New Report: How Women Entrepreneurs Can Help Offset Trade and Tariff Shocks

March 6, 2025

Ottawa, ON — Declining productivity and stagnant growth are just some of the issues at the heart of the country’s economic malaise. Entrepreneurship, a driving force for innovation, job creation and economic growth, is also in decline. Recent data underscores the gravity of the problem: Business dynamism hasn’t recovered and continues to suffer post-pandemic; self-employment has fallen; and research from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) finds that only half as many people are launching businesses as compared with 20 years ago. Canada is not lacking the resources or talent to thrive, so why is this our present situation?

Last year, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s Business Data Lab (BDL) published its inaugural report, Barely Breaking Ground: The Slow Stride of Progress for Women in Business Leadership and Entrepreneurship, identifying persistent representation and compensation gaps in female employment. As the second instalment of this research, Women Entrepreneurs: Canada’s Biggest Missed Business Opportunity examines the status of women entrepreneurs in Canada.

Despite years of investment, women-owned businesses have experienced glacial progress. Canada lags behind other developed countries in sufficiently supporting entrepreneurship with a higher-than-average share of missing women entrepreneurs — entrepreneurs who could be thriving if gender-based barriers were addressed.

• Marwa Abdou, Senior Research Director, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

In 2017, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) estimated that closing this persistent entrepreneurship gap in Canada would mean an increase in GDP of 6% or more over the 2017–26 period. For comparison, the BDL’s landmark Partners in Prosperity report estimated the GDP loss to across-the-board 25% tariffs would be 2.6% of GDP annually and the IMF has estimated that true internal trade within Canada could be worth 4% of GDP annually.

This massive entrepreneurship gap has resulted in a loss of up to $180 billion in foregone economic activity. Unlocking Canada’s economic growth potential requires a consistent and real focus on gender parity in entrepreneurship.

• Candace Laing, President and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

This new report from BDL also offers key insights into the current landscape of women entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses, as well as the primary barriers that limit women’s entrepreneurial potential, including structural biases, limited access to financing, and sector-specific underrepresentation. It provides actionable steps for government, financial institutions and industry leaders to unlock this missed economic opportunity. Considering the nature of this report, it’s fitting that the theme of International Women’s Day 2025 is “Accelerate Action” — while we’ve made some modest progress, it’s not nearly as large or as fast as needed.

Background

• Roughly 710,000 majority women-owned businesses are “missing” (i.e., “people… who are not involved in entrepreneurship, but who could be” (OECD 2023).
• Women-owned businesses have not accounted for more than 20% of all enterprises since 2005 and stand at approximately 18% in 2024, behind the federal Women Entrepreneurship Strategy’s goal to double the number of women-owned businesses by 2025.
• Women remain underrepresented in high-growth industries such as construction, mining, and tech, where they own fewer than 10% of businesses.
• Almost two-thirds of Canada’s “missing women-owned businesses” are in Ontario and Quebec. The gender gap is highest in the Prairies, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick.

Learn more about the Canadian Chamber’s Business Data Lab and its team, research and resources, including its partnership with Statistics Canada on this analysis.

About the Canadian Chamber of Commerce — The Future of Business Success

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is Canada’s largest and most activated business network — representing over 400 chambers of commerce and boards of trade and more than 200,000 business of all sizes, from all sectors of the economy and from every part of the country — working to create the conditions for our collective success. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is the undisputed champion and catalyst for the future of business success. From working with government on economy-friendly policy to providing services that inform commerce and enable trade, we give each of our members more of what they need to succeed: insight into markets, competitors and trends, influence over the decisions and policies that drive business success, and impact on business and economic performance.

Media Contact

Shane Mackenzie
Vice President, Media and Stakeholder Communications
613.302.7683
[email protected]