Bridging the Finance Gap for Women Entrepreneurs

This report prepared by the OECD and the Global Women's Entrepreneurship Policy Network examines the barriers women entrepreneurs face in accessing financing for creating and growing businesses and explores the policy reforms governments can introduce to address them. The first part of the report provides international data and evidence on the rate and nature of entrepreneurship activities by women compared with men and the levels and types of finance accessed by women entrepreneurs. It further offers an international overview of the barriers to women entrepreneurship financing and the potential policy solutions. The second part of the report offers 29 country-specific policy insight notes from selected OECD and non-OECD countries prepared by academic experts. The notes cover countries such as Australia, Brazil, China, France, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Poland, Sweden, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each note is focused on a specific thematic issue and aligned with the issues in the international overview. The themes covered are influencing attitudes and culture towards women entrepreneurs, the potential of fintech innovations, the need to better-target interventions to different segments of women entrepreneurs, boosting financial literacy, leveraging angel investments, boosting microfinance, and financing growth-oriented starts.