Maternity system blamed as Ireland lags in female entrepreneurs list

IRELAND has one of the lowest levels of female entrepreneurship in the world, with disincentives such as a lack of maternity cover for the self-employed preventing women from going into business.

That’s according to experts at a conference held in Waterford, who told delegates that a gender gap still exists in terms of harnessing entrepreneurial talent in this country.

The conference, titled The Shape of Tomorrow: the Dawning of a New Enterprise Policy for Women, was organised as part of the INTERREG IIIA-funded Female Entrepreneurship in Ireland and Wales project.

The initiative has its Irish base at the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Waterford Institute of Technology and aims to examine enterprise policy in relation to fostering an environment that increases the levels of entrepreneurial activity among women.

Co-ordinator of the National Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Paula Fitzsimons said that Ireland still has “one of the lowest levels” of female entrepreneurship in the world.

She pointed out that boosting female participation in entrepreneurship in this country could result in valuable returns for the Irish economy and said policy-makers and enterprise support agencies should specifically look at ways of developing the untapped resources of female entrepreneurship.

“Male and female entrepreneurs, while not fundamentally different, do have degrees of difference in terms of how they approach the task of setting up and growing a business,” said Ms Fitzsimons.

“However, they have absolutely no differences in terms of their need for financial support. Traditionally, financial support in this country was very much channelled towards the male-dominated manufacturing and internationally traded sectors, and less towards the services sectors, which make up a quarter of the start-up businesses fronted by women.”

Topics of concern that emerged from the conference included the fact that maternity cover for the self-employed often acts as a disincentive for mothers to become involved in running their own business.

Delegates also called for more employer-friendly legislation to deal with issues arising in relation to tax and human resources.

A recommendation was also made that a task force, comprising industry personnel and government representatives, similar to one currently in place in Britain, would be set up to look at ways of encouraging women to engage in entrepreneurship.

Head of Research at the WIT Centre for Entrepreneurship, Dr Bill O’Gorman, said one of the key issues highlighted at the conference centred around the fact that while women make up 50% of the population of Ireland and Wales, they still account for less than one in five entrepreneurs in both countries.

“Unfortunately, there is not much focus on female entrepreneurship in Ireland. In purely academic terms, women business owners in Ireland are seen as a minority group,” Dr O’Gorman said.

In conjunction with the conference, a new publication, A Guide for Developing Enterprise Training for Women Entrepreneurs was also launched.