EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Promotion of female entrepreneurship

Promotion of female entrepreneurship - GR

Introduction

Starting your own business can be more difficult if you’re a woman. In general, financial institutions are more reluctant to provide women with capital and, in many instances friends and family are not very supportive. As a result, female entrepreneurship tends to be under-exploited in Greece, even though the female unemployment rate is very high compared with that of men, particularly in the 21-45-age bracket. This encouraged the Ministry for Development to establish an initiative to promote female entrepreneurship.

Description

This initiative involved the provision of ongoing support to female entrepreneurs (particularly in the start-up stage). This support included advice on economics, financing, taxation, law and management. The aim was to foster both the creation of viable new companies by women and the development of existing companies in which 51% of the share capital belonged to women and where women had an irrefutable share in management responsibilities.

During the programme implementation period (1999-2001), 431 applications for support were received. Of these, 198 were approved and 132 enterprise projects were successfully completed. 39 of these involved the creation of new SMEs and 93 concerned the development of existing companies. The projects were divided among 33 departments, some in peripheral regions, but with the main concentration in Greece’s two largest cities (59 projects in Athens and 24 in Thessaloniki).

The businesses supported covered a broad range of sectors – 18 in total. The majority were in the publishing and printing industry (21 firms), the food and beverage industry (20) and the clothing industry (18). In order of increasing importance, investments focused on: capital expenditure (equipment, software, etc.), product promotion (brochures, videos, participation in exhibitions, etc.) and consultancy.

Results

In spite of difficulties arising from the lack of experience of some of the women involved, the results were largely positive. In addition to the setting-up or development of 132 businesses, the programme also resulted in the creation of 389 new jobs, the widespread application of new information and communication technologies (50% of the women participants have created their own Website) and the acquisition of ISO9000* certification (quality policy standard) by 30% of the companies involved.

Resources used

Total cost: 11.896 million euros
EU contribution: 5.948 million euros

Contact info

Ministry of Development
Mrs Eirini Pittara, tel. +30 210 6969152

Project start date

01/01/1999

Links

Ministry of Development Regional Policy – Inforegio

Document type

case

Themes

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Equality

Keywords

Gender Equality