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This study focuses on the factors affecting equality of access to UK government grant and loan initiatives and the identification of gender differences in the uptake of those initiatives.

A qualitative methodology was adopted as quantitative data is already available regarding the sources and levels of financing accessed. In total 32 interviews were conducted with 18 women and 14 men seeking business start‐up capital. A review of the advice and assistance offered by 31 business support agencies to potential and existing male and female business clients across the region also was undertaken.

The findings revealed that there is a discrepancy in the number of men and women business owners accessing grant and loans schemes. Women do not enter into business ownership with the same amount of capital as men, and women are far more likely to access loans and grants than traditional forms of financing.

This is a preliminary investigation which needs to be extended and the relationship between service providers and small business owners further explored to provide a greater understanding of the complexities that relationship has on accessing government grants/loans.

The grant and loan system is highly complex and fraught with difficulties, which appears to exclude women and more specifically those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, i.e. those they were designed to assist.

Previous research has focused on private sector sources of business finance. This study is the first to look specifically at government grant/loan schemes that are targeted at those business owners who experience discrimination accessing traditional forms of finance.

While the general trend in the UK is towards an increase in female owned small businesses, during the last few years the number of North West of England businesses owned by women has fallen by 12.5 per cent. Aims to investigate the barriers preventing women from entering into growth businesses in the North West. The research included discussions with 12 service providers as well as in‐depth interviews and focus groups with 99 potential and established female business owners. The main barriers blocking women’s ownership of small businesses involved the widely held stereotype of business owners as “white, middle class, males”, cultural differences, a shortage of premises for new businesses and the lack of appropriate childcare.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

Women in the UK frequently do not consider business ownership as an alternative to other forms of employment or as a means to gain economic benefits. The number of women currently entering in to businesses in the North of England is decreasing and is less than half of that in the South. This paper examines the preliminary findings from a longitudinal study exploring the socially created barriers to business start‐up that inhibit the growth of women entrepreneurs and how they may be removed. The study employed an action research approach to investigate the experiences of UK women entering into micro and small business ownership, emphasising the social construction of many of the barriers faced by women in the pursuit of business ownership. In doing so it examined personal and motivational factors surrounding the start‐up process, the economic and physical barriers encountered, as well as the perceived and actual support and advice available to women.