WEKH releases Preliminary Findings of SOWE in Canada Report

Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH) has disclosed the preliminary findings of State of Women's Entrepreneurship (SOWE) In Canada report on March 18, 2024. The findings were released in an event that was featuring the Minister of Small Business, Honourable Rechie Valdez.

The event was attended by over 100 varied women entrepreneurs alongside Canada’s women entrepreneurship ecosystem partners. WEKH researchers has found that 18.4 per cent businesses that includes small, medium and large businesses are majorly owned by women owners in the year 2023, after the aggregation of quarterly Canadian Survey on Business Conditions reports.

In addition to that, the average of the report says, 18 per cent of the businesses are owned by women in 2022 while in the previous reports 16.8 per cent businesses in 2020 were owned by women owners.

Founder and academic director of the Diversity Institute and WEKH, Wendy Cukier said in his remarks, “Canada consistently ranks among the top nations in the world on indexes that measure women's entrepreneurial activity and supporting conditions.”

He added, “Our research along with other global indicators shows that Canada's Women Entrepreneurship Strategy is an important and effective initiative which uses a diversity lens to understand systemic barriers and develop effective strategies among all government departments— including agriculture, infrastructure, environment and more—to unlock opportunities to advance women entrepreneurs, particularly those with intersectional identities.”

Some of the major preliminary findings are:

1. In comparison to the global average, Canadian women are more engaged in total early-stage entrepreneurial activities.
2. The findings reveal that more than 80 per cent of women entrepreneurs are self-employed along with 37.2% of women from the self-employed population.
3. In comparison to men, women entrepreneurs are earning less i.e., 37.1 per cent less than $50,000 annually compared to 31.7% of men entrepreneurs.
4. There’s only 10.9 per cent of women entrepreneurs who are earning more than $150,000 as compared to 14.8 per cent of men entrepreneurs.

While putting more emphasis on the findings, Mr. Wendy said, “Canadian policy still favours the 'too big to fail' over the 'too small to see.' Policies and investments are often based on a view that larger enterprises and high-tech firms are the best route to producing well-paying jobs, maximizing return on investment, and increasing government tax revenues. However, unlike the U.S., the majority of Canadians work for SMEs. Investing in diverse entrepreneurs and SMEs generally is essential not only for Canada to stay competitive, create jobs and grow the economy, but also to advance our sustainable development goals.”

The findings give an idea of the final report and these findings with percentages shows the growth of women entrepreneurs in Canada, regardless of high and low.  The final report shall show the exact results.