Australian women at the Dell women in business conference in Austin were surprised by the news that Australia has the second best environments in the world for female entrepreneurs.
For the second year in a row, the Dell-sponsored Gender Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index showed Australia as ranking second only to the US in terms of “the conditions that foster high potential female entrepreneurship”.
In both years Australia ranked a very clear second ahead of many other developed countries — and streets ahead of any developing countries — as a place for women to start their own companies.
This year, the survey has been expanded from an initial 17 countries to 30. On closer analysis there are a number of elements to the story.
The survey itself takes into account many objective factors from organisations such as the World Bank and the International Labour Organisation comparing countries. Australia ranks with the US, Sweden and France in support for small and medium enterprises. It scores high in other criteria such as access to childcare, the freedom to do business, and access to technology.
Australia also ranks high in equal rights and educational levels for women.
The lesson from this is that, at least compared to the position of women in many other countries, Australia has a lot better preconditions for women in business than we like to think.
In the survey the US scored 83 as a place for female entrepreneurs. Australia scored 80, followed by Sweden at 73. This puts us well ahead of France and Germany at 67, Chile at 55 and Britain at 54, with others else below this.
As one of the survey’s researchers pointed out, a stunning 73 per cent of the countries scored poorly — less than 50 or below out of 100.
So it does make the point that Australians do need to take a look around at their country in a global context, and while it might not be as great as would like it to be, the basic framework of the country for would-be female entrepreneurs is a lot better than in many other countries.
If the survey is right, as Australian entrepreneur Wendy Simpson points out, maybe it is time for more women to take the jump to start their own businesses.
Of course, saying that Australia ranks a lot higher than India (26), Uganda and Egypt (19), Bangladesh (17) and Pakistan (11) as a place to do business is no reason for complacency.
But all that said, is there an “x” factor in Australia — maybe cultural — that is holding back women in business at all levels?
There are similar issues facing women in business and women thinking about founding their own business around the world.
As Dell’s entrepreneur in residence, Ingrid Vanderveldt, said yesterday, the biggest single thing preventing women from starting their own businesses (at least in the developed world) is lack of confidence.
Do Australian women lack confidence or are there cultural elements in Australia that hold women back or lead women to hold themselves back in business in general?
Maybe the real question is not why Australia happens to rank second in this survey but what can we learn from top-ranking US to improve things.
The US business culture is based on people who know they have to fight hard to compete with 300 million others. Not a lot of room for any Australian-style self-deprecation or hiding a light under a bushel. This difference is even more pronounced in the attitudes to business and personal success by women in both countries. (Glenda Korporall)
