Female-Led SMBs ‘Disproportionately’ Harmed in Pandemic, Says Facebook

Small and medium businesses (SMBs) in “consumer-focused” sectors appear to “have been hit hardest” in the global COVID-19 pandemic, said a Facebook report co-authored with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Bank. They canvassed more than 30,000 Facebook-member owners, managers and employees in 50 countries late May, finding 54% of consumer-focused SMBs were shuttered between January and May, compared with 26% of SMBs at large that closed down. Micro-businesses, defined as SMBs owned and operated by a single individual, closed “to a greater extent than those with multiple employees,” it said. “Female-led SMBs have been disproportionately impacted,” said the report. They were seven percentage points “more likely to be closed” than their male-owned counterparts, it said. A “greater proportion of female business leaders operate micro-businesses with no employees” by a margin of 37% to 24%, it said. Female-led SMBs “are also concentrated in the sectors that have been most affected by lockdown measures,” it said.