Executive summary
The first national Gender Index brings business structure, leadership composition and commercial performance together to establish a consistent evidence base for female entrepreneurship and business leadership across Australia.
Key findings
- Bringing female entrepreneurship to parity with male entrepreneurship could add 745,000 additional jobs.
- The report identifies more than $100 billion in combined annual wages and government tax revenue as the potential economic opportunity associated with parity.
- Women form a substantial part of the entrepreneurial base, particularly among sole traders and younger businesses, but representation falls as businesses become larger and more established.
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.