Women Entrepreneurs: Canada’s Biggest Missed Business Opportunity

Canada has an entrepreneurship problem — the number of new businesses being started and the number of people pursuing self-employment have been falling for the past two decades. Entrepreneurship drives innovation, job creation and economic growth. Without these industrious people starting new businesses, Canada is missing a crucial ingredient for breaking free of our decades-long economic malaise. 

In particular, women entrepreneurs represent significant, untapped potential for Canada’s economy. However, our new report, Women Entrepreneurs: Canada’s Biggest Missed Business Opportunity, examining the status of women entrepreneurs in Canada, finds that Canada has a higher-than-average share of missing women entrepreneurs — entrepreneurs who could be included in the economic and business landscape if gender-based and intersectional barriers were addressed.

The State of Women Entrepreneurs in Canada

In Budget 2018, the Government of Canada released its first Women Entrepreneurship Strategy. The WES aimed to double the number of women-owned businesses by 2025. According to our calculations, this would mean adding around 170,000 women-owned firms. Today, a gap of approximately 150,000 firms remains.

The Missing Entrepreneurs

An OECD report, The Missing Entreprenerus 2023, examined “people from under-represented groups who are not involved in entrepreneurship, but who could be.” Based on this data, we estimate that there are approximately 710,000 missing women entrepreneurs in Canada, representing 78% of Canada’s total missing entrepreneurs. This is above the OECD average of 73%.

The estimated economic loss of not having these 710,000 women entrepreneurs over the past 7‒8 years is at least $150 billion and even up to $180 billion (based on our estimates) — which is a cumulative increase in GDP of 6% or more!

Where Are Canada’s Missing Women Entrepreneurs?

By Province

While the representation gender-gap between Canada’s share of majority women-owned businesses and population share is highest in the Prairies, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, using the estimated 710,000 missing women entrepreneurs figure, two-thirds of Canada’s missing women-owned businesses are actually in Ontario and Quebec.

By Industry

Almost 60% of majority women-owned businesses are clustered in gendered industries — healthcare, professional services, and retail trade — while majority men-owned businesses are more industry diverse. Majority women-owned businesses have the highest representation gaps in construction, mining, oil and gas, and transportation and warehousing.

Policy Recommendations

At this economically critical time for our nation, the government has an opportunity to increase GDP and drive innovation, productivity and growth by supporting women entrepreneurs through strategic policy measures. 

Entrepreneurship Skills and Training

• Review and clarify definitions in Women Entrepreneurship Strategy in alignment with criteria advanced by UN Women to improve and prioritize women-owned businesses’ access to full suite of federally funded programs.
• Invest in and ease access to capacity building programs for women entrepreneurs, including women-owned businesses primed for entry, scale up and growth, particularly in industries and sectors where representation is low.
• Improve consolidation of full suite of federal and provincial policy and support programs under an up-to-date knowledge portal for women-entrepreneurs.
• Consider offering direct financial support to women from low-income backgrounds to address barriers, like cost of training.

Institutional and Administrative Supports

• Improve institutional conditions and examine family and tax policies relating to unpaid care and non-care work that hinder female labour market participation and women entrepreneurship.
• Conduct multi-stakeholder and industry-level assessments that examine untapped future potential from women-owned businesses.

Culture and Network

• Continue ensuring up-to-date unconscious and implicit bias training for decision makers, particularly at the government-level and within financial institutions.
• Expand the umbrella of support to women entrepreneurs through mental health and childcare programs, particularly for women from underrepresented and intersectional groups.
• Consolidate public listing of network, mentorship and sponsorship opportunities at the local, provincial and national level.

Capital and Finance

• Improve access to financing — loans, venture capital, fintech, crowdfunding, or angel investing — by developing innovative delivery models, designed to meet the needs of women entrepreneurs and increase accountability and transparency.
• Identify cumbersome and prohibitive barriers through tailored financial products and services for women-owned businesses.

For more findings as well as available resources for women entrepreneurs, read the full report.