Women are launching businesses in near-record numbers, but new data shows almost none of them make it into the top ranks of Australian business, in a gap researchers say is costing the economy billions of dollars a year.

The Gender Index, sponsored by Westpac, is Australia’s first national benchmark of female entrepreneurship.

It found women account for 42.2 per cent of the nation’s sole traders. That figure collapses as businesses grow: women lead 15.8 per cent of micro companies, 13.3 per cent of small companies, 8.1 per cent of medium companies, and just 7 per cent of large companies.

“This data confirms Australia does not have a participation problem. Women are starting businesses at scale, and have been for some time,” said Tamara Bryden, Westpac’s Managing Director, Business Lending, and Chair of The Gender Index Australia.

“What it exposes is a progression problem. Too many founders are hitting a ceiling on capital, networks and customer access at precisely the point they should be accelerating.”

Researchers have labelled the pattern a “missing middle”, founders who successfully start businesses but too rarely make the transition into larger employers.

Closing that gap could create an estimated 29,000 additional women-led growth businesses, the report found, with 86.3 per cent of the total opportunity sitting in the leap from micro to small business.

At a national level, reaching parity between male and female entrepreneurship could support 745,000 additional jobs and unlock more than $100 billion a year in combined wages and government tax revenue, according to the analysis of more than 10.5 million Australian commercial entities.

Crucially, the data found no evidence the drop-off is linked to how women-led businesses perform.

Once at scale, they achieve productivity outcomes comparable to, and in some cases, stronger than their peers, pointing instead to unequal access to capital, customers and networks as businesses grow.

“For the first time, we have a clear picture of where women are progressing in business and where they're being left behind. The opportunity now is bringing government, industry, investors and financial institutions together to remove those barriers," said Bryden.

"As Chair of The Gender Index Australia, that's exactly what we'll be focused on, turning data into practical action that helps more women build businesses at scale."

Westpac has today launched its Female Founder Scale-Up Specialist Team, a dedicated national network designed to help women-led businesses navigate the leap from startup to scale.

The specialists will provide a single point of contact for founders, helping connect them with funding pathways, growth opportunities, expertise and networks as they grow their businesses.

Queensland leads, Western Australia records the widest gap

Queensland recorded the strongest female founder pipeline nationally, with women accounting for 45.1% of sole traders and 16.3% of companies, the highest result in Australia on both measures.

The ACT (15.8%), Northern Territory (15.4%), Victoria (15.3%) and NSW (15.2%) followed closely behind.

Western Australia recorded the largest gap between women starting businesses and leading incorporated companies, with representation falling from 43.1% of sole traders to 13.3% of companies.

Tasmania had the lowest share of women-led companies overall at 13.1%, despite women making up 41.5% of sole traders.

Industry patterns also varied: women were most strongly represented in health, education and services, and significantly underrepresented in construction, mining and utilities.

“Closing the gap is a productivity strategy, a jobs strategy, and one of the more significant economic opportunities available to this country,” said Bryden.

The Gender Index Australia was co-founded by John Cushing, and follows the UK’s landmark Rose Review, which found closing a similar gap could add up to £250 billion to the British economy.

“This is the first time we’ve had a genuine national evidence base for female entrepreneurship in this country, rather than a patchwork of surveys and anecdotes,” said John Cushing, co-founder, The Gender Index Australia.

“That matters because you can’t fix what you can’t measure, and now, for the first time, Australia can.”

You can read the full report on The Gender Index Australia's website: TGI Australia | The Gender Index.