Executive summary
South Australia has a substantial female founder base, but representation is below the national benchmark at both the sole-trader and incorporated-company stages. Women lead 41.1% of classified sole traders and 14.0% of classified ACN companies. The state shows one of Australia's clearest scaling constraints, with representation thinning steadily as company size and productivity requirements increase. Health, education, arts, finance and professional services provide important foundations for future growth.
Key findings
- Women lead 41.1% of classified sole traders and 14.0% of classified ACN companies, respectively 1.1 and 1.2 percentage points below the national benchmarks.
- Female representation falls from 14.6% of micro companies to 12.0% of small, 8.1% of medium and 5.4% of large companies - a 63.3% proportional decline from micro to large scale.
- Female representation moves from 16.7% in the $50,000-$100,000 productivity band to 14.8% at $100,000-$250,000, 14.2% at $250,000-$500,000 and 12.2% at $1 million-$5 million per employee.
- Companies aged up to five years represent 34.0% of the women-led portfolio and 32.0% of the male-led portfolio. Companies aged 20 years or more account for 19.0% of women-led companies and 21.2% of male-led companies.
- Women account for 35.1% of classified agricultural sole traders but lead only 10.0% of classified agricultural companies, revealing a 25.0 percentage-point entry-to-incorporation gap in the sector.
- Women lead 25.3% of classified Health Care and Social Assistance companies, 28.9% of Education and Training companies and 19.7% of Arts and Recreation Services companies. Finance and professional services together account for 34.8% of the women-led portfolio.
Methodology context
The report examines active businesses across ABN sole traders and ACN registered companies. Where leadership gender can be reliably classified, entities are identified as women-led, gender-equal-led or male-led, with analysis across geography, industry, company size, business age, leadership generation and productivity. Percentages refer to entities for which leadership gender could be reliably classified.