Almost 10 thousand more companies in 2016, with a variation of the stock compared to 2015 of +0,72%. As shown by the Unioncamere Observatory for Female Entrepreneurship, the universe of female entrepreneurs continued to grow even last year, reaching one million and 321.862 companies.
They work in trade or run farms. They manage restaurants or hotels, take care of the care and well-being of the person or interpret the Italian Style in the fashion sector in a feminine way. And they spread, going to represent today 21,8% of the total number of companies existing in our country.
Over 70% of Italian women's businesses are concentrated in five production sectors (trade, agriculture, accommodation and food services, other service activities and manufacturing). If on average the weight of women entrepreneurs is equal to just over a fifth of the total, in some productive areas their incidence is much more consistent. An emblematic case is that of the other service activities, in which women's businesses (about 120) account for more than half of the activities in this sector, excelling in personal services. The 15.200 women's healthcare businesses represent around 38% of the total and are crucial above all in residential and non-residential social assistance. In the rental sector, travel agencies and business support services, the 50 companies led by women are 26% of the total, thanks above all to the high presence among travel agencies and tour operator services. Finally, if the 97 female enterprises in the manufacturing sector represent less than 17% of the total, in some segments strongly linked to Made in Italy, female creativity finds a way to express itself at its best. This is the case of the clothing manufacturing business, an area in which women-owned businesses account for 43% of the total, as well as in the textile industries (almost 30%) and in the manufacture of leather goods (25%).
Molise, Basilicata and Abruzzo are the regions where the feminization rate reaches the highest levels while Trentino Alto Adige, Lombardy and Veneto are those in which the incidence of female enterprises on the total is lower.
If women's businesses continue to be concentrated more in the South than men's, it is interesting to note how the geographical distribution of the craft business assumes all of its peculiar characteristics. In fact, even if the"pink" craftsmanship, with its 216.708 companies registered at the end of 2016, it represents only 16% of the female entrepreneurial fabric, this segment is particularly significant in many areas of women's business.
An important case is that of manufacturing. In this sector, out of a total of 97 registered women's businesses, 57 are artisans. In practice, 58,6% of the women who lead a manufacturing company have chosen the form of the artisan company, while, among men, this incidence is equal to 53,2%. This combination of "women's business - craftsmanship" is strongly expressed in the textile sector, in the packaging of clothing items and in the manufacture of leather goods, but also in the food segment and in the manufacture of paper and paper products. Craft enterprises contribute significantly to the formation of the female entrepreneurial fabric also in the activities of information services and other information services and, within the rental sector, in activities related to services for buildings and the landscape.
Finally, in the other service activities, almost all of the women's enterprises are artisans, almost 85%.
Feminine craftsmanship has high proportions in the Marches, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy and Friuli Giulia, where about 21 women's businesses out of every 100 businesses led by women are artisans, then in Veneto, Tuscany and Piedmont, where an average of 20 out of 100 are.
