Gender Equality National Report Hungary - European-microfinance ...

Although also generally low, the employment rate of men is traditionally higher: in 2004
57.5% of men and only 44.3% of women were employed, the difference therefore is nearly
14%. Among people who are employed, 19.4% of women and 23.7% of men are selfemployed.
The lack of resources for the launch of a business shows a devastating picture. Most of the
female enterprises start practically without any or with a very low amount of capital; these
entrepreneurs can be considered self employed according to international definitions.
According to statistics and studies, there are twice as many enterprises owned by men than
by women in Hungary,
Low representation of women in the media is connected to the fact that they also have a
small share in the politics.
In recent years, especially after Hungary joined the EU (2004) the number and financial
background of programs and measures enhancing equal opportunities for women in
enterprise development significantly increased.
EU funded female labour market calls for application focused on female entrepreneurs, also
emphasizing the importance of training and networking. As women’s businesses in Hungary
are usually small enterprises, they are vulnerable. The majority are micro-enterprises, which
employ fewer than 10 people, if any. A great number of them are self-employed.
Of the 65,000 non-profit organizations registered in Hungary there are only 60 that
specifically aim to represent women or claim to be women’s organizations. This number is
very low and appears to be even lower if we compare it with the tendencies of Western
countries. In spite of this, several of them were very successful, particularly with the help of
EU support programs. The number of these is likely to increase in the future, thanks to the
new, significantly higher EU funded sources.
Although the enterprises owned by men are somewhat bigger than those owned by women,
regarding both the number of employees and the size of income, practically there is no
difference in capital supply.
Although the number of micro-enterprises is the highest, they apply for or receive loans in the
lowest proportion. Even though the proportion of women’s enterprises is the highest (35%) in
this category, the majority do not count in the usage of loans. The proportion of women’s
enterprises is lower in the categories of small and medium-sized enterprises (27% and 26%
respectively) therefore the proportion when considering all t enterprises using loans is
probably below 30%.
In all the micro-finance programs (national and local micro-credit programs as well as the
Micro-credit Plus program) run by the enterprise promotion foundations in the capital city and
the counties (i.e. LEAs) as micro-finance institutions, which make up the Hungarian Microfinance
Network female and male entrepreneurs may apply for loans with equal chances.
On the basis of data from the national micro-credit program less than 30% of enterprises
receiving micro-credit are owned by women.
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