Female start-up boom

More and more Styrian women are becoming self-employed

Chamber of Commerce Vice President Gabi Lechner (2nd from right) with the entrepreneurs Bettina Ganglbauer, Renate Zink-Edelsbrunner and Silvia Riedinger.

(Bild: WK/Fischer)

Almost half of all sole proprietorships in Styria are owned by women - and the trend is rising. However, the boardrooms of large companies are still clearly male-dominated. Styrian female entrepreneurs see a great need to catch up when it comes to childcare.

"31,382 Styrian companies are already in female hands - over 300 more than a year ago. A great development, because the path to self-employment is also the path to more equality," says Gabi Lechner, Vice President of the Styrian Chamber of Commerce, on the occasion of a recent chamber survey of local female entrepreneurs.

Childcare as a major challenge
For the most part, they rate the current development of their company quite positively. The results are significantly more optimistic than in comparable surveys, where gender does not play a role.

However, a quarter of the women surveyed cited the compatibility of family and career as the biggest challenge. "There is still a lack of childcare places, and Styria is unfortunately at the bottom of the league," says Lechner.

This is not only a socio-political issue, but also an economic factor; we need every available woman on the labor market to counteract the shortage of skilled workers

Gabriele Lechner, Vizepräsidentin WK Steiermark

There is still room for improvement when it comes to equality
There is also a need to catch up when it comes to equality between men and women: the majority of female entrepreneurs state that not much has improved in this respect in recent years. "This is not just a socio-political issue, but also an economic factor; we need every available woman on the labor market to counteract the shortage of skilled workers," says the Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce.

There was a great deal of agreement among those surveyed that self-employment promotes equality. A lot is happening in this regard: last year, 55% of all newly founded sole proprietorships were owned by women. Overall, just under half of all sole proprietorships in Styria are currently female. The top three professions in which women are self-employed are personal care, direct sales and human energetics.

Executive suites still in male hands
As pleasing as the boom in female founders in these segments is, the boardrooms of large corporations are still largely dominated by men. "In the boardrooms of listed companies, women only occupy 19 out of 212 executive seats, and only 9.5 percent of supervisory board members are women," explains Gabi Lechner.