Digital Entrepreneurship for Women (DEW) is ideally placed to respond to both issues – the under-representation of women in the entrepreneurial space and the need for gender-specific training around digital enterprise. Within this context, DEW wished to achieve the following: 1. Develop innovative, gender-specific training on female entrepreneurship with specific focuses on key areas where female entrepreneurs experience the most challenges e.g. access to finance, digitalisation and accessing networks. 2. Establish an Open Educational Resource which enables access to free resources in 4 languages. 3. Contribute to policy development on the topic of female entrepreneurs and digital enterprise, by specifically applying a gender lens to the ENTRECOMP Framework. DEW harnesses the expertise of seven partners from five countries who represent the various dimensions and aspects of female entrepreneurship with a specific emphasis on digital empowerment. Within the partnership are public and private sector organisations as well as academic, NGO and ICT partners. All of this expertise will combine to successfully deliver on this innovative project.
The lack of female participation in the EU labour market continues to represent a significant source of untapped potential for EU economies. As outlined by the EU Commission Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, gender stereotypes and male-dominated models and networks continue to prevail to the detriment of women. Women make up 52% of the total EU population, yet only 34% are self-employed and just 30% of start-up entrepreneurs are female (WEgate, European Commission, 2020). Covid-19 has undoubtedly exacerbated the challenges of female entrepreneurship promotion as well as the social challenges of violence against women and discrimination. At the same time, the post-pandemic landscape provides for new opportunities for female entrepreneurship, specifically the unexploited potential of digital entrepreneurship. As well as addressing the existing gaps in relation to female entrepreneurship promotion, there have also been calls for action to address gaps identified in relation to training under the EU ‘Updated Skills Agenda for Europe’. A specific focus on digital skills is also required which would result in a significant boost to GDP of approximately €9bn (Danti, European Commission, 2016).