When the OECD and the Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Policy Network (GWEP) launched their global study Bridging the Finance Gap for Women Entrepreneurs in 2025, the goal was not only to understand the financial challenges women face but also to highlight how different national contexts shape access to opportunity.
As one of the contributing researchers to this landmark project, I had the privilege of co-authoring the Iran Country Note — a section that examines how culture, finance, and policy intersect to define women’s entrepreneurial realities in Iran. This reflection builds on insights from the OECD–GWEP global study Bridging the Finance Gap for Women Entrepreneurs (2025), to which I contributed as co-author of the Iran Country Note.
A Complex Landscape: Entrepreneurship Beyond Stereotypes
The study revealed a nuanced picture. As of 2022, nearly 15% of Iranian women were actively engaged in entrepreneurship — from small-scale ventures to emerging tech startups — compared with 25% of men. Despite historical and structural barriers, Iranian women entrepreneurs are increasingly active in fields such as fintech, IT, and manufacturing, often outperforming expectations in innovation and resilience.
Historically, women in Iran have played strong roles in commerce, property management, and trade — long before the modern startup ecosystem took shape. But the post-1979 period introduced social perceptions that largely confined women to domestic roles. Fortunately, higher education, digital connectivity, and the rise of online business platforms have reopened opportunities.
This cultural dynamic — constrained but not contained — defines much of Iran’s entrepreneurship story today.
Policy and Finance: The Persistent Gap
As the Iran note shows, the key challenge is access to finance.
Iran’s funding ecosystem is largely dominated by the public sector and a male-centered private sector. This dual structure leaves limited room for women to obtain loans or attract investment.
Women often lack access to collateral assets, face higher interest rates, and experience lower institutional trust from financial entities. Even when capable, they encounter an environment that still tests their legitimacy before evaluating their ideas.
Meanwhile, non-governmental support remains scarce — few NGOs or accelerators are dedicated to women-owned businesses. Initiatives such as the Women Entrepreneurship Support Program (WESP) by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare are steps forward, but their reach remains limited compared to the scale of the challenge.
Iran ranks 143rd out of 146 countries in the 2024 Global Gender Gap Index — a stark reminder of the distance that must still be covered.
What Policy Can (and Should) Do
The OECD study proposes several policy avenues that resonate strongly for Iran:
Foster collaboration among senior women managers through peer networks.
Support knowledge-intensive startups by women within universities and tech parks.
Facilitate micro-funding and crowdfunding platforms that bypass traditional banking barriers.
Create public–private financing schemes specifically designed for women-led ventures.
In other words, the goal is not charity, but capacity — a policy ecosystem that recognises women entrepreneurs as vital actors in national growth.
Why This Matters Beyond Gender
For me, this report carries meaning beyond its gender lens. It represents a model of how international collaboration can strengthen national policymaking.
By engaging with OECD-led research, Iran demonstrates that it can both contribute to and learn from global evidence-based frameworks — not through political dialogue, but through data, methodology, and insight.
This is a form of policy diplomacy — where nations earn respect and trust not by statements, but by substance.
When Iran’s experience enters global datasets, the conversation about our economy and society becomes more accurate, more balanced, and more human.
Looking Ahead
If Iran continues to invest in research-driven policy design, it can position itself as a regional leader in inclusive innovation.
The lesson from this OECD study is clear: evidence-based participation builds credibility.
Our role as researchers, strategists, and policymakers is to ensure that Iran’s realities — its challenges and its strengths — are present in the world’s most important conversations about innovation, entrepreneurship, and social change.
Because shaping policy begins with sharing truth.
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