Ifo Institute calls for measures to combat the gender gap in start-ups

New figures from the institute show that the proportion of female founders is declining. The scientists call for political measures.

The proportion of female founders in Germany has continued to fall due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is shown in a new paper by the ifo Institute, which analyzes start-ups from 2005 to 2021 based on commercial register entries. The proportion of women in individual start-ups fell by 1.2 percentage points between 2019 and 2021.

According to the Start-up Monitor 2022, women only account for around 20 percent of start-ups overall. In the ifo article, the authors suspect that different preferences between men and women and a lower willingness on the part of women to take risks are possible causes of the gender gap. However, structural problems have also become even clearer as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. For this reason, the authors of the ifo Institute are calling for a consistent expansion of childcare and a future renunciation of school closures.

According to the article, other reasons for the start-up gender gap are women's different career and study choices. They are still underrepresented in degree courses with a high start-up rate, such as computer science. "In addition, women receive less external funding when starting up," write the authors. However, it is not possible to determine whether this is due to discrimination by banks and investors or a low demand on the part of women.