BETA


2021/2080(INI) Reaching women's economic independence through entrepreneurship and self-employment

Progress: Procedure completed

RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Lead FEMM WEISS Pernille (icon: EPP EPP) BIEDROŃ Robert (icon: S&D S&D), SOLÍS PÉREZ Susana (icon: Renew Renew), PETER-HANSEN Kira Marie (icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE), STEGRUD Jessica (icon: ECR ECR), MODIG Silvia (icon: GUE/NGL GUE/NGL)
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
RoP 54

Events

2022/05/03
   EP - Decision by Parliament
Details

The European Parliament adopted by 542 votes to 43 with 52 abstentions a resolution on reaching women’s economic independence through entrepreneurship and self-employment.

Women entrepreneurs and self-employed workers represent an under-exploited source of sustainable economic growth, job creation and innovation potential. Yet women represent only 34.4% of the self-employed in the EU and 30% of its young entrepreneurs. Furthermore, less than 8% of CEOs of large companies are women and only 10% of the top positions in private equity and venture capital firms globally are held by women.

Entrepreneurship programmes, education and skills development

The resolution underlined that women’s entrepreneurship contributes to increasing women’s economic independence and their empowerment, which is an essential precondition for reaching gender-equal societies and should be encouraged and promoted across the EU. In this regard, the Commission is called on to:

- step up its efforts to increase the employment rate of women in Europe and facilitate their access to the labour market, including by providing more incentives to promote women’s entrepreneurship;

- strengthen networks focusing on women’s entrepreneurship on European level to boost innovation and cooperation between national, EU and international networks;

- implement programmes to encourage creativity in innovation, ensure entrepreneurship in the labour market and ensure that women can bring added value to society;

- highlight prominent women entrepreneurs and investors as role models by launching a Europe-wide campaign raising awareness about the potential of entrepreneurship targeting predominantly women.

For their part, Member States are invited to introduce business-friendly reforms to encourage equality and female entrepreneurship.

While welcoming public and private women’s entrepreneurship programmes in the Member States that include aspects of networking, mentoring, training, coaching and consultancy services and professional advice on legal and fiscal matters, Members called on the Commission and Member States to analyse the impact of women’s entrepreneurship programmes and share best practices to strengthen and increase the share of women entrepreneurs and self-employed within the EU.

The resolution called for greater women-focused promotion of and awareness-raising about STEM subjects, digital education and financial literacy in order to combat prevailing stereotypes in education, training, school curricula and career guidance.

Members regretted the fact that women are under-represented in leadership positions and highlighted the need to promote equality between men and women at all levels of decision-making in business and management and called for the development of a strategy with Member States to ensure the meaningful representation of all women from diverse backgrounds in decision-making roles and with specific actions and policies to promote their economic empowerment.

Parliament called on the Member States and the Commission to facilitate simplified access to finance for female entrepreneurs and self-employed workers, including non-conventional forms of finance such as equity loans. It suggested using the existing European Structural Funds to target and promote female entrepreneurs and self-employed women. It also highlighted the important role of micro-credit in improving women's financial inclusion.

The Commission is urged to establish a European network of gender-conscious investors to provide women-led companies with relevant connections, networks and funding opportunities.

Members also stressed the need for awareness-raising and information campaigns on current and future EU funding possibilities for women entrepreneurs to provide tailored support to women business owners and women entrepreneurs and increase the visibility of women leaders so they can provide stronger role models and break current stereotypes. In this regard, the Commission is urged to establish a women’s entrepreneurship action plan .

Better framework for women entrepreneurs

Members emphasised the need to remove administrative barriers to starting a business to make becoming an entrepreneur or self-employed more attractive to women, including also immigrant women. They called on Member States to consider developing standardised administrative packages for entrepreneurs to follow in the early stages of starting a business. There is a need for guidance and simplified forms, procedures and processes to help self-employed women entrepreneurs navigate the regulatory landscape.

Member States should also consider enhanced tax incentives or flexible tax structures to improve framework conditions for entrepreneurship and self-employment.

Recognising that female entrepreneurship and self-employment provide the flexibility to achieve a better work-life balance, the resolution called on the Commission and Member States to ensure a better work-life balance through better maternity, paternity, parental and carer’s leave, flexible working hours and on-site childcare facilities, and by promoting telework .

Documents
2022/05/02
   EP - Debate in Parliament
2022/04/07
   EP - Committee report tabled for plenary
Details

The Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality adopted an own-initiative report by Pernille WEISS (EPP, DK) on reaching women’s economic independence through entrepreneurship and self-employment.

Entrepreneurship and self-employment play an important role in creating jobs, innovation and growth to strengthen EU’s competitiveness. Unfortunately, women remain substantially under-represented as entrepreneurs. They constitute 52 % of the total European population, but only 34.4 % of the EU self-employed and 30 % of start-up entrepreneurs. Moreover, less than 8 % of top companies’ CEOs are women.

Women’s economic independence and empowerment is central to realising women’s rights and gender equality and includes the ability to participate equally in labour markets, access to and control over productive resources and meaningful participation in economic decision-making at all levels. Women entrepreneurs and self-employed women are an under-utilised source of sustainable economic growth, job creation and innovation potential.

Promoting entrepreneurship

The report underlined that women’s entrepreneurship contributes to increasing women’s economic independence and their empowerment, which is an essential precondition for reaching gender-equal societies and should be encouraged and promoted across the EU. In this regard, the Commission is called on to:

- step up its efforts to increase the employment rate of women in Europe and facilitate their access to the labour market, including by providing more incentives to promote women’s entrepreneurship;

- strengthen networks focusing on women’s entrepreneurship on European level to boost innovation and cooperation between national, EU and international networks;

- highlight prominent women entrepreneurs and investors as role models by launching a Europe-wide campaign raising awareness about the potential of entrepreneurship targeting predominantly women;

While welcoming public and private women’s entrepreneurship programmes in the Member States that include aspects of networking, mentoring, training, coaching and consultancy services and professional advice on legal and fiscal matters, Members called on the Commission and Member States to share best practices to strengthen and increase the share of women entrepreneurs and self-employed within the EU.

The report called for greater women-focused promotion of and awareness-raising about STEM subjects, digital education and financial literacy in order to combat prevailing stereotypes in education, training, school curricula and career guidance.

Members regretted the fact that women are under-represented in leadership positions and highlighted the need to promote equality between men and women at all levels of decision-making in business and management and called for the development of a strategy with Member States to ensure the meaningful representation of all women from diverse backgrounds in decision-making roles and with specific actions and policies to promote their economic empowerment.

Access to capital

Noting that women entrepreneurs are more likely to use alternative sources such as crowd lending and funding platforms, the report called on Member States and the Commission to boost awareness and facilitate easier access to finance for women entrepreneurs and self-employed including alternative forms of financing. The important role of microcredits in improving women’s financial inclusion by overcoming market and social barriers in the financial markets is underlined in the report.

Member States and regional and local authorities are encouraged to make use of the current European Structural Funds to target and promote women entrepreneurs and self-employed women. In addition, the Commission is urged to establish a European network of gender-conscious investors to provide women-led companies with relevant connections, networks and funding opportunities.

The report also stressed the need for awareness-raising and information campaigns on current and future EU funding possibilities for women entrepreneurs to provide tailored support to women business owners and women entrepreneurs and increase the visibility of women leaders so they can provide stronger role models and break current stereotypes. In this regard, the Commission is urged to establish a women’s entrepreneurship action plan .

Better framework for women entrepreneurs

Members emphasised the need to remove administrative barriers to starting a business to make becoming an entrepreneur or self-employed more attractive to women, including also immigrant women. They called on Member States to consider developing standardised administrative packages for entrepreneurs to follow in the early stages of starting a business. There is a need for guidance and simplified forms, procedures and processes to help self-employed women entrepreneurs navigate the regulatory landscape.

Member States should also consider enhanced tax incentives or flexible tax structures to improve framework conditions for entrepreneurship and self-employment.

Recognising that female entrepreneurship and self-employment provide the flexibility to achieve a better work-life balance, the report called on the Commission and Member States to ensure a better work-life balance through better maternity, paternity, parental and carer’s leave, flexible working hours and on-site childcare facilities, and by promoting telework .

Documents
2022/03/22
   EP - Vote in committee
2022/03/14
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2021/12/07
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2021/11/10
   EP - Committee draft report
Documents
2021/07/08
   EP - Committee referral announced in Parliament
2021/04/19
   EP - WEISS Pernille (EPP) appointed as rapporteur in FEMM

Documents

Votes

Parvenir à l'indépendance économique des femmes par l'entrepreneuriat et l'emploi indépendant - Reaching women's economic independence through entrepreneurship and self-employment - Förderung der wirtschaftlichen Unabhängigkeit von Frauen durch Unternehmertum und Selbstständigkeit - A9-0096/2022 - Pernille Weiss - Proposition de résolution (ensemble du texte) #

2022/05/03 Outcome: +: 542, 0: 52, -: 43
DE IT FR ES RO PL NL SE PT BE AT BG IE EL FI CZ LT HR SK DK SI LV CY LU MT EE HU
Total
89
69
68
55
26
45
27
20
20
19
17
15
13
18
14
18
9
12
12
13
7
8
6
6
5
7
19
icon: PPE PPE
156

Czechia PPE

2

Denmark PPE

For (1)

1

Latvia PPE

2
2

Luxembourg PPE

2

Malta PPE

For (1)

1

Estonia PPE

For (1)

1

Hungary PPE

Abstain (1)

1
icon: S&D S&D
135

Greece S&D

2

Czechia S&D

For (1)

1

Lithuania S&D

2

Slovakia S&D

2

Slovenia S&D

For (1)

1

Latvia S&D

2

Cyprus S&D

2

Luxembourg S&D

For (1)

1

Estonia S&D

2
icon: Renew Renew
96

Italy Renew

2

Poland Renew

1
3

Austria Renew

For (1)

1

Ireland Renew

2

Finland Renew

3

Lithuania Renew

1

Croatia Renew

For (1)

1

Slovenia Renew

2

Latvia Renew

For (1)

1

Luxembourg Renew

2

Estonia Renew

3

Hungary Renew

2
icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE
64

Spain Verts/ALE

3

Poland Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Netherlands Verts/ALE

3

Sweden Verts/ALE

2

Portugal Verts/ALE

1

Belgium Verts/ALE

3

Austria Verts/ALE

2

Ireland Verts/ALE

2

Finland Verts/ALE

3

Czechia Verts/ALE

3

Lithuania Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Denmark Verts/ALE

2

Luxembourg Verts/ALE

For (1)

1
icon: The Left The Left
36

Netherlands The Left

For (1)

1

Sweden The Left

For (1)

1

Portugal The Left

4

Belgium The Left

Abstain (1)

1

Finland The Left

For (1)

1

Czechia The Left

1

Denmark The Left

1

Cyprus The Left

2
icon: ID ID
60

Netherlands ID

Against (1)

1

Belgium ID

Against (1)

3

Austria ID

3

Finland ID

2

Czechia ID

Against (1)

Abstain (1)

2

Denmark ID

Abstain (1)

1

Estonia ID

Against (1)

1
icon: NI NI
36

Germany NI

Against (1)

3

France NI

2

Lithuania NI

1

Croatia NI

Abstain (1)

2

Slovakia NI

Against (1)

1

Latvia NI

1
icon: ECR ECR
54

Germany ECR

Against (1)

1

Netherlands ECR

Against (1)

5

Sweden ECR

For (1)

3

Belgium ECR

2

Bulgaria ECR

Against (1)

1

Greece ECR

Against (1)

1

Lithuania ECR

1

Croatia ECR

Against (1)

1

Slovakia ECR

Abstain (1)

1

Latvia ECR

For (1)

Against (1)

2
AmendmentsDossier
195 2021/2080(INI)
2021/12/08 FEMM 195 amendments...
source: 702.913

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)

docs/3
date
2022-05-03T00:00:00
docs
title: T9-0139/2022
type
Text adopted by Parliament, single reading
body
EP
events/3/docs
  • url: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/CRE-9-2022-05-02-TOC_EN.html title: Debate in Parliament
events/4
date
2022-05-03T00:00:00
type
Decision by Parliament
body
EP
docs
url: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2022-0139_EN.html title: T9-0139/2022
summary
events/4
date
2022-05-03T00:00:00
type
Decision by Parliament
body
EP
docs
title: T9-0139/2022
procedure/subject/3.45.06
Entrepreneurship, liberal professions
procedure/subject/4.10.09
Women condition and rights
procedure/subject/4.15.08
Work, employment, wages and salaries: equal opportunities women and men, and for all
docs/3
date
2022-05-03T00:00:00
docs
title: T9-0139/2022
type
Text adopted by Parliament, single reading
body
EP
events/2/docs
  • url: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2022-0096_EN.html title: A9-0096/2022
events/3
date
2022-05-02T00:00:00
type
Debate in Parliament
body
EP
events/4
date
2022-05-03T00:00:00
type
Decision by Parliament
body
EP
docs
title: T9-0139/2022
forecasts
  • date: 2022-05-02T00:00:00 title: Indicative plenary sitting date
procedure/stage_reached
Old
Awaiting Parliament's vote
New
Procedure completed
procedure/subject/3.45.06
Entrepreneurship, liberal professions
procedure/subject/4.10.09
Women condition and rights
procedure/subject/4.15.08
Work, employment, wages and salaries: equal opportunities women and men, and for all
forecasts
  • date: 2022-05-02T00:00:00 title: Indicative plenary sitting date
forecasts
  • date: 2022-05-02T00:00:00 title: Indicative plenary sitting date
events/2/summary
  • The Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality adopted an own-initiative report by Pernille WEISS (EPP, DK) on reaching women’s economic independence through entrepreneurship and self-employment.
  • Entrepreneurship and self-employment play an important role in creating jobs, innovation and growth to strengthen EU’s competitiveness. Unfortunately, women remain substantially under-represented as entrepreneurs. They constitute 52 % of the total European population, but only 34.4 % of the EU self-employed and 30 % of start-up entrepreneurs. Moreover, less than 8 % of top companies’ CEOs are women.
  • Women’s economic independence and empowerment is central to realising women’s rights and gender equality and includes the ability to participate equally in labour markets, access to and control over productive resources and meaningful participation in economic decision-making at all levels. Women entrepreneurs and self-employed women are an under-utilised source of sustainable economic growth, job creation and innovation potential.
  • Promoting entrepreneurship
  • The report underlined that women’s entrepreneurship contributes to increasing women’s economic independence and their empowerment, which is an essential precondition for reaching gender-equal societies and should be encouraged and promoted across the EU. In this regard, the Commission is called on to:
  • - step up its efforts to increase the employment rate of women in Europe and facilitate their access to the labour market, including by providing more incentives to promote women’s entrepreneurship;
  • - strengthen networks focusing on women’s entrepreneurship on European level to boost innovation and cooperation between national, EU and international networks;
  • - highlight prominent women entrepreneurs and investors as role models by launching a Europe-wide campaign raising awareness about the potential of entrepreneurship targeting predominantly women;
  • While welcoming public and private women’s entrepreneurship programmes in the Member States that include aspects of networking, mentoring, training, coaching and consultancy services and professional advice on legal and fiscal matters, Members called on the Commission and Member States to share best practices to strengthen and increase the share of women entrepreneurs and self-employed within the EU.
  • The report called for greater women-focused promotion of and awareness-raising about STEM subjects, digital education and financial literacy in order to combat prevailing stereotypes in education, training, school curricula and career guidance.
  • Members regretted the fact that women are under-represented in leadership positions and highlighted the need to promote equality between men and women at all levels of decision-making in business and management and called for the development of a strategy with Member States to ensure the meaningful representation of all women from diverse backgrounds in decision-making roles and with specific actions and policies to promote their economic empowerment.
  • Access to capital
  • Noting that women entrepreneurs are more likely to use alternative sources such as crowd lending and funding platforms, the report called on Member States and the Commission to boost awareness and facilitate easier access to finance for women entrepreneurs and self-employed including alternative forms of financing. The important role of microcredits in improving women’s financial inclusion by overcoming market and social barriers in the financial markets is underlined in the report.
  • Member States and regional and local authorities are encouraged to make use of the current European Structural Funds to target and promote women entrepreneurs and self-employed women. In addition, the Commission is urged to establish a European network of gender-conscious investors to provide women-led companies with relevant connections, networks and funding opportunities.
  • The report also stressed the need for awareness-raising and information campaigns on current and future EU funding possibilities for women entrepreneurs to provide tailored support to women business owners and women entrepreneurs and increase the visibility of women leaders so they can provide stronger role models and break current stereotypes. In this regard, the Commission is urged to establish a women’s entrepreneurship action plan .
  • Better framework for women entrepreneurs
  • Members emphasised the need to remove administrative barriers to starting a business to make becoming an entrepreneur or self-employed more attractive to women, including also immigrant women. They called on Member States to consider developing standardised administrative packages for entrepreneurs to follow in the early stages of starting a business. There is a need for guidance and simplified forms, procedures and processes to help self-employed women entrepreneurs navigate the regulatory landscape.
  • Member States should also consider enhanced tax incentives or flexible tax structures to improve framework conditions for entrepreneurship and self-employment.
  • Recognising that female entrepreneurship and self-employment provide the flexibility to achieve a better work-life balance, the report called on the Commission and Member States to ensure a better work-life balance through better maternity, paternity, parental and carer’s leave, flexible working hours and on-site childcare facilities, and by promoting telework .
events/2
date
2022-04-07T00:00:00
type
Committee report tabled for plenary
body
EP
procedure/stage_reached
Old
Awaiting committee decision
New
Awaiting Parliament's vote
events/1
date
2022-03-22T00:00:00
type
Vote in committee
body
EP
docs/2
date
2022-03-14T00:00:00
docs
title: PE729.886
type
Amendments tabled in committee
body
EP
docs/1/docs/0/url
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/FEMM-AM-702913_EN.html
docs/1
date
2021-12-07T00:00:00
docs
title: PE702.913
type
Amendments tabled in committee
body
EP
forecasts
  • date: 2022-05-02T00:00:00 title: Indicative plenary sitting date
docs/0/docs/0/url
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/FEMM-PR-699289_EN.html
docs
  • date: 2021-11-10T00:00:00 docs: title: PE699.289 type: Committee draft report body: EP
committees/0/shadows/4
name
MODIG Silvia
group
The Left group in the European Parliament - GUE/NGL
abbr
GUE/NGL
commission
  • body: EC dg: Legal Service commissioner: DALLI Helena
committees/0/shadows/1
name
SOLÍS PÉREZ Susana
group
Renew Europe group
abbr
Renew
events
  • date: 2021-07-08T00:00:00 type: Committee referral announced in Parliament body: EP
procedure/dossier_of_the_committee
  • FEMM/9/06099
procedure/stage_reached
Old
Preparatory phase in Parliament
New
Awaiting committee decision