Anne Macdonald

Gender and Entrepreneurship North East (GENE) is a collaborative space which provides a regional place, space and voice for knowledge of gender (and other categories of social difference) within entrepreneurship to be harnessed and created to enable social change. Whilst GENE is regionally rooted, knowledge is nationally connected with a global reach. GENE is for researchers (academic and non-academic), educators (school and beyond), policy makers and practitioners (entrepreneurs, business supporters and advisors) with a stake and interest in entrepreneurship in the North East of England. Through the collaborative collation of data and evidence focused on issues of gender and other categories of social difference in entrepreneurship, GENE will provide a regional identity to: i) educate through awareness raising initiatives; ii) drive policy change to foster more inclusive practices in entrepreneurship to enable greater regional equity for those engaging in entrepreneurship. Creating a regional hub of stakeholders to develop a powerful database from which to generate data specific to issues of gender and categories of social difference for entrepreneurship. From recent research by Newcastle University, women led businesses comprise 21.3% of the North East business population a figure which has sparsely altered in the last decade. 40.2% of women led businesses in the North East cite obtaining access to finance as the major obstacle to success in their business. This is significantly higher than the national figure of 26.5% and greater still than the figure of men led businesses in the North East of 22%. Much research has focused on what women can do to improve this which has done little to revise this figure more positively, therefore GENE aim to focus at the meso and ultimately macro level of structural change.

Gender and Entrepreneurship North East (GENE) is a collaborative space which provides a regional place, space and voice for knowledge of gender (and other categories of social difference) within entrepreneurship to be harnessed and created to enable social change. Whilst GENE is regionally rooted, knowledge is nationally connected with a global reach. GENE is for researchers (academic and non-academic), educators (school and beyond), policy makers and practitioners (entrepreneurs, business supporters and advisors) with a stake and interest in entrepreneurship in the North East of England. Through the collaborative collation of data and evidence focused on issues of gender and other categories of social difference in entrepreneurship, GENE will provide a regional identity to: i) educate through awareness raising initiatives; ii) drive policy change to foster more inclusive practices in entrepreneurship to enable greater regional equity for those engaging in entrepreneurship. Creating a regional hub of stakeholders to develop a powerful database from which to generate data specific to issues of gender and categories of social difference for entrepreneurship. From recent research by Newcastle University, women led businesses comprise 21.3% of the North East business population a figure which has sparsely altered in the last decade. 40.2% of women led businesses in the North East cite obtaining access to finance as the major obstacle to success in their business. This is significantly higher than the national figure of 26.5% and greater still than the figure of men led businesses in the North East of 22%. Much research has focused on what women can do to improve this which has done little to revise this figure more positively, therefore GENE aim to focus at the meso and ultimately macro level of structural change.