This note examines the barriers women entrepreneurs face in scaling their businesses and presents evidence-based findings on what supports women-led firms. It argues that entrepreneurship can be a pathway to employment and economic empowerment for women, since over half of women in developing countries are or aspire to be entrepreneurs, but that most of them run subsistence-oriented micro-businesses that are not seen as key drivers of innovation and growth.

Drawing on lessons from the Africa and East Asia Pacific Gender Innovation Labs, it highlights the multiple and contextual factors that contribute to the gender gap in firm performance, including social norms and the risk of gender-based violence. Among the findings it reports, the share of women-led businesses decreases as the size of the firm increases, and the note sets out five key findings on what works and what does not in addressing the differential constraints restricting the growth of women-led firms, including evidence that socio-emotional skills training can outperform traditional business training.