Why do we still need dedicated business support for women?

Nearly 49 years ago, the Equal Pay Act was passed, prohibiting unequal pay and working conditions between men and women. Half a decade later, women in the UK have more opportunities than ever to start, grow and lead a business. In the last 12 months alone, I’ve worked with lots of female business owners, mentors and mentees. A cursory glance over the modern UK workplace might suggest that we have achieved gender equality.

However, just the briefest scratch of the surface reveals that there is still a huge amount to be done. This International Women’s Day (8 March) the headlines and messages still call for equal pay, equal rights and equal opportunities. There’s still a long way to go. 

A  report by PwC indicates that the UK has been ‘sluggish’ in empowering women in the workplace, trailing behind countries like Poland, Sweden and Norway. Although progress is being made to support women in the UK, it’s frustrating to see that we’re not moving as quickly as other countries. 

This lack of empowerment also appears to be stopping many women from pursuing their dream of owning and scaling their own business. Facebook’s research to inform its #SheMeansBusiness programme revealed that a lack of confidence and role models is still holding back female entrepreneurs.  Eight out of ten of the would-be female entrepreneurs surveyed said having a relatable role model would inspire them to start a business - but only a third could think of a business role model that inspires them. 

This means that there are so many potential female-led businesses that are never becoming more than a dream. No wonder the vast majority of UK businesses are majority male owned.

Today’s release of the Rose Review states that the advancement of female entrepreneurs is a £250bn opportunity for the UK economy particularly in underrepresented areas such as manufacturing, IT, financial and transportation.  It also recommends increasing funding for women who want to start their own business and providing greater family care support so more women can reach their goals.

At GC Business Growth Hub, we will be using the contents of this this review to help us inform the development of our startup and scaleup support and will be launching female focused programmes later in the year to encourage more women to start and scale their own businesses.

We’ve also been heartened to see just how many amazing female business owners genuinely want to support other women, sharing their experiences and knowledge to make the path to success just a little smoother for the next generation of female entrepreneurs. 

Last year for IWD18 we supported the #Womanchester initiative which culminated in a female speed-mentoring event which was hosted by Tech Manchester, NatWest and GC Business Growth Hub which brought the greatest concentration of female expertise together for aspiring female founders across any industry.  As a result of this we had more females become mentors for our own mentoring programme but we still need more.

Organisations must continue to provide support dedicated to supporting women in business, to ensure that we accelerate female entrepreneurship and grow our economy in a more sustainable, fairer way for all.

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