Number of the week

Pandemic sees fewer women opening own businesses in Brazil

After a peak in 2019, Covid-19 restrictions on non-essential business, plus school closures, saw a decline in women entrepreneurs. Childcare responsibilities were an important factor

women businesses
Photo: VectorMine/Shutterstock

Welcome to “Number of the Week,” where we choose a single figure that helps understand what is going on in Brazil. This week, we show why Brazilian women opened fewer businesses last year. 

932k
women opened a business in 2020

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of women investors in the Brazilian stock market passed the milestone of 1 million. It would seem like the gender gap is narrowing in the country. However, a survey by proScore, a digital credit bureau and scoring authority, shows that female participation in commercial ventures decreased last year, after five years on the up. 

According to the survey — which collated data concerning the number of women owning stakes in businesses or companies composed only of women, for example — the health crisis brought down the number of new companies back to 2016 levels across all segments.

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