Yahoo Finance The best cities in the world to be a female entrepreneur
London is Europe’s standout city to be a female entrepreneur and the third best base for female business owners in the world.
Research from IT and tech giant Dell showed that the UK capital is one of the top 10 cities for all but one of the five sector “markers”.
It finished behind only New York and San Francisco for providing the best environment for female entrepreneurs to flourish.
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“Globally, women’s entrepreneurship rates are growing more than 10 percent each year,” said Karen Quintos, EVP and chief customer officer at Dell.
“In fact, women are as likely or more likely than men to start businesses in many markets. However, financial, cultural and political barriers can limit the success of these businesses.”
She added: “By arming city leaders and policymakers with data-driven research and clear calls to action, we can collectively improve the landscape for high-potential women entrepreneurs, which in turn dramatically lifts a city’s economic prospects — as what is good for women is good for the economy.”
Cities were ranked on five important characteristics: capital, technology, talent, culture and markets.
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These pillars were organised into two groups — operating environment and enabling environment.
The overall rating is based on 72 indicators; 45 of these, nearly two-thirds, have a gender-based component. Individual indicators were weighted based on four criteria: relevance, quality of underlying data, uniqueness in the index and gender component.
London’s nearest challenger in Europe was Stockholm, in fifth, with Paris (12) and Amsterdam (19). Dublin came 34th in the rankings.
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London ranks No. 3 overall, also in third place for markets and for capital. It ranks No. 4 in enabling environment, and ties at No. 2 with Austin in technology.
It is only let down by finishing 11th in the culture category.
The top 20 cities are:
New York City
Bay Area (San Francisco)
London
Boston
Stockholm
Los Angeles
Washington, D.C.
Singapore
Toronto
Seattle
Sydney
Paris
Chicago
Minneapolis
Austin
Hong Kong
Melbourne
Atlanta
Amsterdam
Portland (OR)
The report noted that all the 25 cities which featured last year had improved, with nearly all seeing an
increase in the number of news articles about successful women entrepreneurs or business women.
Many cities saw an increase in the number of accelerators as well as an increase in the amount of funding going to women entrepreneurs, perhaps helped by a rise in the number of female-founded venture capital firms.
The Dell Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index was compiled with the help of consultants IHS Markit.
