Executive summary
The Australian Capital Territory records comparatively strong participation at both the entry and incorporated stages of business. Women lead 42.9% of classified sole traders and 15.8% of classified ACN companies, placing the ACT third and second respectively among Australia’s jurisdictions. The findings show a healthy founder pipeline, strong representation in productive middle bands and particular strengths in health and education, while the transition from micro-business to greater scale remains constrained.
Key findings
- Women lead 42.9% of classified sole traders and 15.8% of classified ACN companies. These results are 0.7 and 0.6 percentage points above the respective national benchmarks of 42.2% and 15.2%.
- The women-led share falls by 27.1 percentage points between sole traders and ACN companies. The entry-stage rate is 2.7 times the incorporated rate.
- Micro-businesses make up 85.4% of the women-led company portfolio, compared with 80.7% of the male-led portfolio. Small, medium and large businesses collectively account for 12.9% of women-led companies, versus 18.1% of male-led companies.
- Women lead 21.0% of companies producing $50,000-$100,000 per employee, 16.0% in the $100,000-$250,000 band and 15.6% in the $250,000-$500,000 band. This shows that commercial performance is not the central barrier once women-led firms reach productive scale.
- Companies aged up to five years represent 39.5% of the women-led portfolio, compared with 36.6% of the male-led portfolio. Generation X accounts for 41.2% of women-led companies and Millennials for 33.1%.
- Women lead 29.8% of classified Health Care and Social Assistance companies and 28.5% of Education and Training companies. By contrast, women lead 10.2% of classified construction companies.
Methodology context
The report examines active businesses across ABN sole traders and ACN registered companies. Where leadership gender can be reliably classified, entities are identified as women-led, gender-equal-led or male-led, with analysis across geography, industry, company size, business age, leadership generation and productivity. Percentages refer to entities for which leadership gender could be reliably classified.