A lack of confidence is holding women back when it comes to setting up businesses in the UK, it has been suggested.
According to entrepreneur Shaa Wasmund, the chief executive officer of Bright Station Ventures, low self-belief is the main obstacle preventing many females from establishing their own firms, as opposed to external obstacles.
The NatWest and RBS Small Business Monitor 2008 revealed that 32 per cent of men have either set up or have considered setting up a company, compared to only 19 per cent of women.
Ms Wasmund said: "I feel that women tend to lack the same confidence or bravado that men do and the self-belief that they can genuinely achieve whatever they put their minds to."
She went on to suggest that women are just as successful, if not more so, in terms of running companies than their male counterparts.
