Women entrepreneurs/L'entrepreneuriat Au Feminine

Strength in Numbers Women are taking on the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship in ever-increasing numbers. Over the past two decades, Canada witnessed an increase in women's entrepreneurship of over 200%. (1) Since 1997, on average, women entered the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) marketplace at twice the rate per year as men. Figure 1 shows the percentage of businesses operating in 2002 by the year of their establishment (for example, 8.5% of majority female-owned businesses operating in 2002 were established in 1997). Women entrepreneurs outpaced men in new business start-ups, although this rate has converged since 2000. This means that women are operating newer businesses, with 39% of majority women-owned small or medium-sized enterprises having entered the market within the past five years. By 2001, nearly half of all SMEs in Canada had at least one female owner (see Figure 2). (2) Women held majority ownership (51-100% equity in the firm) in 18% of SMEs, up from a 15% share the previous year. It is these women entrepreneurs in a majority ownership position that this article will focus on in order that comparisons can be made with majority male-owned businesses. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Women's presence within the business landscape has had a noticeable impact on the Canadian economy. Almost 570,000 people were employed by majority women-owned businesses in 2001, and an additional 404,000 people were hired on contract. (3) Majority women-owned SMEs brought in combined annual revenues of $72 billion in 2000, representing approximately 8% of all revenues from Canada's SMEs. The effect of this contribution has been felt across Canada, especially in Quebec, where majority women-owned SMEs accounted for 21% of the province's SMEs in 2001. The proportion drops to a 9% low in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Throughout the Prairies, however, women's relative absence in majority ownership of firms is more than offset by the relatively higher proportion of male/female partnerships within the agricultural sector. In remaining regions of the country, women's majority ownership of firms hovers around 18% on average. Profile: Women Entrepreneurs in 2001 * 32% are under the age of 40 (compared with 21% of men) * 62% speak English, 25% speak French and 13% speak a non-official language * 1% are Aboriginal * 8% are members of a visible minority * 3% have a disability * 54% have a graduate or post-graduate education (compared with 47% of men) * 70% have more than 10 years of management experience in their business' industry (compared with 86% of men) * 56% operate their business out of their home (same as men) * 18% operate their business out of rural areas (compared with 27% of men) * 7% export their products or services outside of Canada (compared with 13% of men) Source: Statistics Canada, Survey on Financing of Small and Medium Enterprises, 2001. Smaller Scale of Operations Research has shown that size of business is one of the strongest indicators of the level of sophistication of a firm's financial and ownership structures (Baldwin, Gellatly and Gaudreault, 2002). Business size can be measured in various ways, but is most often evaluated in terms of employment size, sales or revenues, and organizational structure. In all three measures, women entrepreneurs are found to operate their businesses on a smaller scale than those owned by men: * 85% of women-owned firms are micro-businesses, employing fewer than five employees (compared with only 79% for men) (see Figure 3); * women averaged $318 000 in sales in 2000 (compared with $680,000 for men) (4); and * nearly half of women-owned businesses are sole proprietorships (compared with 39% for men). A substantial number of women are also found operating the smallest, albeit most numerous, of Canada's businesses--the self-employed. …