WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN
EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
Sarosh Sattar
Europe and Central Asia Region
April 28, 2010
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
How to think about entrepreneurship?
 Some preliminary findings for ECA
 Important – and unanswered – questions

2
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
WHY SHOULD WE CARE AND
WHAT DO WE MEAN?
3
WHY CARE ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP?

Entrepreneurship
contributes to economic growth
 leaps in human progress
 offers potential of greater wealth and upward
mobility
 provides an alternative to wage employment

4
DEFINING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Who is an entrepreneur?





Anyone who is working for themselves and retains
profits
Anyone who owns an enterprise with workers
Anyone who owns an enterprise with workers for at
least 1-3 years
Anyone who owns a business and is an innovator
Any one who has a strategic voice in an enterprise
(e.g., top manager)
 An
entrepreneur
Out of necessity
 A career choice

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DO THESE FACTORS INFLUENCE ENTRY
INTO ENTREPRENEURSHIP?
Education
 Family structure

Presence of dependents
 Presence of a male income earner in household
 Availability of child care


Networks

Information, access, and role models
Risk perception
 Rewards


Autonomy, financial success, and status
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QUANTIFYING
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
OVERVIEW OF MEN AND WOMEN IN THE
LABOR MARKET IN ECA
10.0
9.2
(in % growth from 2000-07)
9.0
8.0
6.5
7.0
6.0
5.4
5.0
4.0
4.0
3.8
3.7
3.0
2.0
1.0
-
Working Age
Population
Labor Force
Employment
8
Female
Male
EU
Wage employment
Balkan
CIS-low
Self employment
Turkey
Ukraine
Russia
Kazakhstan
Belarus
Uzbekistan
Tajikistan
Moldova
Kyrgyzstan
Georgia
Azerbaijan
Armenia
Serbia
Montenegro
Macedonia
Croatia
Bosnia
Albania
Slovenia
Slovakia
Romania
Poland
Lithuania
Latvia
Hungary
Estonia
Czech Rep
Bulgaria
% of females / % of males in wage or self
employment
WOMEN ARE MOSTLY IN WAGE
EMPLOYMENT
2.00
1.80
1.60
1.40
1.20
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
-
CIS-mid Other
9
OPPORTUNITY TO NECESSITY RATIO
10
WOMEN RUN SMALLER OPERATIONS
% of firms (self
employed)
Breakdown of establishments (self employed /
partially or fully owned company) by gender and
firm size
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
more than 5
1 to 5
Own Account firm
(no hired employees)
# of employees excluding household members
Female
Male
11
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: NEW AND OLD
12
PREVALENCE RATES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
(IN % OF ADULT COHORT)
13
FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS AS SHARE OF TOTAL
FORMAL ENTERPRISES, 3+ YEARS OLD
L a tv ia
Hu n g a r y
G e o r g ia
B u lg a r ia
K a z a kh s ta n
Ukr a in e
S lo v e n ia
Es to n ia
Po la n d
Ru s s ia
Ro ma n ia
Mo ld o v a
K y r g y z s ta n
L ith u a n ia
B o s n ia
FY RO M
B e la r u s
Ta jikis ta n
Cz e c h
Cr o a tia
S lo v a kia
Y u g o s la v ia
Uz b e kis ta n
A z e r b a ija n
A lb a n ia
A r me n ia
Tu r ke y
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
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WHAT CAN WE SURMISE?
Much greater gender inequality in
entrepreneurship than wage employment in ECA
 Significant variation in entrepreneurship rates
among men and women across countries
 Women entrepreneurs are more likely to be oneperson enterprises than employers compared to
men
 Women’s employers have fewer employees than
men
 Fewer early stage women entrepreneurs

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BEEPS DATA ON FORMAL ESTABLISHED
ENTERPRISES SHOW THAT…
 Women



smaller scaled operations in terms of sales
revenues
generate more profit per unit of sales revenue
have higher returns to scale which means that
women would gain more from increasing their
firm size
 This


owned firms are
could be because women are
capital constrained
concentrated in industries with small firm size
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SOME QUESTIONS
SOME UNANSWERED QUESTIONS THAT MAY
HELP TO UNDERSTAND THE VARIATION IN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP RATES
 Why
do women concentrate in certain
sectors (services rather than
manufacturing)?
 Is the capital constraint self-imposed or
does it reflect bias in the financial system?
 Do lower entrepreneurship rates among
women reflect personal choice or economic
constraints?
 What encourages women to take the step
into entrepreneurship?
 Is entrepreneurship as much about wealth
creation as it is of voice?
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