Childcare a barrier for female entrepeneurs
Friday, October 31, 2014
Women’s enterprise is being curbed by childcare responsibilities, says an entrepreneurship expert, who is calling for more funded childcare for the self-employed.
Dr Julia Rouse from Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) said the latest ONS figures that show a 34 per cent rise in the number of self-employed women in the UK since 2009, obscure the fact that women who start their own business are unlikely to turn a profit and are hampered by their childcare responsibilities.
According to Dr Rouse, women still only make up a third of the UK’s self-employed, the equivalent of 1.4 million, and the top occupations are childminders, cleaners, carers and hairdressers. The majority of self-employed women earn less than £10,000 a year.
Dr Rouse is a keynote speaker at an event organised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) on 4 November entitled, ‘Developing women’s enterprise to create sustainable communities’.
The rise in female self-employment, she said, simply reflects the disproportionate impact of the recession on women’s full-time employment, particularly in the public sector.
But improved Government support and targeted policies could create the right conditions to support women, particularly mothers, to grow viable and profitable businesses.
‘To date, enterprise policy has not been well integrated with childcare and maternity policies, which simply don’t meet the needs of women wanting to launch a business,' she said.
‘The failure of successive Governments to understand the strength of the maternity and childcare barrier to enterprise means that a great deal of female entrepreneurial potential is being wasted.
‘Many mothers are discouraged from starting businesses and constrained in the businesses they do start’, added Ms Rouse who said women entrepreneurs need more funded childcare support, particularly when they start a business, as tax breaks mean very little if they aren’t yet turning a profit.
She went on to say that childcare support would also be a ‘great investment’ for established businesses that cannot grow while women are ‘tied to their local area and part-time working due to the school run.’
Dr Rouse also recommends giving maternity pay to women who are trading part-time to keep their business going after having a baby.
