The Strategic Framework for Women’s Enterprise: BME Women at the Margins

Purpose: Historically the policy approach in the United Kingdom towards female enterprise and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) business has mirrored the inconsistencies in the approach to small business enterprises generally (DTI, 2002). The policy approach between the 1960s and the end of the 1990s centred on various politically motivated dimensions of small business that generally marginalized BME and women-owned businesses. Presently, in the UK, the Small Business Service (SBS) of the government’s Department of Trade and Industry has been given the mandate since 1999 to be “the voice of small firms in government, to help small firms deal with the regulatory burdens and develop a world class business support infrastructure” (Vyakarnam and Gatt, 2000) with a strategic aim to encourage “more enterprise in disadvantaged communities and under-represented groups”. As part of the effort to provide a more coherent national strategic approach to women’s enterprise policy the government launched the Strategic bFramework for Women’s Enterprise (SFWE) in 2003, an umbrella document from which all initiatives to support female entrepreneurship acquire their momentum. However, research has shown that BME women and African-Caribbean women in particular may face these challenges in unique ways that may not be reflected in the experiences of mainstream women (Ram, 1998, Ram et al., 2003, Bank of England, 2003, Marlow et al., 2003, Cabinet Office, 2003).