Governance and public policies: support for women entrepreneurs in France and England?

We extend the current literature on barriers to women’s entrepreneurship by providing the perspectives of women entrepreneurs’ lived experience of governance and public policies designed to support entrepreneurship, in France and England. The research draws on primary data comprising of interviews with 75 French and English women entrepreneurs as well as secondary data. The research suggests that in France the system of governance is relatively more supportive, whereas in England there are less favourable views of bureaucracy and conditionality of financial policy instruments, which in turn create unintended outcomes. We extend current understandings of gendered public policies and governance.