(Toronto) While the pandemic has disproportionately affected women entrepreneurs, the number of women-owned businesses is now on the rise, a new study reveals.

In its 2023 report on the state of women’s entrepreneurship in Canada, the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Portal reported that the proportion of majority women-owned businesses is on the rise.

The study calculates that 18% of companies are majority-owned by women, up from 16.8% in 2020 and 15.6% in 2017.

Lead researcher Wendy Cukier, founder of the Diversity Institute at Metropolitan University of Toronto, said she was encouraged that the gender gap linked to early interest in entrepreneurship and innovation was narrowing.

But the study shows that majority male-owned businesses have higher survival rates than majority female-owned businesses within 14 years of inception.

Women entrepreneurs also tend to be concentrated in some sectors and underrepresented in others, and face barriers such as lack of access to capital through financial institutions.