Touchstone - (MoS)

This research project will address a number of questions related to measuring the success of self-employed women and women-owned SMEs, with the aim of constructing and piloting a gender-sensitive model of ICT business support. It will build on and develop work undertaken by WEVH's Women's E-Business Support (WEBS) project.

The aim of this research project is to gain a greater understanding of the discrimination experienced by women entrepreneurs, in particular through the ways public and private agencies use male normative models of success when making decisions on the allocation of financial and other resources. As such it is addressing a specific equality issue.

The ultimate beneficiaries of the project will be women entering self-employment or business start-up, or existing women-owned / managed SMEs . In addition to gaining a greater understanding of discrimination of women seeking business support, the outcomes of the project will be:

• an alternative framework for measuring success

• and a new business support model based on these measures.
  
• This will result in tools which can be directly used to both reduce the levels of disadvantage faced by women in the labour market and to promote equal opportunities for women and men.