Global Trend: Women-Owned Businesses Thrive Despite Pandemic Disruption

Women entrepreneurs have shown tremendous resiliency and ingenuity in the face of pandemic-driven market disruptions, according to a new report, Women’s Entrepreneurship 2020/21: Thriving Through Crisis, from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

According to the report, about one in three growth-oriented entrepreneurs active in the world today are female, and slightly more than 30 percent of women entrepreneurs surveyed expect to hire six or more employees in the next five years — a marked uptick from 18.7 percent in the 2019 report.

Their agility to adapt to business disruption and changing market realities is one reason why women entrepreneurs are finding ways to thrive. The report states, “North American women (North America includes Canada and the United States) remained active and resilient in navigating the unprecedented business and work–family demands sparked by COVID-19.” Plus, total early-stage entrepreneurial activity rates for women in 2020 remained strong at 13.6 percent in the United States and 13.9 percent in Canada.

Women entrepreneurs have another reason to remain optimistic: in 2021, “… start-ups with female founders … raised more venture capital dollars and have executed more exits at greater values than at any point in the last decade,” according to an article in The New York Times, thanks to more angel investors and other fund partners looking to support female-owned businesses.

All of this is extremely encouraging news for female business leaders like Ginger Sloan, a serial entrepreneur and believer in women.

“During these trying times, women who are the backbone of so many families across the nation have taken the bull by the horns to provide and create their own opportunities for their families,” Sloan says. “In today’s current rocky climate, female corporate leaders, business owners and entrepreneurs must not forget that we are not only the core of the family unit but also a critical component of the international economic landscape. Our strength and leadership is the driving force of every stable economy globally.”