Increasing the number of women entrepreneurs can boost the economy and jobs, new Cabinet Secretary for Training, Youth and Women’s Employment Angela Constance has said.

In her first major speech since being appointed to the Cabinet, she will highlight research from the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship showing that increasing the number of women entrepreneurs to match the number of men would generate more than £7 billion for the economy.

The speech to around 150 key figures in business at the Women’s Business and Enterprise Conference in Edinburgh set out how the Scottish Government is helping to close the entrepreneurial gender gap.

Ms Constance said:

“Earlier this year I launched the Women in Enterprise Action Framework, developed in collaboration with our public, private and third sector partners. This sets out the route we must take together and to demonstrate our commitment we announced £35,000 of support for the Women’s Enterprise Scotland Business Ambassadors, with a further £50,000 going to Investing Women, supporting a series of investment-readiness workshops.

“Women also account for 46 per cent of winners of the Scottish Government’s EDGE fund, which to date has awarded almost £2 million to 54 businesses judged most capable of growth. Our commitment to promoting women in business is clear, and it will form a key part of my brief as Cabinet Secretary.

“However, we must not lose sight of the fact that a disproportionately low number of small to medium sized-enterprises are female-led and that less than a third of self-employed people are women. Work from the Hunter Centre indicates that if women's participation rates matched men's, it could also boost the economy by as much as 5 per cent – a difference of £7.6 billion.

“Recent labour market figures have shown a real boost for women in employment. If we can match those gains in entrepreneurship, both Scotland’s economic growth and its equality in employment will take significant strides forward.”