Female Entrepreneurs

The overall aim of the FEM-project is to create a structure for the support of women´s entrepreneurship in the Baltic Sea Region. The results of the activities will strengthen the role of women in local and regional development and promote the access of women to the labour market. In the emerging market economies women who want to start a company of their own face many social and institutional obstacles. Training , meeting-places , networking and other ways to promote women´s entrepreneurship are the main issues. The FEM-project is using the experiences of networks and bilateral projects to support women´s entrepreneurship. Experiences are transferred between the W-BSR-countries and E-BSR-countries to build a strong transnational network between institutions and organizations and give them a common structure. The BSR will profit from using «best practices» of the participating countries and thus more women are encouraged and supported to become entrepreneurs . In the project transnational networks of advisers and Resource Centre leaders are created. The aim of the Resource Centres for women is to support local and regional development by promoting the integration of women into the economic, social and political life by the «empowerment» methodology. The network of Centres will be a consultative and activating framework, a counselling and mentoring service, a tool for increasing knowledge and design capacity of women to promote the Equal Opportunities policies. The support of women´s entrepreneurship includes mentorship programmes and financial solutions especially as a network credit for entrepreneurs. Another aim is to promote internationalisation of businesses for entrepreneurs who join the project e.g. through e-commerce. The www.feminfo.net and a portal will be the key element and core of the dissemination of the FEM-project. The project will give opportunities to change the social and institutional structure in order to promote women´s entrepreneurship and maintain viable enterprises.