SUPPORTING AND GROWINGWOMEN OWNED BUSINESSES

PILLAR ONE

2@AdvanceBizWomen Advancingwomeninbusiness.com

ACCESS TO CAPITAL Investor bias: there is as much as a 7x funding gap between male and female founded companies.

FAMILY ECONOMICS: TRADE OFF BETWEENENTREPRENEURSHIP AND FAMILY OBLIGATIONCultural norms place a greater burden on women to care for their children vs. running a business.

ACCESS TO TALENT, NETWORKS AND EXPERTISENarrower networks and difficulty building trust-based businessrelationships with men.

SOCIAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL BIASESBoth men and women report reluctance to spend time alone together.

Women entrepreneurs and business owners face four key challenges when scaling up their companies.

DESPITE OWNING 40% OF ALL NEW BUSINESSES, women own less than 15% of large companies. Companies with at least one female founder outperformed all male-founding teams by

63% OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS.

46% less likely to have a “sponsor” to open doors for them

Women are

PILLAR ONE

3@AdvanceBizWomen Advancingwomeninbusiness.com

PUBLIC PROCUREMENTEnhance the U.S Women-Owned Small Business targeted procurement program and create a similar program in Canada.

ACCELERATORSAND NETWORKSChallenge accelerators and professional networks to focus on attracting female entrepreneurs and publicly tracking their progress.

FAMILY POLICIESRecommend that the Canadian and U.S. governments continue to study ways to lower the cost of unpaid care to level the “family economics” playing field.

Women entrepreneurs cannot reach their full potential without men, and vice-versa. It will take cooperation and dedication from both countries’ public and private sectors to truly drive change.

In order to overcome these barriers and combat existing stereotypes, we make the following recommendations:

PILLAR ONE

WOMEN AS LEADERS NATURALLY EXCEL AS MOTIVATORS AND ROLE MODELS

In combating the persistent social biases that are holding women back, we are all part of the solution.

& 64% of senior men shy away from sponsorship relationships due to “taboo factor”

50%of junior women

PRIVATE PROCUREMENTEncourage corporations to implement supplier diversity procurement programs and work with organizations (such as WEConnect) to increase outreach and meet targets.

4@AdvanceBizWomen Advancingwomeninbusiness.com

OUR MANDATE is to develop recommendations that can reduce barriers that limit women’s participation in business, support and develop women’s professional advancement, and assist women in starting and scaling their businesses.

OUR MISSION is to increase the number of women business leaders and entrepreneurs, and contribute to the economic growth, and competitiveness of the Canadian and US economies.

Advancing women in business.

FIVE KEY PILLARSWe identified five key areas of focus, forming the initiative’s five supporting pillars:

In February 2017, the U.S. and Canadian governments appointed ten top women business executives to the Canada-U.S. Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders.

Julie SweetCEO - North AmericaAccenture

COUNCIL CO-CHAIRS

COUNCIL MEMBERS

Deborah GillisPresident and CEOCatalyst

Elyse AllanCEO, GE CanadaVP, GE

Monique LerouxPresident of the Board of DirectorsInvestissement Quebec

Dawn FarrellPresident and CEOTransAlta Corporation

Linda HasenfratzCEOLinamar Corporation

Tina LeeCEOT&T Supermarket Inc.

Mary BarraChairman and CEOGeneral Motors

Annette VerschurenChair and CEONRStor Inc.

Tamara LundgrenPresident and CEOSchnitzer Steel

Supporting and growing women-owned businesses

Increasing the number of women in STEM

Increasing women’s access to capital

Advancing women as leaders in the private sector

Attracting women entrepreneurs, encouraging women to start businesses