Thank you very much for those questions.
We definitely have seen research around how women's entrepreneurships differ from those led or founded by men. One distinction, very clearly, is that they are more concentrated in small enterprises with fewer than 10 employees. Often there is also a lot of self-employment. By definition, I think a lot of the entrepreneurship program research doesn't really look into this group of entrepreneurs, but they are overrepresented by women.
Other research shows that women pursue growth very differently because of all the other circumstances. They shoulder a lot of the unpaid labour at home, and also even within the business. They often assume a lot more of the administrative type of roles that are undervalued.
In terms of better policies, I don't have a silver bullet to solve this problem, or any specific recommendations, but when we are considering policies or programs to support women entrepreneurships, even in accessing international markets, I think we need to look into this special segment of entrepreneurships and tailor more targeted programs to support them.
Speaking from my own personal experience, I once was a self-employed consultant with international clients. I never even considered that any kind of trade policy or program support could apply to me, but looking at it now, I think I was exporting my service. I think Canada would benefit from expanding these definitions and looking into this group of entrepreneurs.