Exporting companies are more competitive, achieve higher profits, and employ more people, yet there are still few women benefiting from opportunities in international markets. To transform this reality in Brazil, ApexBrasil created the Women and International Business Program, which in less than a year has already assisted nearly 3,000 women-led companies.
Including women equally in the economy is not only fair: it is more efficient and good for business. According to a report produced by the Global McKinsey Institute, if there were total wage equality between men and women, the global GDP could increase by up to $28 trillion.
This untapped potential results from gender-based division of labor, which perpetuates male power in the professional environment, with higher positions and greater salaries, while women are directed towards domestic activities. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2023, published by the World Economic Forum, the gender parity rate in the workforce is still 68.6%. At the current rate of global progress, it will take 131 years to achieve full parity.
Foreign trade can help accelerate this equalization. Companies that trade globally tend to be more productive, as exporting leads to market expansion, sales growth, and access to new technologies. It is no surprise that companies operating in foreign markets create more and better jobs. Therefore, including women in international business can bring significant benefits to the economy.
Statistically, however, female entrepreneurs are still far from global opportunities. According to a survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) “Outlook for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Entrepreneurship 2023,” among companies in OECD countries with a presence on Facebook, only 11% of small and medium-sized enterprises led by women export, compared to 19% of such companies led by men in 2022.
In addition to being concentrated in less export-oriented sectors, such as services, women-led companies are generally smaller, making it difficult for them to bear the fixed costs necessary for internationalization and they are more risk-averse. In Brazil, the asymmetry is particularly pronounced. According to a report prepared by the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (MDIC), only 14% of Brazilian exporting companies are majority-owned by women. The potential to expand female participation is enormous, bringing with it income, jobs, and a virtuous cycle of equity and equality. According to data collected by the World Bank and the WTO (2020), when developing countries double their exports of manufactured goods, the share of women in total manufacturing wages increases by an average of 5.8 percentage points.
Women and International Business
It was with the aim of acting on these mechanisms that in 2023 the Brazilian Agency for the Promotion of Exports and Investments (ApexBrasil) made its first efforts to establish a dialogue channel with businesswomen and institutions supporting female entrepreneurship. In June, the Agency implemented the Women and International Business Program.
The initiative was created to help increase the number of Brazilian companies led by women in the Brazilian exporting base and in global value chains. The Program’s business model is based on applying a gender lens to the Agency’s action pillars: commercial intelligence, qualification, trade promotion, international expansion, investment attraction, and country image promotion.
The program was conceived by ApexBrasil’s Business Director, Ana Paula Repezza. “Including women in foreign trade and foreign direct investment flows has immediate impacts, such as generating more wealth and income. It also produces, in the future, what we call intergenerational impacts,” she summarized.
The Program includes specific actions, 100% directed at women-led companies, and inclusive actions, through the adoption of affirmative mechanisms for female leaders in all regulations and selection notices for companies. Inclusion tools include: additional points in project calls, slots, discounts, and tie-breaking criteria for women-owned companies.
The program targets companies, start-ups, socio-productive organizations, and civil society organizations led by women, with an emphasis on micro and small enterprises, of all exporting maturities, from all regions, across all sectors of goods, services, and agriculture.
In the first six months of the initiative, the results are already visible. ApexBrasil’s support for women-led companies increased by 32%, from 2,161 in 2022 to 2,883 in 2023. In total, nearly 700 new women-led companies were supported by the Agency in the last year, participating directly in more than 30 actions carried out under the Program.
“The aspiration to bring more women into international business is materializing into effective actions, impacting hundreds of businesswomen and resonating in the work of different government entities and partners. May we do even more in 2024,” says Ana Paula Repezza.
Source: G20 Brazil 2024