Region Västra Götaland has the mandate to promote growth and development in our region. In that role we will create good conditions for women and men to support themselves, to educate themselves and to participate in society at large. This also includes good opportunities to start, operate and develop businesses. In terms of growth and gender equality, it is essential that men and women with business ideas are given equal opportunities in starting and developing businesses, regardless of sector. We need to use both men’s and women’s creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation capability
Making the best use of the resources of both women and men involves a broader perspective and greater opportunities for new ideas and development. Every contribution to the development process must be analyzed and described from a male/female aspect. The gender perspective should permeate all activities and all development in the region. This is achieved through gender mainstreaming in the budget and decision-making process. Gender mainstreaming is implemented with the support of an action plan, that we undertook to establish when we joined the CEMR declaration of gender equality.
Women’s entrepreneurship is not only a matter of growth. It is also an important gender equality policy issue. By promoting women’s entrepreneurship, we increase women's economical power and influence in our society. In the beginning of the 1990s women’s entrepreneurship was a “non-issue” on the political agenda. Now it is a top issue, both in Sweden and in the European Union. Promoting women’s entrepreneurship is a long-term endeavor. It takes time to change structures and attitudes
In 1992 17 per cent of the new started businesses were, started by women. Today it is 32 per cent. In the last 10 years new started businesses, run by women in the Western part of Sweden, have increased by 30 per cent. In 2008 businesses run by women had a turn over of 62 billion SEK and more than 50 000 employees. If women’s entrepreneurship continues to increase at the same rate, 50 per cent of the entrepreneurs are women in 2023. This also leads to 27 000 more jobs.
As you can see society's efforts to promote women's entrepreneurship has been of great importance, both for equality and growth . But, despite the positive trend and all efforts, we are nevertheless faced with some structural obstacles such as: Women's and men's entrepreneurship mirrors the gender-segregated labor market and the gender differences that exist in society at large. The business community and a large part of the enterprise policy is based on a male norm Enterprise policy, authorities and researchers have traditionally mainly been concerned with the manufacturing industry, although the major part of businesses run by women and men is in the service sector Distribution of the State venture capital for start-ups, corporate finance and innovation development is mainly based on manufacturing industry and technical innovations
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