Empowered or Undermined? Women Entrepreneurs & the Digital Economy

Our latest report, “Empowered or Undermined? Women Entrepreneurs and the Digital Economy”, in partnership with Intuit and the World Bank’s “Women, Business and the Law” project, explores the challenges women entrepreneurs currently face and offers actionable recommendations for global stakeholders.

Released for International Women’s Day 2025, the comprehensive report draws on responses from 2,870 women running businesses across 96 low and middle income countries, and highlights the common challenges and opportunities they face, with a particular focus on the role of technology. The report examines how online gender-based violence (GBV) shapes women’s behaviour and digital inclusion, how women use digital tools—such as social media, AI, e-commerce and Mobile Money—and digital technology’s broader implications for their businesses.

Women’s key business successes & challenges in 2024

• The adoption of digital tools, especially social media marketing and digital payments, was the top success, with 63% of respondents linking it to improved business functions.
• 59% of women reported increased sales and profitability in 2024.
• 78% of respondents identified a lack of access to finance as one of their greatest challenges, citing high borrowing costs, stringent collateral requirements, and limited financial literacy as key obstacles.
• 48% of women cited an unfavourable macroeconomic environment as one of their greatest challenges.

Digital & financial inclusion

• Although 92% of respondents report owning a personal smartphone, 45% do not have regular internet access, citing affordability and unreliable network connectivity, limiting their ability to fully engage with online markets.
• Women entrepreneurs without smartphones are 5.5 times less likely to use social media for business and 3.75 times less likely to have a bank account or mobile money account, underscoring the strong connection between device ownership, digital readiness and financial inclusion.
• 16% of women report safety and security concerns as a key barrier to accessing mobile internet; 62% of those reporting such concerns have personally experienced online harassment, illustrating the destructive potential that online harassment holds to drive women offline entirely.
• Women entrepreneurs who sell exclusively to male customers are twice as likely to receive payments exclusively through digital accounts compared to those selling exclusively to female customers. This trend reflects a strong preference for remote transactions and a desire to minimise physical interactions with male customers.
• 38% of women currently use AI – however just over one-fifth feel either underprepared or completely unprepared for the wave of new technologies aimed at business growth.

Social media & e-commerce

• 88% of women use WhatsApp and 74% use Facebook for business, making them the most widely used social media platforms.
• Despite the popularity of social media, e-commerce adoption remains low – only 31% use platforms like Amazon, Alibaba, or Jumia for business. Many cited high transaction costs, lack of trust in online payments, and complex onboarding processes as key deterrents to usage.
• Privacy and safety concerns are major factors shaping women’s online presence. 36% of respondents avoid using their full names, 41% do not post photos, and 59% do not post videos of themselves on their business profiles. Many fear harassment, unsolicited messages, and reputational damage.

Gender-based violence in digital & physical spaces

• Online gender-based violence (GBV) is a major challenge for women entrepreneurs. 57% of women report having personally experienced at least one form of GBV over social media, with 23% having faced verbal attacks or degrading comments and 22% having received unsolicited intimate photos or videos.
• More than one in five respondents reported concerns regarding potential harassment from male customers, with some stating that business negotiations often lead to inappropriate advances or gender-based discrimination. 14% of women fear aggressive haggling or even potential violence by men during business transactions.
• 77% of women take proactive safety measures, such as screening customers before meeting them in person, or relying on male relatives for protection.

What women entrepreneurs want

To tackle these challenges, there is significant demand from women for funding for business growth (requested by 87% of respondents),  skills and/or training support (51%), mentoring or coaching (50%), improved access to networks and associations (49%), and improved access to markets or procurement opportunities (47%). 44% of women also emphasise the importance of public policies that support women’s entrepreneurship.

Recommendations for change

The report makes a number of key recommendations to governments and public policy makers, the private sector, multilateral and non-profit organisations. Broadly, these include:

• Enhance women’s access to smartphones, tablets, and laptops to enable their full participation in the digital economy.
• Unlock public and private investments to improve the quality, coverage and affordability of fixed wireless and mobile broadband internet services.
• Build women’s digital literacy and skills through supportive programmes and campaigns.
• Improve women’s perceived and actual safety on key online platforms used for business, such as social media and e-commerce platforms.
• Meet the strong demand for AI training, particularly among women under 45, by investing in woman-centred digital literacy programmes.
• Ensure that AI technologies do not reinforce gender-based inequalities by addressing biases in their training data and decision-making processes.
• Support women entrepreneurs by expanding market opportunities and leveraging public and private investment to address gender-based barriers to business growth.
• Ensure safe and inclusive digital spaces so women entrepreneurs can fully participate in the digital economy without fear of harassment or harm.
• Create incentives for e-commerce platforms to lower the barriers to entry for small-sized businesses in LMICs, such as lowering minimum qualifying monthly transaction volumes.