Dublin, 34th in the 2017 women entrepreneur Cities index (WE Cities)

By Oscar Michel, Masters in Journalism, DCU

Dell announced findings of the 2017 Women Entrepreneur Cities Index (WE Cities), revealing how 50 top global cities are fostering high-potential women entrepreneurs (HPWE). Dublin is in 34th position.

It was at the 8th Dell women Entrepreneur Network summit, that the only global gender-specific index that looks at a city’s ability to attract and foster growth of women-owned firms was established. New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, London, Boston and Stockholm are the top-five cities for high-potential women entrepreneurs.

Facts about Dublin and Ireland:

• 1.8 million population.
• $118.6 billion Gross Metro Product in 2016.
• 26 weeks at a minimum pay of €235 euros per week.
• Collaborative efforts between Dublin’s
  educational institutions and local
  entrepreneurship centers, such as Enterprise
  Ireland, have helped to boost the availability of
  Technology training organizations for women.
• High cost of living puts added pressure on low wage workers, many of whom are women.
• The high costs of childcare and dependency on family support system operates as a barrier to women’s labor force participation,
• Dublin should consider improving its access to affordable internet and mobile plans to allow entrepreneurs to plow more money into operating and scaling.

“Globally, women’s entrepreneurship rates are growing more than 10 percent each year. In fact, women are as likely or more likely than men to start businesses in many markets. However, financial, cultural and political barriers can limit the success of these businesses,” said Karen Quintos, EVP and chief customer officer at Dell. “By arming city leaders and policymakers with data-driven research and clear calls to action, we can collectively improve the landscape for high-potential women entrepreneurs, which in turn dramatically lifts a city’s economic prospects – as what is good for women is good for the economy.”

“It is in the world’s best interest that women entrepreneurs everywhere thrive. The WE Cities Index can be used as a diagnostic tool to help ensure that lawmakers are enabling women entrepreneurs to succeed,” said Elizabeth Gore, entrepreneur-in-residence at Dell. “Each of the cities on this list can learn from one another and encourage political change to attract and support women entrepreneurs. The resulting change will be felt at not just a city level, but around the world as we develop an ecosystem where all entrepreneurs can thrive regardless of gender.”

Before this new ranking system, cities were ranked on five characteristics: Capital, Technology, talent, Culture and markets.

Here is the new index.

1. New York City
2. Bay Area
3. London
4. Boston
5. Stockholm
6. Los Angeles
7. Washington, D.C.
8. Singapore
9. Toronto
10. Seattle
11. Sydney
12. Paris
13. Chicago
14. Minneapolis
15. Austin
16. Hong Kong
17. Melbourne
18. Atlanta
19. Amsterdam
20. Portland (OR)
21. Berlin
22. Taipei
23. Pittsburg
24. Tel Aviv
25. Copenhagen
26. Vancouver
27. Houston
28. Johannesburg
29. Barcelona
30. Seoul
31. Munich
32. Miami/Ft. Lauderdale
33. Nairobi
34. Dublin
35. Warsaw
36. Belfast
37. Milan
38. Beijing
39. Tokyo
40. Bangalore
41. Kuala Lumpur
42. Sao Paulo
43. Dubai
44. Shanghai
45. Mexico City
46. Lima
47. Guadalajara
48. Istanbul
49. Delhi
50. Jakarta

Dell partnered up with IHS Markit, a leading source of insight and analytics, to create this first women entrepreneur Cities index. This research began during the 2016 DWEN Future Ready Research Symposium chaired by Dr. David Ricketts. 40 global thought leaders, women entrepreneurs, academics and medias met up during this research.

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