Immigrant Women’s Entrepreneurship: Renewing Forms of Support to Enhance Impact

Immigrant women entrepreneurs are making a significant contribution to the social and economic development of Quebec and Canada overall. This chapter focuses on the experiences of immigrant women entrepreneurs within Quebec’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. It presents the results of a two-part study aimed at identifying the particular challenges they face and proposing innovative solutions to overcome them. Immigrant women entrepreneurs in Quebec find it more difficult to obtain adequate financial support for their businesses, to access networks, information, and other support services, as well as resources that would enable them to reconcile their entrepreneurial activities with their family responsibilities, among other challenges. The women entrepreneurs who took part in the study identified a number of innovative measures that can be taken to reduce existing barriers, thereby fostering a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem in the province. Women entrepreneurs emphasized the importance of a more personalized approach that takes into account the specific requirements of their sector and the development stage of their businesses. The findings further highlighted the design and adaptation of spaces and structures aimed at developing entrepreneurship, particularly for women with diverse profiles. Incubators should reconsider their activities, programming, and locations to better accommodate women entrepreneurs seeking to innovate and upscale their businesses, while helping them balance their work and family responsibilities. In addition, women entrepreneurs often miss out on important opportunities to access funding or public procurement contracts given the difficulty of accessing relevant information. Therefore, the centralized access to relevant information is essential, including access to funding opportunities, training, support for digital hubs and sourcing platforms.