40% of Brazilian companies are managed by women, according to research

Unprecedented research released by Serasa Experian this Wednesday (23) shows that of the 20.6 million active companies in Brazil, 8.4 million are headed by women – which represents 40.5% of entrepreneurs in the country. Of these, the vast majority, 84.7%, run the business alone, without partners. Among male entrepreneurs, this percentage is 77.4%.

The survey, “The profile of the Brazilian entrepreneur”, also reveals that women start to undertake earlier: 36.3% are between 20 and 39 years old, while entrepreneurs in this age group add up to 32.1%. In the elderly group, women also undertake more than men, with 20.4% against 16.1%.

Among the businesses with up to two years of operation, 17.2% are led by female entrepreneurs and 14.2% by male entrepreneurs. Among companies with three to five years of activity, women also have a greater presence than men, with 28.8% and 25.3% respectively. However, in companies with more than five years of creation, 60% are led by men and 53.9% by women.

According to Serasa Experian, around 29% of businesses do not survive more than five years in Brazil. “The essential pillar to reverse this reality is investing in financial health. This means giving more access to information, lines of credit and, mainly, education for sustainable development. Specifically regarding the female presence in the sector, it is imperative that we encourage training so that more and more women have the opportunity to prepare to occupy these positions”, says Cleber Genero, Vice President of Small and Medium-Sized Companies at Serasa Experian.

Access to credit mentioned by Genero is one of the main challenges. Although most women have lower chances of defaulting as Individuals (PF), the scenario reverses in the case of Legal Entities (PJ).

“What we observe is that although the habit of monitoring the PF score is already a Brazilian habit, the same does not occur when he has a company and a PJ score. Many mix personal and business finances. In addition, they are not in the habit of building a history of the business’s ability to pay and do not monitor the partner’s score”, analyzes Genero.

The survey by Serasa Experian also shows that the activity that women perform most frequently is in clothing trade in general, followed by services. And the region that most concentrates businesses led by women is the Southeast (51.1%), followed by the Northeast (17.9%), South (17.4%), Midwest (9.1%) and North ( 4.4%).

In the analysis of the Federative Units (UFs), it is in São Paulo (27.8%) that most of the women’s enterprises are located, followed by Rio de Janeiro (10.6%), Minas Gerais (10.3%) and Paraná ( 6.6%).