- First national study of its kind finds Australian women starting businesses in droves
- BUT The Gender Index Australia finds a "scaling cliff" as very few scale to larger entities
- A fix would boost the Australian economy by $100 billion a year and create some 745,000 jobs
SYDNEY, 3 September 2026: A new landmark national study has found that women are starting businesses in record numbers. The Gender Index Australia also found a significant difference between how male and female businesses scale; closing the gap between the rates at which women-led and male-led businesses scale could support approximately 745,000 additional jobs and generate more than $100 billion a year in combined wages and government tax revenue.
The Gender Index Australia is the first comprehensive, data led study of female business leadership in this country. Building on established methodology from the UK version, it draws on millions of company and business records held by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, covering every state and territory.
Women lead 42.2% of the nation's sole trader businesses, but just 15.2% of Australia's incorporated companies. The gap between those two numbers is the central finding of the report.
The gap widens at every stage of business growth. Women lead 15.8% of Australia's micro companies, 13.3% of small companies, 8.1% of medium companies and 7.0% of large companies. Male led businesses convert from a small business into a medium one at a rate of 13.68% a year. Female led businesses convert at 6.71%, under half that rate.
Female led companies that reach scale match the productivity of male led companies, and in some cases exceed it. The report identifies access to capital, access to contracts and access to networks as the structural conditions shaping the gap, separate from the performance of the businesses themselves.
Modelling in the report estimates that closing the gap would support approximately 745,000 additional jobs and add more than $100 billion a year in combined wages and government tax revenue to the Australian economy, made up of $79.4 billion in additional wages and $24.4 billion in additional government tax revenue.
Tamara Bryden, Chair, The Gender Index Australia, said:
"The Gender Index Australia reveals a progression problem. Too many founders are hitting a ceiling on capital, networks and customer access at precisely the point they should be accelerating." "For the first time, we have a clear picture of where women are progressing in business and where they're being left behind. The opportunity now is bringing government, industry, investors and financial institutions together to remove those barriers. As Chair of The Gender Index Australia, that's exactly what we'll be focused on, turning data into practical action that helps more women build businesses at scale."
"Closing the gap is a productivity strategy, a jobs strategy, and one of the more significant economic opportunities available to Australia."
John Cushing, co-founder, The Gender Index Australia, commented:
"Australia has no shortage of female founders. Women are entering business in extraordinary numbers, but their representation then falls at every stage of company growth.
"For too long, the evidence available to policymakers, financial institutions and industry has been fragmented. The Gender Index gives Australia a national benchmark for seeing where the pathway breaks down and measuring whether our response is working.
"Better data will not close the gap by itself, but it allows government, finance and industry to direct action where it can make the greatest difference."
State and Territory findings snapshot:
- Queensland leads the nation on both measures. 45.1% of the state's sole traders and 16.3% of its companies are women led, the highest results in the country on each measure.
- The Australian Capital Territory holds the strongest all round scaling profile of any jurisdiction, backed by 29 consecutive years of economic growth.
- Western Australia holds the country's largest gap between sole trader and company representation, at 29.8 percentage points, inside an economy built on mining and resources.
- Victoria attracted 34% of the nation's reported start up investment in 2025 and shows the steepest proportional fall in women led company representation of any state.
- New South Wales sits close to the national average on every measure, inside the country's largest single economy, and takes roughly 41% of reported national start up funding.
- South Australia's agriculture sector shows women leading 35.1% of sole traders and 10.0% of incorporated companies, in the state's defining industry.
- Tasmania records the lowest women led company share in the country, at 13.1%.
- The Northern Territory has the smallest gap in the country between sole trader and company representation, at 24.2 percentage points, and women lead just 0.3% of large companies.
The Gender Index Australia is delivered in partnership with founding partner Westpac, data and analytics partner Equifax Australia, and ecosystem partner Howden.
