RESULTS OF THE WIF 2018 STUDY ON ENTREPRENEURIAL DIVERSITY AND GENDER STEREOTYPES

The WIF study provides information on the current status of diversity inside companies and helps us gain a better understanding of what is preventing women from becoming entrepreneurs.

The report is based on a survey conducted by the Women Initiative Foundation in cooperation with BNP Paribas Wealth Management and with the support of CEDE-ESSEC, carried out in the second half of 2017 among 400 men and women entrepreneurs in France, Germany and Italy.

Main conclusions of the study:

• Family first: The only common barrier identified in each of the three countries is the impact of family constraints that impinge on their work. This was cited by 90% of the Italian women entrepreneurs surveyed. In fact family influence may play an important role, as 80% of those polled in Italy said they had entrepreneur parents. The corresponding figure was 37% in Germany and 35% in France.

• Unsatisfactory salary environment is the main motivation for creating their own companies: Mentioned by women entrepreneurs in all three countries, this feeling is amplified among respondents under 35.

• Perceived stereotypes: Male entrepreneurs believe that women are more pragmatic, listen more, are non-authoritarian and less political, yet more combative.
  Meanwhile women entrepreneurs perceive men to be more ambitious, authoritarian, more likely to be strategists, self-confident, yet lacking in listening skills and unethical. Women tend to believe the myth of male entrepreneurs being self-confident and political.

• Stereotypes linked to management style: The entire sample of respondents agree that women’s management style is consensual, more motivating and above all more fair and humane than men’s. Men are described  as more authoritarian.

• Expansion strategy: Women have a different approach to expanding the capital of their company. Some 90% of those surveyed want to keep control of their capital, compared with 67% of the men. Men tend to envisage growth more through acquisition (40%, compared with 31% among the women) or setting up subsidiaries (45%, compared with 34% of the women polled). Women have a preference for launching new products within their current companies (82%, compared with 77% of the men).

Self-censorship and a lack of self-confidence are key factors identified in the study: These factors are cited by 86% of French women entrepreneurs and 63% of German women entrepreneurs. In order to help deal with this issue, the Women Initiative Foundation has drawn up the following recommendations:

• Strengthen the WIF Volunteer Mentoring Program especially regarding financial and growth policies.

• Contribute, through high-level strategic training, to the development of growth entrepreneurs.

• Offer a kind of ‘Erasmus for entrepreneurship’ to engineering/business courses in entrepreneurship training so as to enable women to get to know and draw inspiration from different parts of Europe.

• Continue to expand this study by comparing American and Canadian data to better understand the situation and define good practices for developing female entrepreneurship.

• Feed the reflections of institutions and more specifically financial institutions into policies designed to support female entrepreneurship.

BNP Paribas Wealth Management creates initiatives to understand, serve and celebrate women entrepreneurs:

• Women Entrepreneur Program at Stanford: exclusive program on leadership to accelerate business growth, in partnership with WIF.
• #ConnectHers: program helping women to develop their entrepreneurial projects and promoting gender equality in France.
• Women Inspiring Future: a platform for top women entrepreneurs in Belgium to discuss hurdles women encounter and take remedial actions together.
• BNP Paribas Global Prize for Women Entrepreneurs: in partnership with FCEM (Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises Mondiales), first global recognition that celebrates outstanding women in entrepreneurship.