Globally, entrepreneurial businesses account for roughly 70 percent of job creation and, in some emerging markets, more than 90 percent, according to Endeavor. Yet many countries don’t have legal, institutional and political conditions for entrepreneur-led businesses to scale and thrive. And there is one group of entrepreneurs who are acutely disadvantaged – women.
Earlier this summer at our Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network annual gathering in Austin, we announced the results of the second annual Gender Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (Gender-GEDI), an index for the development of worldwide high impact female entrepreneurship. What we found is that the fundamental conditions to develop female entrepreneurship are lacking in 75 percent of countries surveyed. So what do we do about it?
Last week, I was thrilled to join Kathy Calvin, president and CEO of the UN Foundation, Elizabeth Nyamayaro, executive director of UN Women, and Ruta Aidis, vice president of research at the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) Institute in Washington D.C. to begin a global dialogue on what the public and private sectors can do to break down the barriers for women entrepreneurs worldwide. You can learn more about what we covered in this excellent US News & World report article by Katherine Peralta, who joined us at the event and spent time with Ruta and me discussing the issues.
At the session, we were joined by Jamille Bigio, director for Human Rights and Gender at the National Security Council at the White House, along with Liz Allen from the U.S. State Department, Erin Andrew from the U.S. Small Business Administration, and a host of media, NGOs, government representatives and corporations who, like Dell, have a strong commitment in this space.
While we all agreed that our Gender-GEDI research demonstrates the economic imperative to invest in women entrepreneurs, we also recognize that we need to focus on sustainable actions in order to close the opportunity gap for women. It takes collaboration and hard work. The public sector must work to make global policies friendlier to women entrepreneurs. The private sector – companies like Dell and our global peers – must play our part in giving women entrepreneurs access to technology, networks, capital and other skills to further their economic progress. This is the main reason we founded the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network in 2010.
At the end of a highly-interactive discussion, we came away with some actionable next steps, particularly around sustaining the collaboration we started, and a renewed sense of purpose for finding workable solutions to the issues raised by our research. We invite you to share your ideas here around the kinds of policies and actions you think we need to implement in order to make significant, sustainable change.
At Dell, in addition to our women’s entrepreneur network and investment in the Gender-GEDI Index, we are investing in tomorrow’s leaders through Youth Learning partnerships with organizations like Girl Scouts and GirlStart, and spend more than $4B a year with diverse suppliers worldwide. But, we know it can’t stop here – there is more to be done. Along with the UN Foundation, Gender-GEDI and partners like Intel, we’re focused on keeping this important dialogue going and finding real solutions to help women entrepreneurs grow their businesses globally.
To quote Elizabeth Nyamayaro: “The world had better watch out!” I look forward to your ideas – let’s keep the dialogue going. Also join the conversation on Twitter using #DWEN or our LinkedIn group here.
Left to right: Ruta Aidis, VP of Research, Gender-GEDI Institute; Kathy Calvin, President and CEO, UN Foundation; Karen Quintos, SVP and CMO, Dell; Jamille Bigio, Director, Human Rights and Gender, White House National Security Council Staff; Elizabeth Nyamayaro, Senior Advisor to Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN Women
