• Self-employed men charge an average of 43% more for their work than self-employed women - compared to a 17% gender pay gap among employees.
• Half (49%) of self-employed women say they worry about their financial circumstances all or most of the time, compared to 37% of men.
• A quarter of female freelancers suffer from loneliness as a result of working remotely compared to 16% of men.
• Only a third (33%) of self-employed mothers claimed Maternity Allowance for the full 39 weeks, while 30% did not claim it at all. 

The number of women in self-employment has grown sharply in the last 10 years.1 In fact, one of the biggest factors behind the overall growth of self-employment is the remarkable 69 per cent rise in the number of highly skilled female freelancers since 2008. 

It seems that the vast majority of these women entered self-employment for overwhelmingly positive reasons. Among the most significant are greater control over working hours (63% of women said this was a factor), choice of where to work (56%) and better work-life balance (55%). 

When women get into self-employment, however, they are facing more challenges than their male counterparts. In fact, almost half of freelance women (46%) say self-employment has proved more challenging than they expected compared to 41 per cent of men. 

The gender pay gap 

The most significant of these challenges is the 43 per cent gender pay gap among the self-employed: this means self-employed men are earning an average of 43 per cent more than self-employed women. This is a much larger gap than among employees (17%). 

Unlike employees, this gap seems to be driven not so much by employers paying less, but by self-employed women undervaluing their services and charging less. In fact, women in self-employment are substantially more likely than men to say they would benefit from training in setting and raising their rates (41% compared to 34%). 

It is likely this pay disparity is connected to broader financial worries among women in self-employment. Half (49%) of them say they worry most or all of the time about their financial circumstances compared to two out of five men (37%). Likely because of this, two out of three (65%) self-employed women say they will never have the things they want in life, compared to half (50%) of men. 

These difficulties extend to financial products too. Whereas over half (54%) of men in self-employment who applied for a mortgage succeeded in getting one, the figure was only 46 per cent for women. More self-employed women (76%) are also worried about saving for later life than men (63%). 

The wellbeing gap 

Self-employed women are more likely than men to say they have felt stressed or anxious because of financial worries (57% of women compared to 46% of men). The same is true of depression (33% to 24%), feelings of inadequacy and failure (34% to 22%) and a lack of confidence (38% to 29%). 

There is a similar trend in terms of loneliness: a quarter (25%) of female freelancers said they had suffered from feelings of isolation and loneliness as a result of working remotely compared to 16 per cent of men. This may be partly because women are more likely to work from home and less likely to work in coworking spaces. Two out of five (42%) self-employed men have used coworking spaces at some point compared to just 31 per cent of women. 

Parental leave 

Another serious challenge for women in self-employment is parental leave. At the moment self-employed women are only entitled to Maternity Allowance, not Maternity Pay. Partially because of this, only a third (33%) of self-employed women have claimed Maternity Allowance for the full 39 weeks. Another third (30%) have not claimed Maternity Allowance at all. 

Another key reason self-employed women do not feel able to take all their maternity leave is that they fear the damage it could do to their businesses. A quarter (25%) of them also say they need more than the statutory 10 Keeping In Touch days to maintain their business. 

Support and training 

Facing these challenges, many self-employed women believe they need more support from the government. In fact, only one in ten of them (11%) say they feel supported by the government, compared to one in five men (20%). 

One key focus of support could be training as it can be a crucial means of reducing the gender pay gap among the self-employed. Self-employed women are more likely to say they would benefit from training in eight out of the nine areas examined in the report. 

To help alleviate these issues, the report provides a set of practical recommendations for both industry and government to ensure that self-employment remains a positive choice for women and they have the necessary tools to make a success out of this way of working. 

1. Make training for the self-employed easier to access: Making training for new skills tax deductible for the self-employed could reduce the financial burden of upskilling while allowing women to choose training that suits their particular needs. 
2. Increase New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) benefit and mentor support to two years: NEA benefit and mentor support should be increased to reflect the length of time women need support whilst establishing their businesses. 
3. Review parental rights and pay for the self-employed: A review could take a fresh approach to how parental policies and pay can be made more flexible to meet the needs of the UK’s five million self-employed, and not simply seek to fit freelancers into the existing system designed for employees. 
4. Provide better data collection to improve the understanding of the sector: Enhancing collection and availability of data on women in self-employment could help improve the understanding of this segment of the labour force and come up with practical solutions on how to better support it. 

The full recommendations can be found on pages 25-30 of the report.