Women are the UK’s economic engine – so why do they get treated as an afterthought?

As Entrepreneur’s Week ends and Britain faces another moment of truth with the budget, the message from Prime Minister Keir Starmer is clear: the country needs growth, and it needs it fast. Productivity has stalled, costs remain high, and many sectors are fragile after years of economic shocks. We need a new strategy rooted in the realities of the entrepreneurs who keep it moving. And right now, too many of those entrepreneurs remain invisible.

The UK talks confidently about innovation and investment. But it routinely overlooks a large number of the founders who contribute most reliably to growth: women-led, and minority-led businesses. These entrepreneurs are building high-performing companies, employing millions, and fuelling communities. They are powering Britain’s recovery, yet policy, investment, and visibility still lag behind their impact. This is not a diversity issue. It’s a growth issue.

Women-led businesses are outperforming expectations by every measure. Turnover growth in women-led firms jumped to 24.6 per cent in 2024, outpacing male-led businesses at 21.6 per cent. Women-led companies contribute over £85bn annually to the UK economy. It bears repeating: if women-led businesses scaled at the same rate as men, the UK could unlock £250bn in untapped value.

When we talk about growth, there are too many entrepreneurs being left out of the conversation.

The government is right to champion schemes like SEIS (Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme) and EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme), which give income tax relief for start-ups, but these schemes haven’t reached everyone: female-founded businesses still receive a tiny share of investment, aligned with the 2 per cent of VC funding that goes to women-led companies.

There is an army of women out there trying to change this. Entrepreneurs like Louise Hill, co-founder of GoHenry, have super-scaled internationally while equipping the next generation with financial skills – proving that women at the heart of growth don’t just build businesses, they build futures. Dee Stirling, co-founder of the Centre for Entrepreneurs, highlights that nearly half of the UK’s fastest-growing companies are founded by immigrants, despite barriers. These founders are engines of recovery, yet policy still overlooks them.

Lydia Amoah, founder and creator of The Black Pound Report, makes it clear: minority-owned businesses aren’t niche, and the consumers who support them are a powerful force in British spending. Together, they shape markets, culture, and consumer behaviour.

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Proposals like the Female Enterprise Investment Scheme (FEIS), being championed by Sam Cooper-Gray of The Gender Index and the Women and Equalities Committee, would direct more capital toward women-led and purpose-led companies. Directing more capital toward women-led and purpose-led companies isn’t an unfair advancement; it’s an investment in a part of the economy that consistently overdelivers.

But money doesn’t flow without visibility.

Depressingly, research shows 81 per cent of young people can’t name a single female entrepreneur. If women can’t see founders, they can’t imagine becoming one. And if investors or corporations can’t see women-led or minority-led businesses, they don’t back them as easily.

Current investing systems favour what’s easy to measure: standardised financials, digital footprints, historic patterns. Smaller, high-growth founders operate differently – their real strengths, from resilience to community impact, rarely register. British Business Bank data shows the cost: these founders face higher rejection rates, or they self-exclude, with one report finding that 79 per cent use personal funds to start their businesses, and 13 per cent resort to using credit cards.

But AI might be changing all that. Platforms like Gifftid AI and JamHut are providing investors and corporations with the evidence that they need to support founders, who may previously have been seen as outliers. Equally, they will be able to equip businesses with insights, support, and validation that show real resilience, readiness, and genuine growth potential.

That means backing the businesses driving the economy and accelerating their potential with programmes that deliver what female founders need: practical support, frontline advice from those who’ve scaled real companies, and the networks and intelligence that unlock opportunity and investment. This is a potent recipe for success.

It is why I have launched FFinc, which builds programmes, accelerators and networks for high-growth, female-powered businesses. Our “Forward Faster Accelerator” launched with major partners to boost female-led scale-ups, connects female founders to share their stories honestly, trade tactics, swap suppliers and data, and collaborate more than they compete.

When visibility, community, intelligence and investment come together with support of government, businesses don’t just grow – they leap forward. What we need now is alignment: policy that targets the right founders, capital that follows performance (not bias), technology that measures real business strength, and platforms and networks that scale the companies already driving our economy forward. If Britain wants growth, it must back the builders, no matter what their gender.

FFinc is an association of women and businesses dedicated to the financial, career and personal advancement of women and has launched a Forward Faster Accelerator programme, designed to supercharge 100 of the UK’s most ambitious female-founded businesses