Women entrepreneurs make an important contribution to the development of the world economy, particularly in low and middle-income countries. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2007 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship is the fourth in a series of reports undertaken to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date study of the role played by women involved in entrepreneurial activity across the world economy.

The GEM research project provides comparable data for a cross-national assessment of entrepreneurial activity in 41 countries* whose economies represent more than 70 percent of the world’s population and 93 percent of global GDP in 2007.

The GEM 2007 Women’s Report provides an analysis of the key characteristics and context of female entrepreneurial activity and how that may differ from that of their male counterparts. It is our hope that this work will advance the understanding of the needs of aspiring and existing female entrepreneurs, and will provide policy insights useful to developing and enhancing an environment in which the spirit of women’s entrepreneurship may flourish.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) research program is an annual assessment of the national level of entrepreneurial activity. Started as a partnership between London Business School and Babson College, it was initiated in 1999 with 10 countries, expanded to 21 in the year 2000, with 29 countries in 2001 and 37 countries in 2002. GEM 2009 is set to conduct research in 56 countries.