Female entrepreneurship on the rise

Chile has half a million female entrepreneurs, a marked increase in just the last 3 years. If current trends continue, as many women as men will be starting new businesses in Chile in 2010. These figures are from the Report on Women and Entrepreneurship in Chile - 2005/2006 (overview in Word), prepared by Universidad del Desarrollo. The report is part of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), led by Babson College and the London Business School.

Compared to their male counterparts, female Chilean entrepreneurs are a bit older, a bit more risk-averse, and much more likely to start retail and service-sector businesses. 75% of them feel that in Chile, men and women do not receive equal exposure to good opportunities to create a new business or enterprise. (via Jeff Cornwall)

If you'll permit me to change acronyms mid-stream, GEM also stands for Gender Entrepreneurship Markets. This IFC group puts out a newsletter on Women in Business. The most recent issue says that Nigeria's Access Bank will be one of the first banks in Africa to dedicate lines of credit to finance women-owned businesses. Also, a World Bank Group study found that Kenya could gain between 2.0 to 3.5 percentage points of GDP growth per year by addressing gender inequalities.