• Research
• 1 Dec 2022
• Joshua Toovey

• Over two in five women (44%) have been in self-employment for over nine years, proving self-employment offers a long-term career for many women
• Freelance women now comprise almost half (46%) of the freelance workforce
• 15 per cent of freelancers are working mums

Despite our research now revealing a three per cent drop in the number of women in self-employment, the total number of self-employed women now stands at 1,577,000 which is a less sever drop to their male counterparts in self-employment. By comparison, the number of self-employed men in the UK has fallen by seven per cent since 2020.

Interestingly, women enter self-employment optimistically seeking greater control over working hours (63%), choice of where to work (56%) and better work-life balance (55%). Moreover, the largest proportion of the female self-employed work in SOC3 associate professional and technical occupations (23%), accounting for 368,000.

Making the move to work for themselves has proven to be a long-term solution for many women with almost half of self-employed women (46%) being in self-employment for over six years, whilst 44 per cent have been in self-employment for over nine years.

The research also compares self-employed men to women with the research revealing that becoming a mother is more likely to trigger a move into self-employment than becoming a father.

Obstacles for self-employed women

Despite self-employment being a popular route for many women, there are still obstacles including inadequate Maternity Allowance for working mothers, the gender pay gap and a reduced accessibility to training. These are barriers which may deter many women from entering self-employment. The pandemic also had an effect on this, with the amount of working mothers decreasing by 14 per cent since 2020 due to freelance mothers having to contend with lockdown restrictions and its impact on childcare.

A range of ages

Whilst the average age of women in self-employment is 47 years-old, the largest age groups for self-employed females are 50-59 years (424,000) and 40-49 years (379,000). Combined, this accounts for over half of the whole female solo self-employed population.

The age group that has seen the largest increase amongst the female self-employed population is the 30-39 age band, which has seen an increase of eight per cent since 2020.

Read the full report here