# Main constraints on women-owned firms in the Caribbean

A tracer of graduates from the Women Innovators Network in the Caribbean found access to growth finance at the top of the list in 2015, 2016 and 2018.

The 2021 post reviewed a study of women who had gone through the Women Innovators Network in the Caribbean (WINC) Acceleration Programme, an infoDev / World Bank programme. The published note is [Marginalisation and Gender: Tracking the Experiences of Caribbean Women Entrepreneurs (2015 to 2018)](https://publications.iadb.org/en/marginalisation-and-gender-tracking-experiences-caribbean-women-entrepreneurs-2015-2018), prepared for the Inter-American Development Bank by Jonathan Lashley, Katrine Smith and Luwayne Thomas (November 2022).

This page is a review of that note. Luwayne Thomas's WINC role was research assistance. The study is not a Balcostics prime survey.

The note set out to see whether constraints differ by stage of the business, how they change over time, what sits underneath them, and what that implies for programmes. Permission covered aggregate use of data on 104 women who had graduated from the accelerator. All 104 were invited to an online tracer in April and May 2018. Sixty-one replied, a 59 per cent response rate. Replies came from 11 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The 2021 post also listed percentage shares for the OECS, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Barbados, Belize, Suriname, Jamaica and the Bahamas. Those shares are not in the published note, so they are not repeated. They should not be read as the share of businesses in each country that are owned by women.

Among the 61 tracer replies, the age of the enterprise ran from 3 years to 76, with a median of 9. Median employment was 3.0 full-time equivalent. Enterprises classed as growing were larger (median 5.0) than those in decline or stasis (median 1.5).

Twenty-five of the women who completed the tracer also gave in-depth interviews in June 2018. Thirteen of those enterprises were in the growth group and 12 were in decline or stasis. The interviews were transcribed and analysed by theme. The 13 and 12 are the interview split. They are not the same as the 29 tracer enterprises with an employment increase.

## What respondents named

Asked for the top constraints on the business, respondents put access to growth financing first in each wave: 66 per cent at entry in 2015, 63 per cent at exit in 2016, and 62 per cent in the 2018 tracer. Lack of skilled staff was named by 36 per cent in each of those three waves ([Table 4 of the IDB note](https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Marginalisation-and-Gender-Tracking-the-Experiences-of-Caribbean-Women-Entrepreneurs-2015-to-2018.pdf)).

The rest of the top five moved. In 2015 it also included suitable and affordable support services (44 per cent), access to markets (36 per cent) and networking for business opportunities (30 per cent). In 2016 it included suitable space (29 per cent), customs and trade regulations (27 per cent) and equal treatment by financial institutions (27 per cent). In 2018 it included support services (36 per cent), access to markets (31 per cent) and access to technology or equipment (25 per cent).

The 2021 post treated 62 per cent and 36 per cent as if those exact shares had held in every wave. Financing stayed first, and skilled staff stayed at 36 per cent, but the financing share was 66, then 63, then 62.

Firms at different stages did not report the same list. In the note's comparison by recent employment change, lack of suitable or affordable business support services became more common both among firms whose employment had fallen and among firms with no change. The authors' summary is that growth changes the order and the weight of constraints, and that marginalisation was still present. The two underlying constraints they name are attitudes about which sectors women are expected to work in, and the way gatekeepers in financial institutions see those businesses.

The 2021 page quoted interviewees on interest rates, a business "health clinic", a refused credit card and insurance. Those sentences are not carried over. They were not located in the published note during this check. The note's own recommendations go to financial inclusion, business support services and networks. It treats gender discrimination as a longer social problem, not something a single product will close.

Later Caribbean work still puts finance at the front. An IDB Invest note in September 2022 reported that two-thirds of women-owned or women-led firms called access to finance a major or severe obstacle, and that 39 per cent said the same of high interest rates ([IDB Invest, 2022](https://www.idbinvest.org/en/blog/gender/reigniting-women-led-businesses-caribbean-better-access-finance)). A 2025 study for the Caribbean Development Bank, covering The Bahamas, Belize, Jamaica and Saint Lucia, again describes a financing gap for women-owned and women-led micro, small and medium enterprises, and traces it to traditional banking models, restrictive collateral requirements and unconscious gender bias ([ICR Facility, 2025](https://www.icr-facility.eu/knowledge-hub/resource/access-to-finance-for-women-owned-and-led-in-the-caribbean/)).

## Updated October 2026

- The 104 graduates, the 61 tracer replies (59 per cent) and the 25 interviews (13 growth, 12 non-growth) are stated separately. The 2021 post had placed the tracer percentages next to the 104.
- Country percentage shares from the 2021 post are removed. The published note lists 11 countries and does not give those shares. Financing is given as 66, 63 and 62 per cent across the three waves, not 62 per cent in each.
- Direct quotations from the 2021 post are removed because this check did not find them in the IDB note. Recommendations follow the note: financial inclusion, support services and networks.
- A 2022 IDB Invest note and a 2025 Caribbean Development Bank study are added. Both still find access to finance as a leading constraint. WINC is described as research assistance by Luwayne Thomas, a co-author, not as a Balcostics prime survey.


Source: https://balcostics.com/blog/caribbean-women-owned-firms/