Women Entrepreneurs Have Fewer Connections, Says Report Published

On December 15, 2011, The Global Entreprise Monitor published the 2010 Womens Report.
It highlights why women entrepreneurs can benefit from NetSHEila's Mobilize Networks training.

The purpose of the GEM Women’s report is to examine women entrepreneurs around the world. The report seeks to understand differences in the frequency and nature of women’s entrepreneurship, and makes comparisons with men across various societies.

One chapter was devoted to networks. Networks play a multifaceted role for women entrepreneurs and business owners, helping them to gain advice, form partnerships, secure financing, access qualified management and employees, and build value chain relationships.

The analysis showed that, in many economies, women entrepreneurs and business owners tended to have smaller networks than their male counterparts. Further, only in Israel did women exhibit more diverse networks than men; women in other economies reported the same or lower network diversity.

As Figure 10 of the study shows, both women and men entrepreneurs and business owners tended to seek advice most often from those with whom they had personal relationships—their private environment.
Women were more inclined to seek guidance from family, and spouses in particular. On the other hand, men tended to draw more heavily on the advice of friends. Men were also more likely to use other network sources, such as their work environment or professional advisors.

The goal of this report is to help policy makers, practitioners and educators recognize the value women entrepreneurs bring to their societies.

GEM seeks to promote better understanding about the similarities and differences between men and women entrepreneurs, as well as among various groups of women.

This report also aims to provide guidance for efforts aimed toward equipping women with the capabilities they need to launch and run their businesses and creating environments within which their ventures can thrive. Highlighted throughout this report are descriptions of different women’s entrepreneurship programs operating in a variety of societies.
This study is evidence that the NetSHEila network training for women entrepreneurs is needed, valuable and timely. You can see some of the work we did with women entrepreneurs in Africa on the blog  Reinforcing Competitiveness of Women Entrepreneurs.

Lin McDevitt-Pugh

Lin is founder of NetSHEila, a consultancy team bringing social values to enterprise initiatives. Call us on +31 6 150 48468 or write to admin@netsheila.com to see how we can work with you.