Women’s groups, however, used yesterday as a chance to highlight the need for the support offered to women. More than one million women in Britain are self-employed, but the number starting their own businesses trails far behind the United States. If the same proportion of women started a business in the UK as in the US, there would be more than 150,000 new companies.

The Government has admitted that more needs to be done to encourage women. Meg Munn, Deputy Minister for Women and Equality, who attended the Everywoman conference in London, said: “There are lots of women out there who have the capability to start their own business, but don’t think they are able to.

“The importance of women’s enterprise to the economy is often glossed over. Some men still find it hard to accept that women can have a business brain.”

Some entrepreneurs have questioned whether women need to be singled out for special help. Michelle Mone, founder of Ultimo Bras, said: “Women can benefit from the great encouragement that good networks provide, but I hate it when people treat me differently to a man. There are more men in business, and I think it is futile to try to even up the numbers.”

Others point out that women going into business are often doing so under very different circumstances than men.

“One in five women entrepreneurs are unemployed before they start their own business,” Ms Munn said. “Only one in fifteen men are in the same situation.”

Furthermore, a recent study by Warwick Business School found that often women paid up to 1 per cent more for loans to run their businesses than men.

“We are normally of the opinion that all businesses are the same, but these figures are worrying, as it may indicate that women are facing discrimination in accessing finance in the male-dominated City,” Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said.

Government help is limited at present. Its Business Link service for fledgeling businesses has been devolved to regional development agencies across the country. These agencies will be responsible for providing women with the support they need. Nevertheless, the Government is considering launching a national women’s enterprise commission.

Isabella Moore, chairman of the National Women’s Panel, said: “The support for women is very fragmented in the regions. We want a commission to make sure the issues that affect women are on the radar at the highest level. We don’t want a big bureaucratic quango, just a short, sharp study.”

Maxine Benson, co-founder of Everywoman, which provides business support for women in business, said: “We started Everywoman because we had encountered such difficulties in setting up our own business. We wondered if we were doing something wrong, as all doors were closed to us.”

CASE STUDY

Janice Dunphy and Susan Jones received practically no help or advice from government-funded bodies when they set up Creepy Crawlies, their adventure playground business in York. Dunphy and Jones, who have five children between them, say that balancing a family with starting a business was tricky, and not helped by the inflexibility of some institutions that were supposed to help. “I had to go to interviews at the bank with a toddler on my knee,” Dunphy says. Eventually they secured a loan of £100,000 from Bank of Scotland. “We approached Business Link twice for help, but we were not a priority,” Dunphy says.

Creepy Crawlies exceeded its forecast annual turnover within eight months, and business is booming, but Dunphy and Jones say that the process could have been much easier. “We had to pay for every piece of advice from our accountant and solicitor . . . they were fantastic. There are a group of local experts employed to help small businesses, but they gave us no help at all.”

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