Women Entrepreneurship in the catchingup economies in South-East Europe: what
support is needed?
Malinka Koparanova
Senior Social Affairs Officer and
Gender Focal Point
First Forum for South East European Women Entrepreneurs
Istanbul, Turkey, 21-22 September 2010
1
Outline
1. Overview of women entrepreneurship in SouthEastern Europe: A comparative look
2. Major obstacles affecting women’s
entrepreneurship: general to specific
3. What support is needed?
4. What is the UNECE involvement in promoting
women entrepreneurs
Conclusions
2
1.
Overview of women entrepreneurship in SouthEastern Europe: A comparative look
1.1 Economic overview of SEE region
1.2 Key aspects of women’s participation
3
1.1 Economic overview of SEE region
 Positive trends over the past years following a
painful transition to market-based economy
 Increased openness and EU integration
 Structural reforms
 SEE- severely hit by the crisis since 2008, long term
consequences on growth and employment
 SMEs and microenterprises – heavily impacted by the
crisis; a recovery provides with new opportunity
4
Real GDP Growth Rates SEE
Country
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Albania
5.7
5.8
5.4
6.0
7.8
3
2.9
3.6
Bosnia and Herzegovina
6.3
4.3
6.9
6.0
5.4
-3.2
0.9
3.1
Croatia
4.3
4.2
4.7
5.5
2.4
-5.8
-0.5
2.0
The FYR of Macedonia
4.1
4.1
3.9
5.9
4.8
-0.7
1.8
3
Montenegro
4.4
4.2
8.6
10.7
6.9
-7.0
-1.7
4.6
Serbia
8.3
5.6
5.2
6.9
5.5
-2.9
1.8
3.2
Turkey
9.4
8.4
6.9
4.7
0.7
-4.7
5.5
3.8
Bulgaria
6.6
6.2
6.3
6.2
6
-5.0
0.1
2.2
Romania
8.5
4.1
7.9
6.3
7.1
-7.1
-0.5
2.2
EU-15 (Old)
2.3
1.8
3.0
2.6
0.5
-4.1
1.0
1.6
World Growth
4.9
4.5
5.1
5.2
3.0
-0.6
4.6
4.3
Sources: UNECE calculations based on IMF, Eurostat
5
1.2 Key aspects of women entrepreneurs’
participation
 How are women presented in the labour market?
 Do men and women participate equally during all
their life?
 Do countries follow similar patterns?
 Are women more likely to be self-employed?
 What are the occupational and sectoral gender
structures across the region?
6
Women are under-represented in the labour market
in SEE as compared to EU
Economic Activity Rate in SEE
EU15 Averages
80
59.8
57.0
50
40
48.3
42.6
41.7
30
20
46.8
42.9
70.1
68.8
43.3
43.8
31.7
24.5
rk
ey
Tu
M
ac
ed
on
ia
of
e
Th
Source: ILO Laborsta, EU15: Eurostat, Age Group 15+
FY
R
B
M
on
Women
Se
rb
ia
te
ne
gr
o
re
ec
e
G
ro
at
ia
C
ul
ga
ria
B
&
H
er
z.
Men
om
an
ia
10
0
os
ni
a
60.4
62.8
57.4
56.2
R
%
70
60
65.0
7
Average Gender Gap in the Economic Activity Rate, SEE
Men's Economic Activity Rate minus Women's Economic Activity Rate
Percentage points
40
SEE
28.8
30
16.8
20
19.4
20.2
15.6
10
EU15
7.2
19.0
16.1
18.6
19.0
17.0
15.2
20.2
19.6
18.2
17.6
14.9
11.3
4.9
8.8
4.2
6.6
4.2
3.5
2.9
1.4
0
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65-69
70-74
75+
Age
Source: ILO Laborsta, EU15: Eurostat
8
Economic activity of men and women by age
Economic Activity Rate, by age group, Croatia
Economic Activity Rate, by age group, Bulgaria
100
90.4 90.5
88.2
80
79.8 84.5
64.1
87.6
88
Men
Women
83.9
Men
Women
93.5
100
89.5
89.9
88.1
83.1
76.2
80
72.3
86 79.6
70.5
60
%
90.9
79.3
63.4
63.6
82.4
83.3
81.1
65.7
76.7
60
44.5
48
62.4
%
45.2
40
40
20
0
9.1
13
16.2
6
5
32.9
34.8
15.8
20
5.3
1.9
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74
9.6
2
11.6
0.5
17.4
0
75+
9.1
7.8
6.5
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74
Age
2.6
1.6
75+
Age
Economic Activity Rate, by age group, Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Economic Activity Rate, by age group, FYR of Macedonia
Men
Women
100
85.2
95.5
89.7
80
92.6
92.4
Men
Women
86.1
80
57.2
60
76.0
65.5
60
%
39.8
40
20
94.5
100
63.7
%
52.4
64.7
66.8
67.6
64.4
55.9
40
20.5
25.6
25.9
44.8
43.8
35.0
20
0
15-24
25-49
Age
50-64
Source: (BA) Labour force survey, ILO Labosta
65+
5.9
16.1
11.7
8.3
3.3
2.3
0
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65+
Age
9
Economic activity of men and women by age
(cont.1)
Economic Activity Rate, by age group, Montenegro
92.8
100
93.5
90.6
Economic Activity Rate, by age group, Greece
Men
Women
83.9
97.2
100
97.1
97.3
Men
Women
95.4
88.7
91.5
76.5
82.1
80
80
71.4
59.4
60
68.1
%
75
58.1
75.5
76.4
60
64.9 63.1
61
%
44.7
40
72.9
73.3
72.8
55.4
65.6
40
38
17.6
19.2
25.5
20
8.2
15.2 5.9
0
15-19
20-24
25-29 30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49 50-54
55-59
16.4
20 10.3
3.1
2.3
0
0
60-64 65-69
4.2
70-74
0
5.1
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44
75+
94.8
91.5
Men
Women
87.2
82.2
56.6
60
65.4
81.4
77.9
%
37.9
41.2
17.7
36.3
22.2
71.8
64.6
10.8
14.1
10.3
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74
Age
Source: (BA) Labour force survey, ILO Labosta
48.3
36.7
37.7
33.2
17.4
15.9
0
75+
Men
Women
40
20
11.5
93.4
60
62.6
40
94.8
92.3
80
73.7
%
45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74
Age
80.7
65.8
76.7
94.8
100
80.1
80
2.2
0.4
1.8
Economic Activity Rate, by age group, Turkey
Economic Activity Rate, by age group, Serbia
91.7
6.2
19.8
7.2
Age
100
45.4
54.1
45.2
20
33.3
31.5
32.4
19.5
28.7
17.1
24.7
20.3
4.9
16.4
13.2
55-59
60-64
0
75+
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
5.8
65+
Age
10
Economic Activity Rate in the EU15, by age group
94.5
100
95.0
94.6
93.3
89.6
89.3
74.4
80
71.8
78.0 78.9
78.9
79.4
78.4
72.6
60
63.0
%
40
20
Men
Women
56.2
42.2
30.6
26.4
24.6
13.0
6.0
0
6.4
2.5
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74
2.1
0.7
75+
Age
Source: Eurostat
11
Women go less for self-employment both in SEE
and EU but SEE lags behind women-employers
Self-Employment in SEE and EU15
Men
40
Women
36.3
35
30
26.3
25
18.3
% 20
15
26.5
21.7
15.2
14.7
10
9.6
5
0
SEE
EU15
Share of Self-em ployed in all em ployed
SEE
EU15
Share of Em ployers in Self-em ployed
12
Source: ILO Laborsta, 2008 data
Share of Self-employed in all
employed
Men
Women
Bulgaria
13.5
8.0
Croatia
20.1
15.0
Greece
33.0
19.2
Romania
25.5
12.9
Serbia
27.9
14.2
Turkey
31.3
12.4
13
Employers by Industry
Men
Other
11%
Employers by Industry
Women
6%
Other
21%
1%
4%
5%
10%
17%
2%
4%
3%
8%
12%
Agriculture,
Hunting and
Forestry
5%
1%
Manufacturing
7%
Construction
46%
37%
Own-account workers by
Industry
Men
Wholesale and
Retail Trade;
Repair of Motor
Vehicles,
Motorcycles and
Personal and
Household Goods
Own-account workers by
Industry
Women
4%
4%
10%
57%
0%
Hotels and
Restaurants
13%
Transport,
Storage and
Communications
66%
14%
2%
2%
2%
Other
6%
1%
Source: ILO Laborsta, 2008 data
1%
5%
2%
Other
11%
Real Estate,
Renting and
Business Activities
Health and
Social Work
14
Employers by Occupation
Men
Employers by Occupation
Women
4% 1%
14%
51%
15%
8%
57%
3%
3%
5%
Legislators, senior
officials and managers
1%
4%
1%
1%
6%
Own-account workers by occupation Men
13%
5%
13%
4%
Own-account workers by occupation
Women
8%
1% 5%
Service workers and
shop and market sales
workers
9%
3%
1%
3%
1%
6%
13%
51%
45%
Source: ILO Laborsta
Technicians and
associate professionals
Clerks
12%
5%
5%
14%
Professionals
9%
Skilled agricultural and
fishery workers
Craft and related trade
workers
Plant and machine
operators and assemblers
15
Elementary occupations
Vertical Labour Market Segregation
Share of Women and Men in Legislators, Senior Officials and Managers
Women
100
Men
80
60
%
40
38
32
30
27
27
26
25
20
8
0
Bulgaria
Romania
Greece
The FYR of
Macedonia
Croatia
Serbia and
Montenegro
Turkey
Germany
16
Dataset: OECD Gender, Institutions and Development Database 2009 (GID-DB)
Tertiary students by field of study
SEE Average
10 0
90
80
Wom en
76
72
67
70
57
60
45
33
40
62
55
43
50
30
Men
38
28
24
69
63
31
37
20
10
0
E duc ati on
H u ma n i t i e s a n d
Soc i al s c i e nc e s ,
ar ts
bus i ne s s and l aw
Sc i e nc e
E ngi ne e r i ng,
ma n u f a c t u r i n g
Agr i c ul tur e
He a l th a nd
Se r vi c e s
welf are
and c ons tr uc ti on
Source: UNECE Statistical Division Database, compiled from national and international
(Eurostat and UNESCO Institute for Statistics) official sources.
17
2.
Major obstacles affecting women’s
entrepreneurship: general to specific
 First group: disadvantages for women in the
business environment
 Second group: entrepreneurship process and
its gender dimension
18
First group of obstacles:
I. Legal, economic and social environment in which
women start and develop their business
 Gap in implementation of laws
 Regulatory framework, administartive procedures
 Unceratinty related to political conflics
 Uncertainties due to slow and uneven transition,
privatization, institutions
 External shocks, such as the global and economic crisis
19
Second group of obstacles:
II. Specific conditions for the entrepreneurship process
 Property and access to finance
 Stereotypes, lack of support by the family and society
 Role models
 Lack of experience – human capital (quality)
 Education with a particular focus entrepreneurship
related skills and knowledge
 Lack of networks
 Access to child care, and family care
20
3.
What support is needed?
 Policies creating enabling environment for women at
national, regional and municipality level: gendersensitive to target obstacles (II), industrial policies.
 Institutional support is crucial:
at macro and micro-levels, including specialized
agencies/departments for start-up for women with
packages of projects including information and
consultancy services
 Financial support
21
3.
What support is needed?
(cont)
 SMEs polices for all stages of financing, access to
markets and services, technology, R&D
 Education and Knowledge: targeted programmes for
enhancing women’s knowledge and skills
 Providing positive role models
 Networking opportunities
 Engage all society
22
4.
What is the UNECE’s involvement in promoting
women entrepreneurs
 Monitoring, data collection and methodology on sexdisaggregated data for the UNECE member states
 Economic policies and their impact on gender, including in
various activities of the UNECE programmes, such as
transport, enterprises development, innovation and
competitiveness of economies, transport, environment.
 Raising awareness of issues and improving understanding
of women’s entrepreneurship
23
4.
What is the UNECE’s involvement in promoting
women entrepreneurs (cont.)
 Initiating and supporting regional dialogue and exchange of
best practices
 Preparation of policy recommendation to assist
governments in implementing their commitments as in the
Beijing Platform for Action and the Millennium Declaration
 Capacity building: training programmes for women
entrepreneurs in support systems and use of ICTs
24
Conclusion:
 Women entrepreneurship needs support through gendersensitive policies:
 at all levels of policy making
 both for start-ups and to grow;
 institutions and coherent tools,
 public-private coordination;
25
Conclusion:
 To make this support efficient, understanding of the
needs of and demand for such activities in society has to
be improved (data collection and monitoring);
 Actions based on multistakeholder partnerships of
international organizations, governments, NGOs and civil
society.
26