Women's Entrepreneurship Gaps Revealed in New GEM Report

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) has released its 2025/2026 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report, highlighting a significant gap in the entrepreneurial life cycle. According to the report, women are active participants in high-potential entrepreneurship, but far fewer remain in high-potential businesses as they mature.

The report, which surveyed 150,799 adults across 48 economies, found that 12% of women were running new businesses in 2025, compared to 14% of men. Among those new businesses, 40% were led by women, and women were more likely to focus on high-potential indicators such as digitalization, AI innovation, and product and process innovation. Women also represented 33% of entrepreneurs expecting to create 20 or more jobs within five years and 37% expecting more than 25% of their revenue to come from exports.

However, the report also revealed a stark difference in the established stage of business ownership. Women reported a 6.0% rate of high-potential early-stage activity, compared to just 0.1% at the established-business stage, a 98% lower rate. This disparity highlights the critical gap in the entrepreneurial life cycle, with women being significantly less likely to remain in high-potential businesses as they mature.

The report argues that this pattern points to the importance of understanding survival and scale, not just startup entry. Women were 55% more likely than men to cite family or personal circumstances as a reason for business exit (20% vs. 13%). This suggests that non-entrepreneurial factors play a significant role in the decision to exit a business.

Investment remains another area of difference. In 2025, 6.7% of women reported recent business investment, compared to 9.2% of men. Women invested roughly one-third less capital on average. Approximately 70% of informal investment globally went to men entrepreneurs.

The report identifies six directions for policy and practice: measure what matters; support survival and scale, not only startups; expand women’s access to digital and innovation ecosystems; invest in women’s investment networks; open more sectors to high-potential entry; and address caregiving challenges directly.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) has produced comparable entrepreneurship data for 26 years, drawing on large-scale adult population surveys and expert assessments across economies worldwide. The report will be available on the GEM website from October 8, 2026, and GEM will host a launch webinar on October 15, 2026, featuring conversations with researchers and experts exploring the report’s findings and their implications for women’s entrepreneurship, survival, and scale.