work–family balance, and professional development, whereas men seem to be motivated by financial success and profit.
30 percent of business owners in Sweden are women, 70 percent are men. We can see a positive movement, but it is very slow (approx. 0.25 percentage points per year). Equal ownership of companies will be achieved in 80 years from now!
Sweden is characterized by high employment among both women and men. This is a result of our systems around, among other things, social insurance and childcare. Equality in the labor market has been an important issue for a long time, and the differences in labor market outcomes, such as wages and different types of leadership positions, have also decreased sharply in the 21st century. Today, we place ourselves at the top of both the EU's and the UN's gender equality index.
The entrepreneurship gap, on the other hand, has remained largely unchanged. In the EU, only Slovakia, Malta and Romania have a greater difference in entrepreneurship.
Do women have less ability or less innovative ideas in Sweden? There is no indication that this would be the case. On the contrary, compared to other small European countries, a majority of women in Sweden see good business opportunities. Market economic and psychological research also finds no major differences between women and men when it comes to entrepreneurial ability.
On the other hand, there are differences between women and men at the group level which can explain why the proportion of entrepreneurs can be higher among men than women in general. For example, more men than women tend to have higher confidence in their own abilities, less fear of failure and higher risk-taking propensity. Since these group differences exist in all countries, however, they cannot explain why the entrepreneurship gap is so large in Sweden in particular.
The issue is important from a socio-economic perspective. If the entrepreneurship gap is due to direct or indirect obstacles linked to, for example, the policies pursued, we miss out on companies and innovations that create jobs and growth power in the Swedish economy. In other words, parts of the entrepreneurship gap can be about women who are fundamentally prepared to expose themselves to the risks and competition involved in running a business, but who, due to the policies pursued in various areas, instead refrain or lower their level of ambition.
As mentioned 30 percent of entrepreneurs in Sweden are women, and among entrepreneurs with employees the figure is significantly lower, around one fifth. At the same time, there are industries where women are in the majority. Services, healthcare and education are examples of industries where over 50 percent of the entrepreneurs are women. These are industries where women dominate, also in terms of educational choices and among employees.
It is not particularly surprising that entrepreneurship follows the same pattern as we see in education and in the workforce. It is common for both men and women to start and run companies in industries they have knowledge of and experience from before. For a long time, Sweden have worked to achieve equal opportunities and conditions for women and men in education and employment. But what does it look like for women's entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship in female-dominated industries?
One observation is that it is important to be able to finance your company, not least in the start-up phase. Many probably think that it is via bank loans that this happens, which was also common until the mid-2000s. Today, however, less than 8 percent of start-up companies have bank loans. Tougher regulations and more expensive processes set the hook for companies in general, but especially for smaller companies with few employees and low real capital, which is often the case for companies in the service sector, where women are mainly active.
Another reflection is that the Swedish welfare systems are designed for people who are employed and have a steady flow of income. Several investigations have shown that accessibility to the social insurance systems is lacking for entrepreneurs in particular, which increases the risk of being left without support in the event of illness, parenthood or unemployment.
This is of course problematic for all business owners, men and women alike, but it hits women harder because it is more common among women to be on parental leave or sick leave at some point in their lives, for example. The risk of being an entrepreneur compared to employment is then automatically higher.
The point is that we in Sweden seem to forget an obvious part of equality when we talk about women's and men's equal conditions and opportunities in society. There is no indication that women would have a lower ability to run a business than men, and roughly the same percentage of women as men see good business opportunities. Yet we seem to allow the conditions for running a business to differ. It is too expensive a mistake for our society, growth and competitiveness, to forget about business as a gender equality issue.
We believe that a society is at its best when women and men have equal opportunity to influence their lives and society's development.
Access to capital and personal financial endurance creates freedom and the opportunity to, for example, realize ideas and innovations. The fact that at today's rate it will take 80 years before we achieve equal ownership of our companies shows a great opportunity for Sweden. There is so much innovation and entrepreneurship to unleash to drive development forward. A diversification of ownership enables more people to be involved and create a better society, for everyone.
Jörgen Dehlin, Project curator
Department of Community Affairs
jorgen.dehlin@lansstyrelsen.se
1 Sources for the article:
• Shqipe Gashi Nulleshi: “Contextualizing Entrepreneurship and Gender - A Life-Story Approach to Rural Family Businesses in Sweden”, Linné University, Växjö, 2023.
• Ownershift: ”Vem äger företagen? En kartläggning av kvinnors ägande av svenska företag”, 2023.
• ESBRI, Isabelle Galte Schermer och Nikolay Angelov: ”Företagandet – den bortglömda jämställdhetsfrågan”, 2024.