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Barometer of female entrepreneurship 2023

Women in Business publishes a new edition of its barometer of female entrepreneurship. While the figures are timidly pointing upwards, the findings remain similar to those of 4 years ago: female freelance in Brussels are still under-represented in the entrepreneurial sector.

Parity still to be achieved

The first finding of this 2023 edition is that, although more and more women are embarking on the entrepreneurial adventure in Brussels, parity has not yet been achieved. There were 30,874 freelance  women in 2021, compared with 75,832 men. However, the trend since 2018 is more marked for women (+12.6%) than for men (+9.8%).

Freelance  women are more concerned by the risk of financial insecurity than their male counterparts: 52% of self-employed women have an annual income of less than 20,000 euros, compared with 40.3% of self-employed men. The higher the income, the lower the proportion of self-employed women.

The profile of the female freelance in Brussels

The average age of female freelance in Brussels is 41. They live in Uccle, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre or Watermael-Boitsfort: in these municipalities, over 10% of women aged 15 to 64 are self-employed, while Molenbeek-Saint-Jean has the lowest self-employment rate (3.9%).

Two out of three female freelance have a Master’s degree: a higher rate than their male counterparts, just over one in two of whom have this level of education.

The majority of freelance  women work in a liberal or intellectual profession (58%), and it is in this sector that the number of activities is increasing the most (+10.5% since 2018).

It’s also worth noting that one freelance  woman in three is of foreign nationality: mainly French, Romanian and Italian.

id female entrepreneur in brussels

A need for support and guidance

Freelance women generally express more doubts about their entrepreneurial skills than men. They also encounter more difficulties in the various stages – from fund-raising to gaining the trust of financial organizations…

As a result, they express a need for support and information on schemes, particularly financial schemes, that can support them in their business. They also find the measures to support female entrepreneurship in Brussels useful, if they are aware of them at all.

With this in mind, hub.brussel is committed to greater inclusivity in the business world, and supports female entrepreneurship in the Brussels-Capital Region via its Women in Business hub.