The percentage of women entrepreneurs doubles in 10 years but still does not reach that of men

The American Sarah Breedlove, known as Madam C. J. Walker, made history for being one of the first women to become a millionaire on her own merits. But more than a century after she founded her cosmetics company focused on the African-American community, female entrepreneurs continue to be underrepresented.

In Spain, women with an intention to start a business went from 5.8% in 2015 to 12.8% in 2025. This is more than double, but they are still two percentage points below men (14.9%). The gender gap has been closing, but it refuses to disappear.

The trend reflects an important change. Ana Fernández, executive president of the Spanish Entrepreneurship Observatory, said this Wednesday, during the presentation of the report Evolution of women's entrepreneurship in Spain 2015-2025, that "the intention to undertake nourishes the system and the entire process." Despite this improvement, there are more steps to turn this arrangement into a consolidated company. Furthermore, Fernández added that “starting a business is not enough, the difficult thing is to maintain it and make it grow.”

The report, presented by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and the social program GIRA Mujeres, details that there are three stages to opening a business. First, there is the intention to do it in the next three years. Once the company is opened, it is categorized as recent when it is at least 3.5 years old, and as consolidated when it exceeds this time threshold. Women have made progress in the first two phases over the last decade. However, the number of entrepreneurs reaching the final stage decreased in that period.

Beyond the entrepreneurial process, women show a great commitment to continue with their business. According to María del Mar Fuentes, co-director of the report, men are more likely to sell or transfer their companies. In 2025, 3.4% of women did so, compared to 4.1% of men. Fuentes has interpreted that they may have “fewer options,” so once they start, they remain firm in their decision.

Another difference between the sexes is financing. Fuentes explained that “men's entrepreneurial capital is usually greater.” Thus, GEM data show that half of the entrepreneurs' projects have initial financing of less than 10,000 euros, while the median for them is 12,000 euros. Furthermore, this seed capital exceeds 100,000 euros for 4% of women's businesses, compared to only 8% of theirs.

The document states that financing is one of the main reasons why women do not start businesses. This was stated by three out of four respondents. These results are part of a survey of more than 200 participants in the GIRA program, financed by Coca Cola to promote entrepreneurship among Spanish women. Other barriers that were identified were the lack of professional contacts (34.6%), the insufficiency of public programs (32.7%) and the greater burden of care tasks compared to their partners (25.2%).

Against this background, Carlos Mateo Enseñat, director of the Spanish Association of Startups (emerging companies), has shared that for him “the self-employed fee, which has to be paid from the first moment without having income, makes it much more difficult to go from an intention to a reality.” In addition, he has considered that public procurement can do more to support startups, instead of contracts only being awarded to large companies. He added that the release of European funds “is one of the fundamental keys so that not only do these initial stages occur, but also that [businesses] end up growing and generating more wealth for everyone.”