Women make up a third of Canadian entrepreneurs, but not in the tech industry

Women entrepreneurs in Canada are growing in number, tend to be younger than their male counterparts and are launching businesses at a faster pace than men.

The number of women-led businesses in Canada is growing and will continue to do so according to a recent report from Salesforce in partnership with The Gandalf Group, but even with more Canadian SMEs led by women, men are still two. times more likely to own a business in fields such as technology, science and engineering, with women in business in these industries facing much greater challenges than men.

Young people lead the way

However, a positive point is the fact that women SME owners in Canada are getting younger and younger; the number of female entrepreneurs under 45 is increasing, with 59% between 18 and 44, against only 42% of men in the same age group, and young managers are generally more open to the use of technology to run their business than those over 45. The report found that older entrepreneurs are two to three times more likely to think the technology is irrelevant to their business.

According to the report, however, the adoption of the technology will be critical not only for gender parity, but in the Canadian SME industry as a whole, ”as we enter a period of significant technological disruption that is expected to affect For businesses of all sizes and across industries, it’s critical that small business owners think about how they will adapt their business models to stay competitive and avoid the risk of losing relevance.

He says this growing number of young female leaders who are more tech-savvy will play a key role in leveling the playing field for gender parity.

Women are more likely to start new startups, with more than half of businesses run by women starting in the past five years, compared to just 34% of businesses run by men. And even with 75 percent of women tending to develop SMEs in the service sector, respondents said they are still likely to use the technology despite the sector they work in.

The tech industry still presents challenges

STEM-related businesses themselves still have a long way to go when it comes to gender equality, men are twice as likely as women to start a business in these areas, with only 13% of SMEs headed by women. focusing on technology, science, engineering or mathematics. So statistics show that even when women start these types of businesses in Canada, they face more challenges than their male counterparts.

“The experience differences between male and female entrepreneurs are extremely marked in the STEM industry. Women entrepreneurs report that factors, such as accessing capital and achieving a work-life balance, are much more difficult than men, ”the report said.

The top four areas in which women leaders said they face their greatest challenges are coping with a heavy workload, achieving work-life balance, having difficulty accessing capital to grow their business, and feeling that their services are being undervalued by customers. Women surveyed were more likely than men to view them as challenges that create barriers to running their STEM-related businesses.

Compared to other industries like retail, hospitality and consumer products, gender differences are less widespread, with men and women almost equally citing them as challenges and in areas like healthcare health, education and professional services, men were even more likely than women to list the results achieved. -balance of life as a problem.

As women in tech continue to face challenges, the report concluded that things were improving.

With a greater emphasis on attracting girls and women to STEM subjects and careers, as well as on democratizing technology which has the ability to level the playing field between the sexes and deepen the he generational gap, women and youth are set to irrevocably change the face of Canadian entrepreneurship in the years and decades to come.