Lockdowns, pivots & triple shifts: early challenges and opportunities of the COVID-19 pandemic for women entrepreneurs

Abstract This paper explores some the first nationally representative survey data on the experiences of women entrepreneurs in Canada during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws from the 2020 GEM Canada adult population survey (APS), collected in the summer of 2020 (June–August). Our focus is on women running early-stage firms (less than 3.5 years of age). Since the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was a time of great flux and uncertainty, the GEM Canada data provides a valuable window on behaviours and attitudes ‘on the ground’ as entrepreneurs, along with local, provincial, and federal governments, worked to navigate through unprecedented risks. Guided by existing research on gender and entrepreneurship, our descriptive analysis explores women’s activity rates, business discontinuance, attitudes, growth aspirations, and key challenges and opportunities. The 2020 GEM Canada data highlights several areas of concern with respect to women’s activity rates and business exits, and their perceptions of opportunities. But it also reveals surprisingly positive attitudes and aspirations, and the identification of new opportunities for some women entrepreneurs. While our analysis is exploratory, and longer-term trends remain to be seen, the results reported here offer a valuable baseline following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.