In my last blog - Young Entrepreneurs, I mentioned that a number of women entrepreneurs among young people is usually the smallest or non-existent. The exception is Mexico where women entrepreneurs are blossoming and on the rise.

So, what makes this country so different? Why women are more successful and in higher numbers in Mexico?

World Bank in their 2020 research paper called Women, Business and the Law (https://wbl.worldbank.org/) scored 190 countries on several indexes that would reflect equality and openness of the country to women in all spheres of the business and life.

Surprisingly, Mexico received a higher score than Switzerland in terms of protecting women’s rights in the investment and business world. Shocking, but true.

It is one of the few countries that scored 100% equality of business laws for women and men.

From this example, we can see that policy change in the country would be the main reason for higher level of women participation in business as well as women prosperity and success.

The second reason of the higher numbers of women (especially younger ones) in business unfortunately is not that glorious. Even though Mexico is abundant with true female entrepreneurs and very successful business owners, high numbers in statistics for young group come for a reason you might not expect.

Have you heard about being entrepreneur out of necessity?

Majority of young people right after school cannot afford going to universities or colleges and cannot find a job, so, they open their own businesses. And since unemployment among females and lack of education is higher than among males (usually family will send a boy to school not a girl), girls start their own businesses.

Yes, we are talking about being self-employed which usually means working long hours by yourself with no support, no mentorship, and high risk of loosing income if you stop working.

Being self-employed in those situations is different from owning a sustainable or growing business. Usually young women who are entrepreneurs-out-of-necessity earn over 25% less than their traditionally employed counterparts.(https://marker.medium.com/how-to-support-women-who-became-entrepreneurs-out-of-necessity-fd282d7535)

The same situation is prevailing in other parts of the world such as Africa (https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/opinion/2018/11/29/women-entrepreneurs-the-future-of-africa).

In more developed countries, for example, Ireland, the lack of young women entrepreneurs stands from very strong and rigid religious traditions such as Catholicism and Protestantism. Families continue to support old fashioned mentality around women participation in business even though the country overall is ready for a change.

In the next blog we will look at another reason  for inequality of women and men in business – parenthood arrangements and policies.

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