Gender gap limits potential of women entrepreneurs

Gender gap is limiting economic potential of women entrepreneurs, finds a recently released global women entrepreneur leaders scorecard by Dell. More than 70 per cent of the 31 countries in the study score below 50 per cent, demonstrating a significant growth gap between female and male-owned businesses worldwide (76 per cent of global GDP is covered by the study).

United States, Canada and Australia are named the best places for female entrepreneurship. And while the US is No. 1 on the scorecard due to a favourable business environment and women's job mobility in the private sector, it still only scores 71 per cent overall. There is still a wide disparity among countries when it comes to access to fundamental resources such as education, internet, bank accounts and small and SME training programmes. The United Kingdom provides near parity in several categories with 87 per cent of women using the internet and close to 100 per cent with bank accounts.