The entrepreneurial gender gap closes within the social enterprise arena.

Women comprise 50% of social entrepreneurs in the UK suggesting that a higher number of women are driven to set up businesses that benefit local and wider communities.

These entrepreneurs bring a wealth of intangible social benefits, in addition to their financial contribution to the economy, that cannot easily be quantified using present-day data collection methods.

Newer, more intuitive methods of valuing social enterprises are needed to justify new legislation to improve their progress, especially within the framework of an economic downturn where private funding avenues tend to contract.

There is much scope for legislative aid in terms of better procurement policies and in enabling access to mainstream public and private finance.