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| Source: Dell. Post-it notes show challenges facing women in the workplace. |
• The Index serves as a diagnostic tool to advise policy-makers on how to better support women in business.
At the 10th annual Dell Women Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) Summit in Singapore, Dell announced findings from the 2019 Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index, ranking 50 global cities on their ability to foster growth for women entrepreneurs. All 50 cities have made progress since 2017, Dell noted. However, some cities made bigger strides than others.
“The 2019 Dell WE Cities report is unique from other bodies of research in that it not only ranks 50 global cities on their ability to foster women entrepreneurs, it shows how the cities have improved from their 2017 benchmark,” commented Karen Campbell, Consulting Associate Director, IHS Markit.
“This data-driven approach shows where women entrepreneurs still face barriers in scaling their business.”
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| Source: Dell report. The Dell Global WE Cities rankings 2019 for technology as an enabling environment. Hong Kong and Singapore rank 5th and 6th respectively though they are not in the overall top 10 index. |
Highlights include:
• Out of a total of 100 possible points, the No. 1-ranked San Francisco Bay Area in the US only scored 63.7. Dell says that this means there is still much work to do to level the field for women – and validates the need for this kind of research and outreach to policymakers to move the needle for female founders.
• Thirty out of 50 cities improved on more than half of their indicators. The most-improved cities represent nearly every region, which indicates how broad-based the improvements have been around the world. All cities improved on
“When more women work, economies grow. Technology is helping to drive this progress as a genderneutral enabler, and helps create a level playing field,” said Amit Midha, President of Asia Pacific & Japan, Global Digital Cities at Dell Technologies.
“Whilst all cities in the Index have improved, the crucial factor is the consistency of this improvement across the different factors that impact women entrepreneurs’ success. The WE Cities Index helps Dell Technologies get closer to our customers and understand the landscape in each city so we are better able to help women entrepreneurs scale their businesses.”
In Asia Pacific (APAC), cities are improving as facilitators of growing businesses for women entrepreneurs alongside all other cities globally. The research suggests that APAC can add a collective annual US$4.5 trillion by 2025 – adding significant growth to growth – if women’s equality is addressed. Similarly, disruptive technologies also have great potential to push the region ahead as many markets are not faced with legacy infrastructure issues.
Regional highlights include:
• More cities in APAC moved down in rankings, than stayed the same or moved up.
• Cities in the APAC region improved significantly in the Technology pillar and was the top-improved region for that pillar. Within APME, Istanbul and Kuala Lumpur improved on the 'p
Singapore
Singapore ranks in the top half of the Index and is ahead of other cities in the region, behind only Sydney and Melbourne. Technology is one of Singapore’s strongest pillars, together with Talent. Singapore moved from 10th to 6th place in Technology.
“Singapore’s strong base in technology literacy and access to talent position it well to realise its goal in becoming the world’s first Smart Nation,” added Eric Goh, VP and MD, Singapore, Dell Technologies.
“This vision requires the collective effort of the public and private sector, to enable and equip individuals of all genders as agents of change. By highlighting the complex challenges that women entrepreneurs face in Singapore, we hope to be able to drive meaningful conversations and growth as we embark on this nationwide digital transformation journey.”
The 2017 to 2019 WE Cities Index results highlight the successes and challenges that each city faces, and where cities can learn best practices from one another. These key learnings, if supported by local governments, can add up to big changes for women-owned businesses, globally, said Dell.
Based on the findings and comparison between the 2017-2019 indices, Dell has developed a set of WE Cities Policy Recommendations focused on three areas, including how government and business leaders can help women entrepreneurs thrive in the changing face of technology. For the technology initiative, Dell is calling for:
- Streamlining the process of partnering and applying for government resources,
- Emphasising science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and digital literacy in
education and early training programmes.
- Working with business leaders and educators to encourage technology training programmes to end
unconscious biases in the STEM fields, government, corporations and institutions.
- Enabling access to broadband globally.
- Increasing awareness of options women have to the hardware, software and digital resources they need to scale their companies.
Dell partnered with IHS Markit to launch the research to measure a city’s ability to attract and support high-potential women entrepreneurs. Research for WE Cities began during the 2016 DWEN Research Symposium. The successful pilot of the 2016 index led to the scaling for the 2017 index to include 50 cities and in turn the remeasuring and ranking for 2019.
This year, Dell and IHS Markit researched and ranked 50 cities on five characteristics, including access to Capital, Technology, Talent, Culture and Markets. These pillars were organised into two groups — operating environment and enabling environment. The criteria includes the impact of local policies, programmes and characteristics in addition to national laws and customs to help improve support for women entrepreneurs and the overall economy.
Rankings for Asia Pacific and Middle East cities include:
12. Sydney
13. Melbourne
21. Singapore
23. Hong Kong
26. Taipei, Taiwan
34. Tokyo
37. Dubai, UAE
38. Beijing, mainland China
41. Seoul, Korea
43. Bangalore, India
44. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
47. Shanghai, mainland China
48. Istanbul, Turkey
49. Jakarta, Indonesia
50. Delhi, India
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| Source: Dell. Infographic showing the Dell Global WE Cities rankings for 2019. |
The overall rating is based on 71 indicators; 45 of which have a gender-based component. Individual indicators were weighted based on four criteria: relevance, quality of underlying data, uniqueness in the index and gender component.
Dell supports and nurtures a community of female entrepreneurs through the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network by providing access to technology, networks and capital. The annual DWEN Summit was held in Singapore from July 14-16, 2019.
Hashtag: #DWEN
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