Why are Australia’s female entrepreneurs struggling to raise capital?

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Despite considerable success in the international arena, many female entrepreneurs still struggle to raise capital. New research suggests that lenders may have an outdated concept of what an entrepreneur looks like. We recently surveyed 416 Australian female businesswomen, and complemented the survey with focus groups. Of survey participants, 183 were female business owner-operators – what most of us would call entrepreneurs. We found that over a third (35%) of these female entrepreneurs who operated internationally had recorded sales growth of more than 40% over the previous 12 months

Women Started Smaller Percentage of U.S. Businesses in 2014

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The share of new businesses started by women fell last year to its second lowest level in nearly two decades, a sign that the entrepreneurial gender gap widened last year. Women opened just 36.8% of new U.S. businesses in 2014, according to new data. That is down from an average of 40.7% over the last 19 years—and almost at the low point of 36.7% reached in 2007. The latest numbers likely reflect both broad macroeconomic factors, such as the construction rebound, and the obstacles facing women entrepreneurs, analysts say.