Minister Hoffmeister-Kraut: "Have an enormous potential of courageous and entrepreneurial women in the country"

Created: 2022-07-20 11:34 am

By: Franziska Vystrcil

Baden-Württemberg's Economics Minister Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut is committed to getting more women interested in starting a business.

© Martin Stollberg/Ministry of Economic Affairs Baden-Württemberg

The "Start-up BW Night" is aimed specifically at founders in the state.

Women should also be encouraged to take the step into self-employment.

BW24 spoke to Economics Minister Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut about female-led start-ups.

Stuttgart - Baden-Württemberg prides itself on being the federal state of ideas and inventions.

And rightly so: nationwide, the state is one of the most innovative and founder-friendly regions in Germany.

"Baden-Württemberg is not considered the land of inventors without reason," says Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Baden-Württemberg's Economics Minister, in an interview with

.

The "Start-up BW Night" event offers young companies a platform on which they can introduce themselves and exchange ideas with others.

This year the event will again take place on a large scale at the stock exchange in Stuttgart.

More than 50 start-ups will come together on July 21 from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.

More and more female founders are also taking the opportunity to take their company out into the world.

To the delight of Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut.

to the CDU politician about women in the start-up scene.

Economics Minister Hoffmeister-Kraut: "Our country needs inventiveness and creativity"

In fact, the number of female-led and founded start-ups increased in 2021.

But the number is still shockingly low.

“The German Start-up Monitor now speaks of 17.7 percent women in the founding teams.

So we're on the right track," says Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut.

However, the minister can only speculate as to the reason for the increased numbers.

“On the one hand, this can of course be attributed to start-up projects being postponed in the course of the corona pandemic.

On the other hand, it is an indication that women are becoming more interested in founding a company,” she says.

Female founders face a number of challenges, starting with the social security and tax legislation in Germany.

Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Economics Minister of Baden-Württemberg.

Increasing the proportion of women is also important to the state government.

The "Start-up BW Women" campaign aims to support female founders in their projects.

"The figures show that our offers are well received and lead to innovative start-up projects," says the minister proudly.

Should more women take the step into self-employment?

"Absolutely!

Our country needs the inventiveness and creativity of the most qualified generation of women of all time.

Because women recognize future trends at an early stage, have a high sense of responsibility and connect digital innovations.

They leave traditional paths and open up new fields of application and services,” says Hoffmeister-Kraut.

Minister appeals for more start-ups by women: "So far not enough has been done"

In the case of female company start-ups, all business areas are covered.

"Classic start-ups with creative approaches and a wide variety of industries are represented as well as high-tech start-ups," reports Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut.

"We have enormous potential in terms of courageous and enterprising women in Baden-Württemberg, for whom our own company offers attractive career opportunities."

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One obstacle: many concepts are still primarily geared towards men's start-ups.

“Female founders face a number of challenges, starting with social security and tax legislation in Germany,” explains Hoffmeister-Kraut.

“This is still tailored to the male “breadwinner”.” This did not deter founder Sandra Herrmann: The Baden-Württemberg native gave up her management job at Daimler to start her start-up “foodtprint”.

When it comes to financing, too, women often lose out.

“Various studies have already been able to show that double standards are used here.

For example, investors ask men's start-ups about the opportunities and women-led start-ups about the risks.

There needs to be an urgent rethink here,” demands the politician.

With the "Start-up BW" state campaign, Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut wants to fight for women to have the same opportunities as men when founding a company.