Female-led startups are on the increase in Greece

For the third year in a row, there has been an increase in women’s startups in Greece, and this trend appears to be growing.

The number of startups founded by women went from 5.8% to 6% between 2014 and 2015. In numerical terms this means 210,000 start ups were launched by women in Greece during that time.

2015 was the third year in a row where there was an increase in female startups, which according to the Greek Ministry of Interior General Secretariat for Gender Equality, makes this an ongoing trend. According to the World Bank, women entrepreneurs own just over 30% of officially registered businesses worldwide, which corresponds with Greek figures that fall at 32.7%. Notably, women-led businesses tend to focus on retail and service sectors.

According to Eurostat data, there are some complications with deprived women aged between 20 and 64 years old are entering the labour market at a rate of 30.7% which is an increase of 3.2% since 2011.

In order to support women entrepreneurs in the future Greece has launched the National Action Plan for Gender Equality 2016-2020, which has four basic objectives: promote the principle of equality in entrepreneurship, encourage female entrepreneurship, improve the position of women in the agricultural sector and reconciliation of family and professional life.

For more detailed statistics, click here.