Gender equality, defined as the equal access to rights, responsibilities and opportunities for women and men, is an extremely crucial topic. Besides being a fundamental human right, it is also essential to “achieve peaceful societies, with full human potential and sustainable development”, as the United Nations puts it. Numerous organizations are fighting for the cause and there have been major milestones over time, including the creation of United Nations Women in July 2010, an entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. According to UN Women, thanks to the Beijing Platform for Action, a program that focused on gender equality and the empowerment of all women, more girls are in school than ever before and, since 1995, 131 countries have passed 274 regulatory reforms that support gender equality.

While some progress has been made, there are still major discrepancies in gender equality around the globe, including in entrepreneurship, as more men start businesses than women. Low income countries show the smallest gender gap yet women still create 20% less businesses than men4 and, globally, only one in three companies are owned by women on average according to data gathered by the World Bank Gender Data Portal. This number goes up to almost 50% in the regions of East & Pacific Asia and Latin America & the Caribbean, but fluctuates around only 20% in regions such as MENA and South Asia.

With this report, Seedstars aims to encourage other organizations to develop support ecosystems and invest in women entrepreneurship.

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