From 14 to 16 May, a highly interactive expert workshop in Prague fostered women’s entrepreneurship (WE) in Europe. It was the first workshop on this theme in the project “Peer-Learning in Entrepreneurship in Education and in Women Entrepreneurshop”. empirica coordinates this project on behalf of the European Commission, Directorate-General GROW. The event convened 60 experts from 33 European countries. They represented ministries and governmental agencies as well as businesses associations, investors, non-governmental organisations, female entrepreneurs, experts on women’s entrepreneurship, and WE ambassadors. Most participants came from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.
The workshop participants suggested activities to foster WE in four principal fields: funding, education, promotions and networks.
— As regards funding, specific funds for female entrepreneurs and the improvement of financial literacy were promoted.
— In education, lifelong education and financial education stood out.
— In terms of promotion, entrepreneurial role models and mentors need to be fostered. Networks of mentors and their promotion in media are necessary.
— Networks for women supporting women need to be strengthened, a powerful umbrella organisation for WE needs to be built. A pan-European organization is needed, best as a one-stop-shop and a single digital gateway.
See a video about the workshop at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7d_JXEydGQ.