Facts About BAME Female Social Entrepreneurship

1. Positive indicators for BAME women and entrepreneurship:

BAME women are more likely to be involved in mainstream entrepreneurial activity than their white counterparts:

Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) for women from ‘mixed backgrounds’ is two and a half times higher than amongst white females, 10.2% and 3.6% respectively. For Bangladeshi women it is 10.9%, ‘Other Asians’ 10.3% and Black Caribbeans 10.5%. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, London Business School Jan 2004)

BAME people are more likely to be involved in social entrepreneurial activity than their white counterparts:

Black Africans and Black Caribbeans are, respectively, three times and two times more likely than white people to be social entrepreneurs. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, London Business School Jan 2005)

Women are proportionality more likely to be involved in social entrepreneurship activity than in mainstream entrepreneurship

The gap between male and female entrepreneurship is substantially narrower for social entrepreneurship than it is for mainstream businesses. Indeed in seven regions of the UK (East Midlands, London, North East, Scotland, South East, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humber) levels of female social entrepreneurship start-up activity are higher than male. (Social Entrepreneurship Monitor, London Business School and The Work Foundation 2004)

The statistic that is missing is the proportion of BAME women involved in social entrepreneurship activity. However the evidence we have shows that because social entrepreneurship may be a means of engaging groups which are under-represented in the labour market, it is a sector which appeals to and attracts women and BAME groups.

Ethnic minorities overall have a lower employment rate than the rest of the population (59.7% against 74.7% overall – a 15% gap.
For Bangladeshi and Pakistani women it is particularly low – 24% and 24.2% respectively.
The majority of women from Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups are economically inactive (69.9% and 71.9% respectively). The overall employment rate for women is 70.3%.
African Caribbean women have relatively high employment rates – the gap between African Caribbean women and African Caribbean men is smaller than that in other ethnic groups.
African Caribbean women are still under-represented in management and tend to be disproportionately employed in certain sectors, particularly health and social work, where 28% of working women from this group are employed.
Women aged 16-24 from all three groups are over twice as likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts.

70% of Bangladeshi pupils and almost 60% of Pakistani pupils live in the 20% most deprived postcodes (as defined by the Index of Multiple Deprivation) compared to less then 20% of White British pupils.
70% of Bangladeshi and 60% of Pakistani pupils live in the 20% most deprived postcode areas. 40% of Pakistani and 45% of Bangladeshi live in the 10% most deprived areas. In comparison less then 20% of White British pupils live in the 20% most deprived postcode areas and 10% in the 10% most deprived areas.
Social enterprises are likely to be situated in areas of high multiple deprivation:

– 29% are located in the 20% most deprived wards
– a further 22% in the 20-40% most deprived wards.
– 49% are in the 60% least deprived wards

This article is from the Prowess archive 2003-2008