Rome, 5 January 2023 – Despite the pandemic, female innovation is growing. There are 2,000 female innovative start-ups registered at the end of September 2022, 572 more than in the same
period of 2019. Precisely at the turn of the Covid 19 epidemic, in short, many women have set up this particular type of enterprise, established in the form of a corporation, specialising in
the development, production and marketing of a product or service with high technological value.
As the data processed by InfoCamere for Unioncamere‘s
Observatory on Women’s Entrepreneurship show, female innovators represent 13.6% of the total number of start-ups,
a share similar to that recorded two years earlier (13.5%). But their growth in this two-year period has been remarkable (+40%).
“The growing propensity of women to engage in more innovative entrepreneurial sectors, today still largely the prerogative of men, is certainly a positive fact,” emphasises Unioncamere
President Andrea Prete. “We hope that more and more young people will want to follow this example, choosing to graduate in Stem disciplines, which are now much required by
companies”.
More than 70% of these two thousand women’s enterprises operate in business services (1,455). Just over 15% work in manufacturing (306) and 4.6% in commerce (91). Residual shares are active in
the other economic sectors.
Female innovation has its beating heart in four regions, which concentrate more than 50% of the total number of enterprises led by women of this type: Lombardy (470), Latium (263), Campania
(204), Emilia Romagna (143). In absolute values, however, the largest balances were recorded in these two years in Lombardy, Lazio, Campania and Tuscany.
The considerable increase in innovative start-ups goes hand in hand with the growing involvement of women in sectors with a higher knowledge content, such as Information and Communication
Services, Financial and Insurance Activities, Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities, Education and Health and Social Work, which now account for almost 10% of the female
entrepreneurial universe.
Overall, at the end of September 2022, there were more than 1,342,000 women’s enterprises and they accounted for 22.18% of Italian entrepreneurship. Among the sectors with the highest rate of
feminisation are Other service activities (in which women’s enterprises account for more than half), Health and social work (37.21%), Education (30.92%), Accommodation and food service
activities (29.21%), Agriculture (28.13%) and Rental, travel agencies and business services (26.54%).
