Entrepreneurship in Switzerland: Business activity by women

The proportion of women entrepreneurs has fallen slightly in Switzerland.

Women now account for 47% of individuals engaged in early-stage entrepreneurial activities (which do not necessarily result in established businesses), according to the Switzerland 2023/2024 Report from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). The ratio of female entrepreneurs compared to their male counterparts fell from 0.90 to 0.82 between 2023 and 2024.

In 2022, just under half of business startups in Switzerland (46.7%) involved one or more women, according to data from the Federal Statistical Office (OFS).

Number of new enterprises established in 2022
Total	46,987
By women and men	4,399	9.4%
By men	24,864	52.9%
By women	17,724	37.7%

Source: FSO, Statistics on business demography 2022

Female entrepreneurship in Switzerland

Women are still under-represented in the category of sole proprietors or employees of their own company, but they are gaining ground. This percentage of women in the population of entrepreneurs stood at 41% in Q2 2024, whereas it only reached 28.2% in 1991, according to the Swiss Labor Force Survey (SLFS) by the FSO. The percentage of female entrepreneurs in the resident female population stood at 7.2% in Q2 2024, versus 10.5% for their male counterparts.