EU Commission Report Highlights Challenges Still Facing Europe’s Women Founders 

Despite record small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) growth across Europe in 2025, women founded just one in three businesses in the European Union (EU), underscoring the persistent barriers that continue to limit women’s entrepreneurship, according to a new report by the European Commission (EC).

The report identifies several barriers, including limited access to finance, gender stereotypes, low self-confidence, limited networking opportunities, fear of failure, and inadequate childcare, and eldercare support. 

This gap is particularly visible in science and technology, sectors where women remain significantly underrepresented.

Women in tech and science

In 2025, women made up one in three STEM graduates, one in five information and communication technology (ICT) specialists, and 24% of self-employed technicians in science, engineering, and ICT.

According to Eurostat, more than 81.6 million people in the EU were employed in science and technology in 2025, of which 52.5% were women, working mainly in service activities. Despite this growth, Eurostat reported that women are still underrepresented as scientists and engineers, accounting for 40.8% of the total number of scientists and engineers.  

“As a woman, it remains more challenging to establish scientific, technical, and leadership credibility in a deep-tech and biotech space that continues to be overwhelmingly male-dominated,” said Carmina Reyes Plascencia, COO of Polymera, a deep-tech biomaterials company.

The challenges

“While rates of women-owned startups are increasing globally, a number of challenges remain,” said Odille Sánchez, Leader of the Tech and Science-based Entrepreneurship Center of Excellence at Tecnológico de Monterrey. 

This underrepresentation in tech is often linked to a major barrier, namely the access to finance. The financing gap is especially pronounced in science- and technology-based businesses, where raising external capital is often essential.

The report attributes the financing gap to a combination of factors: women are generally less likely to seek debt financing, investors may consciously or unconsciously favour male founders, and women are more likely to run smaller businesses or operate in sectors perceived as offering lower growth potential.

According to Carla Borini Etichetti, co-founder and CEO of Kresko RNAtech, fundraising is one of the male-dominated spheres she had to navigate. “Investors often build trust through informal relationships, shared references, and personal affinity. That dynamic can sometimes be more difficult to access as a woman, especially when most investors are men,” she explained.

Echoing this sentiment, Sánchez noted that there is a lack of funding for female startup founders, especially in the IT sector, “where built-in bias impacts access to startup capital.”

Beyond access to finance, the Commission argues that inadequate childcare, eldercare, and parental leave remain major obstacles. 

Because women continue to shoulder most unpaid care work, the report says they often have less time to navigate business regulations, build networks, or grow their companies. The report argues that affordable care services and more inclusive parental leave policies would reduce these pressures and make entrepreneurship more accessible.

Focus on social work, education, and personal services

Women entrepreneurs are disproportionately concentrated in sectors such as social work and education. They account for 65% of entrepreneurs in social work, compared with 35% of men in the same field, while finance and real estate remain male-dominated. 

Plascencia explained that this is largely related to historical roles such as caregiving and activities “that also haven’t always been economically compensated and that were culturally assigned to women.”

While agreeing with this statement, Etichetti also pointed out that this landscape is changing. 

“More women are entering deep tech, biotech, climate, health, and other highly technical industries, and we are proving that we can not only contribute to those fields, but also lead companies in them,” she explained. “Women bring a very powerful ability to think systemically, organize complexity, and build with long-term impact in mind.”

Overcoming challenges

Despite these challenges, women’s entrepreneurship continues to grow globally. She points to Latin America as evidence that women’s entrepreneurship can expand rapidly when opportunities improve.

In 2025, Sánchez wrote in Crunchbase News that the rate of small businesses founded by female entrepreneurs in Latin America was 21.1% higher than in other regions, suggesting that strong entrepreneurial growth is possible despite persistent gender gaps.

“In Latin America, anywhere from 18% to 40% of women make up the heads of households,” Sánchez wrote. “Their circumstances have often led them to entrepreneurship; however, it’s most often in the informal sector – such as owning food stands, mobile nail salons, or small shops. Where the private sector is missing out is on this natural ambition of Latina entrepreneurs in the more formal sectors, such as technology.”

Etichetti noted that she overcame the challenges of being a female founder by “staying very grounded in who she is and in the value she brings.” 

Additionally, Plascencia said that having confidence in your knowledge and skills is essential to succeeding. For the COO of Polymera, waiting until being fully ready is also a no-go. 

“The gap between your actual competence and your perceived competence is usually bigger than you think,” she explained. 

This is another gap that the report notes, highlighting that it may lead women to avoid any venture perceived as carrying a meaningful risk of failure. 

It also adds that traits associated with effective leadership and entrepreneurship, such as assertiveness, competitive drive and decisiveness, are culturally perceived as masculine.