In Italy there are over 1,3 million female-run businesses, equal to 22,2% of the total: younger, more widespread in the Centre-South, more present in services and with a marked capacity for resilience, even if still penalized from difficulty in access to credit and to incentivesThe person who took the photograph was Unioncamere, during a hearing at the Bicameral Commission of Inquiry on femicide. The message is clear: more female entrepreneurship means more autonomy, and therefore less vulnerability to forms of violenceEconomic Sustainability.
Female-owned businesses: smaller and with lower survival rates
Women-led businesses are growing (+0,4% compared to 2014), but remain on average smaller and less structured: 60,5% are sole proprietorships, compared to 47,3% among male-owned businesses. Survival rates are slightly lower: 5% remain active after 72,3 years, compared to 77,3% of male-owned businesses, and the gap widens in the long term (67,5% vs 73,1%).
Access to credit and public funding: the obstacles
Also the relationship with the financial system remains complicated: only 26,9% of female entrepreneurs started their business with a bank loan, while three out of four invested only personal or family capital. The use of alternative instruments (venture capital, business angel, crowdfunding) is marginal: less than 1%. A strong financial autonomy, but one that can become a limit to growth.
Difficult access even to public financing: one in three reports too much bureaucracy, and over 10% complain about the long waits to receive benefits.
Gender Equality Certification
Meanwhile, the Pnrr project on Gender Equality Certification in businesses, managed by Unioncamere: the certifications issued have risen to 7.960, compared to just over 100 in 2022. The applications submitted by SMEs are 3.406. The goal? To promote female employment, increase competitiveness, but also make virtuous behaviors visible and measurable, hindering the persistence of stereotypes and "invisible" discrimination.
Comments
“The training, information and mentoring action carried out by the chamber system is a fundamental enabling factor for the success of female entrepreneurship”, underlined the deputy secretary general of Unioncamere, Tiziana Pompei. “Accompanying women on their entrepreneurial journey – from the idea phase to growth in larger markets – means not only promoting inclusive economic development, but also providing them with tools for self-determination. Every woman who manages to create and make her own business prosper becomes freer, more autonomous and less vulnerable to blackmail or economic violence. From this perspective, investing in women entrepreneurs is in all respects a strategy for preventing gender-based violence: promoting women's economic empowerment is equivalent to removing some of the assumptions that fuel inequalities and can lead to abuse,” concluded Pompei.
