#Female Business Owners: Shaping the European Economy
From the first week of November 2026, the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) will launch the European Gender Equality Week 2026 — an initiative dedicated to highlighting women's rights and gender parity across the Union. This year's focus theme, "Women in leadership, shaping change, and inspiring the next generation of leaders," could not be more fitting for the subject of this blog. In that spirit, we turn our attention to one of the most powerful expressions of female leadership in Europe today: women who own and build businesses.
Across the European Union, women own roughly a third of all businesses — around 9 million women entrepreneurs — and their small and medium-sized enterprises are a quiet but powerful engine of the economy. These companies create jobs in their local communities, often in sectors that touch everyday life: personal services, health and social care, education, culture, retail, and increasingly technology. Beyond the numbers, women-led SMEs bring distinctive strengths — a tendency to build sustainable, community-rooted businesses, and strong performance in productivity and value-added growth at a time when Europe's 34 million SMEs are driving the region's economic recovery. The European Commission itself estimates that if women aged 30 to 49 started businesses at the same rate as men, the EU would gain some 5.5 million additional entrepreneurs — a huge, still untapped reserve of growth and employment. (European Commission, EISMEA)
Yet the path is not an easy one. Women entrepreneurs in Europe still face real, structural barriers: only 33% of EU business owners are women, and many report difficulties accessing finance, with banks and investors applying greater scrutiny to women-led ventures. Fear of failure is more common among women (53% versus 45% for men), fewer believe they have the skills to start a business, and many run their companies alone and part-time — which limits growth and income. Sector concentration is another challenge: women dominate in lower-margin, "female-coded" industries while remaining under-represented in high-growth, technology-driven fields. (EISMEA report insights, European Commission)
The good news? Every one of these challenges can be met. Access to finance improves dramatically with preparation: a solid business plan, clean financial records, and awareness of EU-backed options — from the SME Relief Package to national guarantee schemes, grants, and microloans designed for women founders. Confidence and skills grow through mentoring networks, women's business associations, and training programmes funded under the EU SME Strategy and Gender Equality Strategy. And because two heads are better than one, joining peer networks and co-working communities counters the isolation of solo entrepreneurship and opens doors to new markets and sectors. For women in Croatia and across the EU, the message is clear: the obstacles are real, but so is the support — and the European economy is stronger when women build sustainable and impactful businesses.
If you are ready to take the next step, Femme Poslovanje can help. Beyond inspiration and knowledge, we guide potential clients toward local peer networks and co-working communities that can accelerate the growth of your business or organisation — because no woman should have to build alone.