If the UK matched the USA's level of women-led businesses we would have an additional 900,000 businesses and 150,000 start-ups every year. Business Secretary of State John Hutton

A new survey of women entrepreneurs has revealed that gaining more flexibility between work and family life is the biggest motivator for women to go it alone in the business world.

In the survey, commissioned by the Commissioner for Women and Equality Harriet Harman, three quarters (75 per cent) said that work family life balance is better when you run your own business, rather than being an employee.

The majority of women entrepreneurs are extremely positive about the benefits of being self-employed, with nine in ten (86 per cent) happy to set up their own business all over again. Additional findings from the survey revealed that more than three quarters (78 per cent) gained greater independence from setting up their own business, two thirds (66 per cent) increased confidence, and 60 per cent said it gave them greater self-worth.

Other reasons for women starting their own business are to be their own boss (65 per cent), to be able to work from home (61 per cent), to get more job satisfaction (53 per cent) and to achieve a better work-life balance (52 per cent). The proportion of manual/unskilled female entrepreneurs is increasing – 55 per cent set up their business in the past five years, compared with 47 per cent of professional/skilled women, indicating that starting a new business is not just for those with degrees.

Business Secretary of State John Hutton said: "If the UK matched the USA's level of women-led businesses we would have an additional 900,000 businesses and 150,000 start-ups every year. I want us to be the most enterprising economy in the world and to do this, we need women to start and grow their own businesses.”

Female entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom is increasing. There are now more than one million self-employed women - a 17 per cent rise since 2000. But the gap between female and male entrepreneurship remains stubbornly wide. Despite women making up half of the UK population, they only constitute 27 per cent of the self-employed.