More women have become self-employed since the recession, but are still underrepresented among entrepreneurs

Canadian women have led the charge into entrepreneurship since the 2009 recession, says TD Economics.

While overall self-employment has been fairly flat since then, self-employment among women has grown, the bank said in a report Friday.

However, women remain underrepresented among entrepreneurs, despite the recent upswing, it said.

Statistics Canada data show 77,300 men and 41,600 women were self-employed in the Calgary region in 2009. Last year, that had grown to 84,200 men and 43,300 women. The number of self-employed Calgarians with paid help also rose, from 20,500 to 27,900 (for men) and 6,500 to 7,600 women in the same time period.

“Absolutely this is a trend we are seeing across the country and even within our own membership, and thank goodness,” said Richard Truscott, Alberta director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. “Canada is facing some major challenges in terms of business succession. We will have a lot of business owners exiting in the next 10 years.

“More women starting new enterprises, or taking over existing businesses, is clearly a big part of the answer.”

The TD report found Newfoundland and Labrador led growth of self-employed women between 2009 and 2014, at 48 per cent, followed by Saskatchewan (nine per cent), Manitoba (six per cent), Prince Edward Island (six per cent) and Alberta (five per cent).

“While women make up nearly half the workforce, they are still much less likely than men to be entrepreneurs,” said Leslie Preston, economist with TD Economics. “Some factors like greater risk aversion and occupational choice, which help shape the gender entrepreneurship gap, are likely to be slow to change.

“However, the recent growth of women entering self-employment since the recession is a positive sign that women are overcoming many deeply-rooted hurdles and venturing out on their own.”

Bhawana Clark opened her jewelry store in Calgary’s Inglewood neighbourhood in March 2013.

“The beautiful thing about living in Canada and Calgary is that most women have a vast array of choices. It is shocking to see the extremely low number of women entrepreneurs and at the same time it is not surprising, as women we are hard wired in our DNA to be the nurturers, and take care of our families which leaves very little time to be an entrepreneur,” said Clark.

“The shift in women entering the business arena has been happening very slowly over decades and centuries and has been a difficult process. Being a woman entrepreneur, the road is paved with many learning curves that are foreign to women as they dive into new ventures of uncharted territories, from all levels of creating goods, buying goods, hiring staff, balancing budgets, the list is endless. The road is paved with success and failure but every failure eventually leads to success, if you have the nerves of steel, the dedication and drive to see your dream through. The rewards can be great such as financial freedom and a sense of great accomplishment.”

Jeanette Sutherland, manager of workforce and productivity for Calgary Economic Development, said one factor in the rise of female entrepreneurs is the result of well-established e-commerce and social media.

This can allow some women, including stay-at-home mothers, the option of working wherever and whenever they want to access local, national or global markets.

“We also have a generation of Millennials that are very well-educated and enterprising in nature.  Many women from this generation are very prepared to break the mould and directly go after what they want,” she said.