This policy brief on women in entrepreneurship was produced by the OECD and the European Commission. It explores the gender gap in entrepreneurship, the differences between male- and female-owned businesses, and the unique challenges that female entrepreneurs face when it comes to starting a business. Policy makers can support female entrepreneurs by promoting a positive attitude and female role models, offering training courses and mentoring, facilitating access to finance, and ensuring that their policies help women to participate in the labour market.

This policy brief is part of a series of documents produced by the OECD and the European Commission on inclusive entrepreneurship. The series includes policy briefs on youth entrepreneurship, senior entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, evaluation of inclusive entrepreneurship programmes, access to business start-up finance for inclusive entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship by the disabled as a well as a report on ‘The Missing Entrepreneurs’. All these documents are available in English, French and German. They are available at http://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/inclusive-entrepreneurship.htm.