Celebrating 10 Years of Championing Equality

We've been working for 10 years to champion women-led and women-owned businesses.

Women's Enterprise Scotland (WES) was established a decade ago as a research-led, not-for-profit Community Interest Company. We're marking our anniversary with an Impact Report to look back at what's been achieved and to state our continued ambition to close the gender gap in enterprise participation.

We are also calling for clarity and action from the Scottish Government regarding the commitment to invest £50m in the creation of a National Women’s Business Centre.

And, launching our new look!

Carolyn Currie, CEO of WES commented;

“We are immensely proud of what WES has achieved over the past ten years. Our newly published Impact Report outlines how far things have moved on in the last decade. However, what it also highlights is how much work there is still to do if we, as a nation, have an ambition to close the gender gap in enterprise participation. That’s why WES is calling for action on the Scottish Government commitment to invest in the establishment of a National Women’s Business Centre, a model which could transform Scotland’s economy.”

The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship (2019), commissioned by the UK Treasury, revealed that female entrepreneurs typically have to start businesses with only half as much capital as men. (1) The Review also identified that up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men.

Women have fundamentally different experiences to men in business, including access to finance, disproportionate caring responsibilities, access to networks, mentoring and role models. (2) The COVID-19 pandemic also served to heighten these barriers, with women far more likely to be juggling business and domestic responsibilities and more likely to work and be business owners in the sectors put in jeopardy by the crisis. They are under considerable pressure as they rebuild and emerge from the challenges of the past two years.

Additionally, as part of the10th anniversary, we have completed a comprehensive rebranding exercise in conjunction with Glasgow based 999Design.

Lewis Macintyre, Design Director at 999 commented;

“The new brand identity embodies the ethos of the organisation which is all about connection and collaboration - WES pairing their expertise, mentoring SMEs and enterprises, looking for new paths to grow and develop, and ultimately fulfilling their client's business ambitions."

See the full Press Release here

1 Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship 2019

2 Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship 2019