Promoting women entrepreneurship in European regions – opening doors to a brighter future

A joint event of the AER Committee on Economy and Regional Development (1) and the AER Standing Committee on Equal Opportunities.

The number of women who are self-employed across Europe is much smaller than that of men and the number of women entrepreneurs with employees is even smaller. In 2005 only 8,6% of the total number of women in work were self-employed. This was only half of the proportion of men in work who were self-employed (Source: Eurostat).

Entrepreneurial activities are an important factor in creating and increasing employment opportunities and fuelling economic growth. Entrepreneurship also plays a crucial part in the transition process in Eastern Europe being an important source of job creation, opening career opportunities for women and men.
 
However, men traditionally have had better opportunities for self-employment as women face more constraints than men in developing their businesses. These constraints include less access to credit and larger markets; mobility constraints; more workload in the family and household; lack of networks needed to facilitate business development; and lack of know-how concerning ICT, corporate and public sector procurement. Traditional attitudes towards the gender role and unfavorable social climate have also constrained women entrepreneurs.

This conference  aimed at creating an understanding and building up a knowledge concerning women entrepreneurship. It examined the particularities of women entrepreneurship from a theoretical and practical perspective by presenting relevant studies and examples of women running a business. Further more regional good practice in supporting women entrepreneurship were presented, e.g. training courses, advisory services or awareness raising campaigns. AER member regions had the opportunity to:

• Develop an understanding for women entrepreneurship,
• Explore what measures can be taken to improve the regional climate for women entrepreneurs,
• Learn how they can support women who want to develop entrepreneurial activity and
• Exchange experience with other European regions on this issue,

This conference was followed by an AER Training Academy on women entrepreneurship on June 2-3, 2010, which built up on this conference with the aim to give regional politicians and officers an in depth view on support schemes from different European regions and help them to develop their own support programs.

In collaboration with the region of Istanbul and the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce.