Women-owned businesses grow faster than men's ones, are more innovative and are located above all in the South, which gives us hope that thanks to women it will be possible to at least partially reduce the gap between North and South. The crisis triggered by the Covid-19 XNUMX, however, is putting them to the test, causing a more marked slowdown than that recorded by companies led by men. These are the most striking data that emerge from the IV report on female entrepreneurship drawn up by Unioncamere.
In detail, companies led by women in Italy have reached 1 million and 340 thousand, 22% of the total. Over the past 5 years, according to the report, they have shown a more intense growth, and by a lot, compared to the male ones: +2,9% versus +0,3%.
Not only that, in absolute values the increase in women's businesses was more than three times that of men's businesses: +38.080 against +12.704. "In practice, women-owned businesses have contributed to as much as 75% of the overall increase of all businesses in Italy, equal to +50.784 units", underlines Unioncamere.
From a sectoral point of view, companies led by women are growing especially in more innovative sectors and with a greater intensity than men's enterprises, such as
scientific and technical professional activities (+17,4% against +9,3% for men), IT and telecommunications (+9,1%, against +8,9% for men).
Moving on to geography, Lazio (+7,1%), Campania (+5,4%), Calabria (+5,3%), Trentino (+5%), Sicily (+4,9%), Lombardy (+4%) and Sardinia (+3,8%) are the regions in which female-owned companies increase above the average, even if in terms of territorial incidence, on the total number of companies, at the top of the ranking are three regions of the South (Molise, Basilicata and Abruzzo), followed by Umbria, Sicily and Val d'Aosta.
"In front of Covid, however, many aspiring entrepreneurs must have deemed it appropriate to stop and wait for a more propitious moment”, comments Unioncamere. In the second quarter of 2020, there were 10 thousand fewer registrations of new female businesses than in the same period of the previous year. In percentage terms, this is a drop of -42,3%, a figure higher than that recorded by men's businesses (-35,2%). "Partly as a result of this slowdown in registrations, which was affected by the lockdown, at the end of June the universe of women's businesses was almost 5 thousand fewer than last year", continues Unioncamere.
"Female entrepreneurship is one of the strategic sectors to be promoted, both for the development of the country and for the achievement of full female empowerment also in the working context". This is what the Minister for Equal Opportunities and the Family declares, Elena Bonetti, who adds “we need to support and encourage the presence of women in SMEs, a privileged sector for women's work. We have therefore identified, as the Equal Opportunities Department, three directions of intervention: access to credit and financial training, for which since the beginning of the health crisis we have already increased the fund allocated to credit for female SMEs by 5 million euros; a national digital training plan, with particular attention to the sectors and categories of women entrepreneurs, who are most excluded from these training courses; incentivized promotion, among women-run businesses, and sharing of welfare and reconciliation tools between family and working life"".
"In Italy there are more than one million and three hundred thousand women's businesses that grow a little more every year than the others", underlined the president of Unioncamere, Charles Sangalli. “During the emergency period, however, we saw a slowdown in the birth of these businesses, testifying to the fact that the greatest burden in those difficult phases fell and falls on the shoulders of women. This is also why we need to strengthen the tools that are useful for supporting women in giving birth and growing their businesses".
Going back to the data, the most substantial reduction in the number of new businesses is recorded above all in the North (-47%), while the South stops at -34,1%. A decline that not only jeopardizes the road that will lead to bridging the Italian gender gap, but which also risks slowing down the renewal process that has been taking place in recent years in the younger generations.
