There are only 950 thousand female-run businesses in Italy, corresponding to 18% of the total sample analyzed (the total sample is approximately 5.2 million businesses active on the national territory), a particularly low figure which highlights the persistent gender gap in business world. This is what emerges from the report on female entrepreneurship in Italy published today by Cribis, a Crif group company leader in the business information sector.
The report reveals that, of the 950 thousand women-owned businesses, the vast majority are micro-enterprises, 95.8% of the total. Companies that satisfy one of the following criteria are considered “female”: joint-stock companies in which the majority (>50%) of the members of the administrative body are women or the majority of the capital shares are held by women; partnerships in which the majority (>50%) of the members are women; or individual businesses whose owner is a woman. Furthermore, only 0.2% of women-owned businesses achieve a high internationalization score, while 87.7% are at a low level, highlighting a significant lack of presence on the global market. The same trend is recorded regarding digital attitude: high in only 1.6% of female companies and low in 88.2%.
The regions with the highest percentage of female-owned companies in the national territory are: Lombardy (14.9%), Lazio (10.4%) and Campania (10.1%). Elsewhere, 10% is not reached. While Basilicata (19.5%), Lazio (19.4%) and Abruzzo (19.3%) they are the regions with the highest incidence of female businesses out of the total number of female businesses in the region.
The results are very different if we analyze the provincial presence of women-owned businesses compared to the total number of companies in the province examined. In this case, the podium of the provinces with a greater incidence of female businesses sees Prato at the top (22.8%), followed by La Spezia (21.3%) and Frosinone (21.1%). At the bottom of the ranking, with a percentage below 15%, are the provinces of Bolzano (14.4%), Ferrara (14.6%) and Trento (14.9%).
As regards the sectors, the greatest concentration of women-owned businesses is in social services (43% of the total number of businesses), in the textile industries (37%) and in the retail trade of clothing and accessories (35.7%).
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