Entrepreneurial activities are an important factor in creating and increasing employment opportunities and fuelling economic growth. Entrepreneurship continues to play a crucial part in the transition process in Eastern Europe and the CIS, being an important source of job creation, opening career opportunities for women and men. However, there is a serious gender gap in entrepreneurship in all countries of the ECE region, as is reflected in labour market trends in general.

 Men traditionally have had better opportunities for self-employment as women face more constraints than men in developing their businesses. These constraints include things such as less access to credit and larger markets; mobility constraints; more workload in the family and household; lack of networks needed to facilitate business development; and lack of know-how concerning ICT, corporate and public sector procurement. Traditional attitudes towards the gender role and unfavourable social climate has also constrained women entrepreneurs in the ECE region.

 More data is needed on the situation of women entrepreneurs in the ECE region, but in recent years, self-employment has been growing for women in most countries of the region. The development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has played an important role in the economic recovery for many economies in transition for their industrial restructuring, with a growing number of women-headed businesses.

 Examples of policies in the region:
Canada: programmes to support women-entrepreneurs in starting and expanding businesses
Ukraine: project on rural women to improve their status and to boost their entrepreneurial and managerial skills.
Uzbekistan: women in the labour market