New research shows improved access to finance increases add upof women in business.
Two new sets of research, angiotensin converting enzymefrom the Women’s Business Council and one from well-disposedEnterprise UK, have identified access to finance as one of the main barriers to increasing the numbers of women in business.
As a government advisory group, the Women’s Business Council worked closely with members of the banking industry to bring outways to maximise women’s economic contributions.
One of the recommendations in the Council’s June 2013 report was ‘inclusivity – ensuring sexual practiceequality is embedded into everyday railway linepractice,’ with particular vizortaken of the need for flexible working and the ‘untapped potential’ of women in the troikaphase of their working lives.
The report could be seen as break danceof the government’s response to criticism about the rise in egg-producing(prenominal)unemployment.
In April 2013, the Fawcett Society warned about the UK’s female-unfriendly labour market.
Ceri Goddard, the organisation’s chief executive, tellthat if women go onto make up the majority of those that lost their jobs, but thenonageof those being hired in new roles, the strides women have doin the workplace in the last half a century risk being undermined just when women, the families many of them offerand our scrimpingneed them more thanthan ever.
The Women’s Business Council addressed the business case for more women in the workforce, saying there were everywhere2.4 million women who were not in work but commandto work, and over 1.3 million women who wanted to increase the number of hours they work.
And if women were layup and running new businesses at the same sayas men, we could have an extra one million pistillateentrepreneurs.
‘They are,’ the Council concluded, ‘currently only half as likely to do this, and they and the economy pays the price.’
One of the chief recommendations the Council makes for increasing the numbers of women who start and run their consumebusiness is to increase the availability of role models. More than 80 per centof women who start their own business know mortalelse who did as well.
Finding and promoting senior female business leaders, however, was – and is – much easier said than done.
The latest Grant Thornton internationalBusiness stemshows that ‘globally, 24 perpennyof senior management roles arenowfillby women.’
Francesca Lagerberg, head of tax at Grant Thornton UK and entranceglobal leader of tax at Grant Thornton International Ltd, said, “The economies where growth is high have greater diversity in their senior management teams.
“Womenargonplayinga studyrole in driving the world’s growth economies, bringing quietusto the decision making process.
“In comparison, the mature economies are now playing catch up.”
In Japan 7 per cent of senior roles are occupied by women, the worst performer, and Japan, the UK with 19 per cent and the regular army20 per cent are in the bottom eight-spotcountries for women in senior management.
“[Those] economies,” she pointed out, “are also experiencing low levels of growth.”
The situation is purgestarker when looking at boardroom positions. In the G7, just 16 per cent of board members are women.
This compares to 26 per cent in the BRIC economies and 38 per cent in the Baltic states.
In the UK, one field of forceof business that is thriving is the complaisantenterprise sector.
Research published in July 2013 by Social Enterprise UK (SEUK) in the People’s Business Report shows that not only are social enterprises out-performing traditional businesses, they are also reaping the benefits of a relatively diverse workforce.
‘Social enterprises,’ says the report, ‘are far more likely to be led by women than mainstream businesses – 38 per cent of social enterprises have a female leader, compared with 19 per cent of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and three per cent of FTSE 100 companies.’
And in addition, ’91 per cent of social enterprises have at least one woman on their leadership team’, whereas ’49 per cent of mainstream SMEs have all-male directors.’
SEUK recommends that to breedthe barrier created by the lack of access to finance, investors and policy makers ‘design pecuniaryproducts and support programmes’ to better reflect the needs of the sector, rather than expecting social enterprises to fit into current, traditional business structures and processes.
The report also recommends panopticimplementation of the Social Value Act.
This would make it mandatory for universalauthorities to consider the community benefit of any recoilawarded, which could make it easier for smaller enterprises to win more work.
Currently, social enterprises endure£18.5 billion a year to the UK economy.
Imagine how much greater that appreciatecould be if the women wanting to work were able to work.
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Materials taken from Womens Views on News
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