Gender export gap report: response

We welcome the findings of the Gender Export Gap research report. This was authored by Professor Norin Arshed, Dr Stephen Knox and Dr Carolina Marin Cadavid from the Universities of Strathclyde and Stirling, and was published in February 2025.

Following a successful workshop with women-led businesses and other stakeholders in November 2023, our aim in commissioning this research was to better understand two things:

• what difference greater participation by women in exporting could make to their businesses and the achievement of Scotland’s wider trade and economic targets
• how we can encourage and support that participation by working with partners and stakeholders

The findings confirmed the presence of a gender export gap in Scotland, whereby women-led businesses export less than their male counterparts. This finding is a global phenomenon, well supported by other international research in this area.

Drawing on quantitative and qualitative analysis, the research found that reducing the gender export gap in Scotland could lead to significant economic benefits, increasing total turnover by between:

• £2.1 billion and £6.3 billion over one year, and between
• £3.4 billion and £10.3 billion over two years

The report authors also looked at the barriers to exporting faced by women exporters and non-exporters; their opportunities to grow and internationalise; and the support required for the women to grow their businesses and export.

Based on their findings, the report provides a series of recommendations for the Scottish Government to take forward with its delivery partners and stakeholders.  These recommendations align well with our implementation of Scotland’s Vision for Trade, the National Strategy for Economic Transformation, A Trading Nation, and the recent Pathways: Women in Entrepreneurship Report.

We will consider how best to implement those recommendations, in order to help address the gender export gap in Scotland. Initial work will focus on addressing the following recommendations as soon as possible: 

• raising awareness of exporting opportunities for women-led SMEs

• better targeting women-led businesses for foundation training programmes and information on e-commerce
• including more women in our programme of trade missions
• increasing the international exposure of women’s networks
• collating gender-segregated data for exporting in Scotland
• aligning our export and entrepreneurial policy priorities for women-led SMEs

Our progress in implementing the report’s recommendations will be set out in our next Vision for Trade Annual report.