Women’s Enterprise Scotland has called on the next Scottish Government to make commitments to support women’s enterprise.
WES, who delivers the Women’s Business Centre, has launched its manifesto. Focusing on five priority areas for positive change, it is asking the next Scottish Government to make commitments to support women’s enterprise. This includes greater access to finance and ensuring that business support services are more aware of women’s needs
Five priority areas for positive change
Access to finance
a specific fund to be established which is dedicated to women-owned businesses
Gender aware business support
greater access to support with a National Women’s Business Centre
Digital inclusion
targeting gender stereotyping in education and funding to improve women’s tech entrepreneurship
Improved data collection
improvements to gender disaggregated data provision
A gender equal economy
the implementation of a caring economy based on gender equality, wellbeing and sustainability
This call to action will help build a sustainable and more equal economy which addresses the needs and closes the gender gap of women in business.
See the ‘Manifesto for Change’
Businesses which are majority-owned by women currently contribute £8.8bn to the Scottish economy every year and account for over 231,000 jobs, which is 13% of the private sector total in Scotland (1).
Years of progress have now stalled, with the number of women-led businesses in Scotland declining over two consecutive years from 20.6% in 2017 to 14% in 2019 (2).
1 Women in Enterprise: the Economic Case (Federation of Small Businesses) 2018
2 Small Business Survey Scotland (2019)
With it being International Women’s Day on 8 March, there is no better time to champion gender equality, call for change, and show our support for women around the world.
