Action plan for “More female entrepreneurs for small and medium-sized enterprises”, Germany
WOMEN
The action plan "More female entrepreneurs for small and medium-sized enterprises” (Der Aktionsplan Mehr Unternehmerinnen für den Mittelstand) was developed as part of an initiative by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) for “Women in SMEs Crafts, Foundations and Start-ups” with the aim to increase the number of women entrepreneurs. It is the result of a partnership-based intensive co-operation between five federal ministries and 27 stakeholders that included associations, networks and scientific institutions.
Women continue to be under-represented in entrepreneurship, particularly among start-up founders. The action plan aims to support more women, including women from immigrant backgrounds, in pursuing entrepreneurship as a career choice. The plan intends to unlock the untapped potential of women entrepreneurs in the economy as they are important drivers for innovation, particularly in the green and sustainability sectors. Evidence suggests that mixed-gender founding teams are economically more successful and tend to be more innovative than all-male teams. They founding teams are also more likely to operate their businesses in a more social, ecological and sustainable manner relative to all-male teams as evidenced by a recent European Investment Bank report which found that women-led enterprises tend to have higher environmental, social and governance scores relative to other businesses.
The strategy was launched in 2022 and is the result of a public-private co-operation and includes more than 40 measures that are jointly implemented by a network of women’s entrepreneurship support actors. Overall, the action plan is based on four pillars:
- Enhance the availability and access of financial resources for female entrepreneurs, notably venture capital;
- Improve framework conditions for entrepreneurship including introducing regulatory changes and new policy measures to encourage more women to engage in business creation and self-employment;
- Foster greater participation of women in the climate sector and the energy transition, with the aim of encouraging their pursuit of careers in skilled trades and STEM fields; and
- Increase the visibility and recognition of self-employed women in order to acknowledge their contributions and accomplishments.
The measures were designed to respond to the demands of stakeholders (i.e. associations, networks) as well as political projects of the coalition partners. The BMWK will continue to engage in regular dialogue with the relevant stakeholders and implementation partners, particularly by convening additional network meetings and high-level discussions in 2024 and in 2025 to discuss the progress made and, if necessary, to add new measures and actors to the strategy and action plan.
There are high-level discussions planned in 2024-25 to discuss the progress made, and, if necessary, to add new measures and actors to the action plan.
Das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK) (2023), Mehr Unternehmerinnen für den Mittelstand, https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/DE/Dossier/mehr-unternehmerinnen-fuer-den-mittelstand.html.