According to a large-scale study of female entrepreneurship in the UK, the Gender Index has found that “Companies led by women disproportionately attract less investment than those led by men.”
Gender Index Report
The Gender Index, launched in March 2022, is a research study of all 4.4m active UK companies. The Gender Index allows users to track the impact of female-led firms on the economy via an online, interactive tool.
The data identified that women lead under 17% of all active companies, but they only managed to attract less than 12% of 1.3m investments in UK firms.
In comparison, 61% of active companies are led by men, and those firms attracted two-thirds (66%) of all investments. The remainder recorded 17% of investments from firms led by a gender-balanced team. In comparison, 4.7% of investments were directed to companies where there was no information about the gender of the leadership.
The Gender Index website was conceived to create a benchmark of the current levels of activity by businesses led by women, ranging from startups to listed companies. The Gender Index states that women lead 16.8% of active UK companies, and they are committed to helping change that. The Gender Index’s collective ambition is to help create a fairer future by providing a clear picture of what’s happening across the UK company landscape.
2021 Figures
We also know that the numbers are rising – in 2021, 20% of all incorporations were by female-led companies.
What is the Gender Index?
The Gender Index is groundbreaking and the most extensive research study into female entrepreneurship.
It accurately measures the number of female-led companies and their impact on the UK economy. AI-powered, it holds live data on more than 4m active UK companies, constantly refreshed and up-to-date.
It is the first time gender-disaggregated information has been made freely accessible to the public through our interactive website www.thegenderindex.co.uk and reported in this digest.
16.8% of all active UK companies are female-led
Currently, 16.8% of all active UK companies are female-led. However, female-led high-growth companies lag significantly behind their male counterparts, and the percentage of those that successfully raise capital from investors is even lower.
In 2019, the Rose Review identified that an additional £250bn could be contributed to the UK economy simply by empowering more women to start and grow companies.
Our research shows that while this is happening (female-led incorporations in 2021 reached 20%), more needs to be done to support female-led companies to make the jump from small to medium and large size.
You can view the full Gender Index report here.