An improved gender balance in senior management (Chapter 14) can thus have important “spillover” effects on female entrepreneurship. Women’s low labour force participation rates arguably limit opportunities to acquire the job skills or management experience necessary for starting a business, and only about 9% of adult women engage in early-stage entrepreneurial activity - less than half the rate of men (19%). Women entrepreneurs are a heterogeneous group, whose firm characteristics and needs vary according to location (urban versus rural) and education level.