Gender export gap in Scotland: research

Executive Summary

• The report aims to understand the gender export gap in Scotland with the intention to:
  • develop an economic case for addressing a known gender export gap in Scotland and;
  • understand what the most effective avenues to address this gender export gap could potentially be and how they could be implemented.
• The aims were undertaken by drawing on data from: (i) the Longitudinal Small Business Survey to quantify the economic impact of women’s under-participation in exporting on Scotland’s economy; (ii) 16 interviews with women entrepreneurs who are exporting; (iii) 10 interviews with women who are not exporting; (iv) 5 case studies of successful women entrepreneurs who are exporting; and (v) 9 interviews with key stakeholders from the enterprise support ecosystem.
• Our key finding from the quantitative analysis highlights that reducing the gender export gap could lead to significant benefits – if women-led SMEs exported at the same rate as male-led exporters it could increase 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.
• From the qualitative analysis we provide insights from the women participants regarding: (i) the barriers faced by women exporting and not exporting; (ii) the challenges to the support provided in Scotland; (iii) the opportunities to grow and internationalise; and (iv) the support required for the women to thrive in growing their businesses and exporting.
• From the interviews with the enterprise support organisations, we provide insights into: (i) the barriers and challenges of delivering support; and (ii) the further support needs and opportunities for women-led Scottish SMEs in pre-growth, early-growth, and growth stages.
• Based on the findings we propose several recommendations to the Scottish Government for opportunities to reduce the gender gap in exporting. These recommendations include: (1) running export awareness campaigns for women seeking to internationalise; (2) providing a foundation programme of training and information on e-commerce for women-led businesses; (3) providing a programme of trade missions for women-led businesses; (4) expanding existing export advisory services to cover all of Scotland for these women entrepreneurs; (5) increasing the international exposure of women’s networks; (6) providing adequate finance and promoting financial literacy for women entrepreneurs; (7) investigating the links between exporting and productivity for both men and women-led SMEs; (8) collating gender-segregated data for exporting in Scotland; (9) mapping out the current exporting support programmes and initiatives to provide an understanding of the exporting landscape for women; and (10) aligning policy priorities for women-led SMEs.