Women in SMEs: A Systematic Literature Review (2000-2021)

Research continually shows that women face barriers and exclusions, however, the existing research seems to be mainly concentrated on organisations generally or corporations. This report analyses available research on women and SMEs in a period from 2000-2021. The analysis focuses on research published in women and gender journals. Thematic analysis has been conducted on 106 identified articles divided into two decades, 2000-2009 and 2010-2021. Findings show that barriers is the main theme that runs through existing research with women reporting societal, cultural and institutional barriers, as well as lack of confidence, a different approach to working and/or running businesses, masculinities and the lack of training and skills. The existing research is largely international and these themes run through the whole corpus of analysed research showing a global issue of women in SMEs, particularly women entrepreneurs.