A new report has revealed that the UK provides the best access to resources for women entrepreneurs in the world, including education, internet, bank accounts and small and medium enterprise (SME) training programmes.
According to the report, nearly 100% of women have access to a bank account in the UK and 87% use the internet.
Pakistan features last in the report’s ranking, providing internet access to just 10% and giving only 3% use of bank accounts.
Dell’s Global Women Entrepreneur Leaders Scorecard looked at over 70% of the female population in 31 countries across five key areas that included relative business environments, access to resources, leadership and rights, pipeline for female entrepreneurship and potential for high-growth women-owned businesses.
The US topped the index overall, but more than 70% of the countries surveyed scored below 50%, suggesting a significant gap between female and male-owned businesses globally.
Canada was at second place followed by Australia, Sweden, the UK, France and Germany.
Even though the US was top in the business environment category, just 13% of start-ups have women on their executive team and only 3% of start-ups with women CEOs received venture capital funding in 2014.
In all 31 countries, women are significantly less likely to know an entrepreneur, which suggests that they lack visible role models and connections to the entrepreneurial community, impacting their plans to start a business.
Dell senior vice president and chief marketing officer Karen Quintos said: "The success of entrepreneurs and small businesses is critical for a thriving global economy, and at Dell we believe women entrepreneurs must play a much more prominent role in business and leadership in the future.
"Our Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network aims to ensure women entrepreneurs have access to technology, capital and networks to grow their businesses. The Scorecard provides the data-driven insights we need to move the broader conversation from awareness to action and allow female entrepreneurs around the world to reach their full potential."
