The case for encouraging, empowering, and enabling women entrepreneurs is straightforward: around the world, female entrepreneurs drive both economic growth and help to reduce poverty. According to the World Bank, there are now about 8 million to 10 million formal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with at least one female owner in developing countries.
Yet a massive global credit gap persists for women-owned businesses, estimated at $1.5 trillion. More than 100 countries still have legal barriers to women’s entrepreneurship, including laws forbidding women from signing contracts, registering their business, or opening bank accounts, while gender-based credit scoring and investors’ cultural biases compound the issue further.