Gender Export Gap Working Group communique: 30 May 2025

Attendees and apologies

• International Trade and Investment, Scottish Government
• Economic Development, Scottish Government
• Office of the Chief Economic Adviser, Scottish Government
• Scottish Development International (SDI)
• Scottish Chamber of Commerce
• South of Scotland Enterprise
• Highlands and Islands Enterprise
• Women’s Enterprise Scotland
• Scottish Africa Business Association (SABA)
• Raven Botanicals
• University of Strathclyde

Apologies

• Scottish Enterprise
• Business Gateway
• Investing Women Angels

Items and actions

The Chair opened the first meeting of the working group and explained that the Scottish Government accepted the findings from the Gender Export Gap research report and is committed to implementing the recommendations with delivery partners and stakeholders. Supporting women-led businesses to export more, including by increasing the number of women who participate in international trade missions is a Programme for Government 2025-26 priority.

The Group discussed the draft terms of reference and the Chair clarified that the working group will be responsible for taking action to support women-led business to export internationally. The group started identifying actions that would implement the six recommendations that were included in the government’s response to the report, these are: 

• raising awareness of exporting opportunities for women-led SMEs
• better targeting women-led businesses in export training programmes
• including more women in trade missions
• increasing the international exposure of women’s networks
• collating gender-segregated data for exporting in Scotland
• better aligning our export and entrepreneurial policy priorities for women-led SMEs

Members agreed to continue the discussion about identifying actions and monitoring progress at their next meeting in September.