After steady growth over the past 15 years, one in three self-employed people in Europe are now women. This growth goes hand in hand with increasing gender equality in Europe. In the Netherlands, 37.8 percent of self-employed people are women, which puts us in 11th place in Europe. Research for the latest Talent Monitor, conducted by labor market specialist Intelligence Group and HR-tech service provider HeadFirst Group, shows that the further emancipation has progressed in a country, the more women choose self-employment.

Rise of female self-employed workers
An extensive analysis of data since 2010, shows a very strong relationship between emancipation and the proportion of female self-employed workers in Europe. By linking the data to the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index (GGI), which measures gender inequality, a clear correlation was found. In countries with smaller gender gaps, the percentage of female self-employed workers is significantly higher, it can be argued. In other words, increasing gender equality encourages entrepreneurship among women. This is a very good trend and at the same time emphasizes the need to continue to promote equal opportunities as an engine for economic and social growth," said Marion van Happen, CEO of HeadFirst Group.

By 2024, 36 percent of self-employed workers in the European Union (EU-27) will be women, up from 34 percent in 2010. As of this year, Luxembourg is the first European country where more than half of the self-employed are women (50.7 percent). Latvia follows with almost an equal share (49.8 percent), while countries such as Ireland (26.8 percent) and Romania (26.9 percent) lag far behind. In the Netherlands, the percentage is 37.8, slightly higher than in Belgium (36.6 percent).

Fewer hours, more women
The study also shows that in countries where self-employed workers work fewer hours per week on average, the proportion of female self-employed workers tends to be higher. On the contrary, in countries where the difference in hours worked between men and women as self-employed workers is small, we see relatively fewer female self-employed workers. "Being self-employed offers women an attractive form of work because it allows them to combine care responsibilities with flexibility and a better work-life balance. The possibility to work fewer hours or achieve other ambitions as a self-employed worker contributes to their autonomy and strengthens women's emancipation," said Geert-Jan Waasdorp, director and founder of Intelligence Group.

In Europe, men work an average of 40.9 hours per week as self-employed, while women work an average of 34.5 hours. Greek self-employed workers work the most hours (43.4 hours), followed by Spanish self-employed workers (41.7 hours). Luxembourg self-employed workers make the fewest hours (30.8 hours), followed by Estonian self-employed workers (31.9 hours). In the Netherlands, the average is 33.6 hours, well below the European average.

The full report is available for download at headfirst.group.