Scottish Government publish review into supporting women in entrepreneurship

The Scottish Government has published a report into supporting female entrepreneurship in Scotland. 'Pathways: A New Approach for Women in Entrepreneurship', led by entrepreneur and investor Ana Stewart and co-authored with Mark Logan, Chief  Entrepreneur to the Scottish Government, sets out recommendations to reduce the gender gap and boost the economy. 

Please read below for a comment from Jackie Waring, Founder of Investing Women Angels, on the publication of the Stewart Review.

"As an organisation that was founded on the principle of promoting female-led businesses to scale to their full potential and access more investment, we warmly welcome today’s publication of the Pathways Report. This is a bold exciting report that challenges the status quo and it has been an absolute privilege being part of this team led by highly accomplished female founder Ana Stewart.

Ana and Scotland’s Chief Entrepreneur Mark Logan have done an excellent job capturing and analysing the findings and recommendations generated by this substantial review which covers the current inequities underlying the significant underrepresentation of women entrepreneurs. This includes the currently huge gulf of external investment going into male-led companies compared to those run by women and, more profoundly, the root causes which are preventing a greater number of female-founded businesses from getting off the ground and ultimately flourishing.

“The Pathways Report is significant in the number of important recommendations it sets out to address this chronic problem. In our view, it is vital that all of these points are embraced by the Scottish Government, both the easier-to-embrace policy solutions as well as addressing the deeper causes, by focusing on female entrepreneurship within the education system and tackling unconscious bias within society which adversely impacts on growth opportunities for many female-founded companies.  Supporting many more of these founders on their journeys to growth and scale is imperative and it’s vital resource is dedicated to this alongside the many other recommendations.

“We look forward to working with the Scottish Government and other organisations and giving them our ongoing support in implementing the Pathways Report recommendations. It is essential we address the core issues that are preventing more female-led businesses from flourishing – not merely because it is right course of action in creating a fairer society, but also because of the economic uplift this will deliver across Scotland which will benefit everyone."