The European Commission might agree. Last month it appointed 10 Flemish women business owners as entrepreneurial ambassadors, part of its Ambassadors Network launched in 2009 to foster entrepreneurship among women. The ambassadors speak at schools, community groups and to the media, as well as address conferences, business networks and employment initiatives.

One of them is Kristel Vereecken, founder of tour company Ghent Authentic. After guiding a Russian family first through her native Ghent - aided by a translating friend - and then through a local bistro's lunch menu, she says that the chief obstruction to women's entrepreneurship is "between their ears".

"When I say I have my own business, people are shocked," Vereecken says. "But it's not so difficult. You just have to do it." Trained in law, Vereecken won a writing contest, which convinced her to pursue screenwriting in New York. After that, she studied to become a licensed tour guide in Ghent. She still splits her year between the two cities and, when tango classes aren't enough, she heads to Buenos Aires. Like many Flemish women, she speaks several languages, but, unlike the rest, she is regularly asked to dinner in each one.

Ghent Authentic isn't like other tour companies, either. Operating since last autumn, specialised tours are its hallmark, attracting diverse clientele. Recently Vereecken guided the president of the University of Kazakhstan and his wife. Then there was an entourage of students from Mumbai specialising in European history, enthralled to hear the owner of a local coffee shop explain how the most important coffee bean in her stock was from India.

Neuroscientists point out that the subconscious coats people, places and objects with emotional significance when it senses a belonging to them. Hence Ghent Authentic's motto: "Think global, feel local."

Especially popular are what Vereecken calls "Business Express" tours, in which business folk can be taken anywhere from churches to chocolate shops when seeking an hour's respite. She reckons her knack for creating customisable tours stems from her friendships.

Whenever a social event was brainstormed, "it was always me organising the details". And she reckons her company's success stems from its diversity and flexibility. Her staff come from all walks of life. "One is a meteorologist, another an IT manager and another an architect. And it works well."

Use your own strengths
Other Flemish ambassadors share this optimism. Kristien Vermoesen, a freelance journalist who launched public relations firm FINN in 2006, thinks women are frightened off by business circles dominated by men. Nathaly Taillieu, head of safety consultancy DISC Belgium, stresses that women need to stop trying to compete with or emulate male business owners and focus on their own strengths.

But most agree that Belgians in general lack an entrepreneurial spirit. "They tend to be too modest and are sometimes afraid to take risks," says Sarah Vanacker, founder of Belgian Shoes, which has a store in New York.

Taillieu acknowledges that her parents advised her to stick with one company and grow within it. A lack of entrepreneurial spirit can be attributed to several factors, from a country's political and economic atmosphere to its citizens' worldview.

Still, Belgian women are five times less likely to start a business than Belgian men, and just 0.4% of Belgian women are new business owners - one of the lowest proportions in the western world - according to a 2000 study.

The idea that women entrepreneurs face more difficulties than men may be scoffed at by the successful, but it's a reality many women have faced.

Looking through the glass ceiling
Bie Schurmans, head of industrial component firm Fomeco in Zwevegem, West Flanders, is one example. Her husband is an entrepreneur. When he bought Fomeco, he needed someone to run it but couldn't believe that his wife - or any woman - was capable. Eventually she changed his mind.

But frustrations persist. After consistently receiving no responses to her requests for quotes from vendors, she now signs all correspondence with her last name and first initial only, so they can't tell she is a woman. Research on entrepreneurship has grown since the 1980s.

It details greater difficulties for women securing financing and a high risk aversion. One study questioning bank managers found them less inclined to sign off on loans to women, regardless of the business ventures. Another study, by Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, suggests women entrepreneurs are more afraid of failure than men.

The 2004 book Women In Management Worldwide: Facts, Figures and Analysis is bleaker still. Women outnumber men at universities and score better, but they work fewer hours and are more likely to work in the public sector. They are also more likely to earn lower salaries throughout their careers. Claiming seats on a company's board of directors is improbable.

Vlerick at one point sponsored training programmes for women managers and entrepreneurs. But these were eventually dropped. Interestingly, this is not new. A 1987 study in Britain was conducted to understand a sharp increase in demand among women for places in small-business courses. Researchers found no apparent differences in financing, education or business launch times between enrolled men and women. The only differences were the ensuing businesses themselves.

According to the study, women-run businesses hired more women employees. They were more labour-intensive and centred on specialities like hairdressing, restaurants, communications and fashion. The British study ultimately saw no strong evidence to support female-specific programmes.

But Anna Danti, a policy officer at the European Commission's Ambassadors Network, maintains that women face unique challenges, especially in securing financing. "Sometimes they go back to the same bank at a different time because it depends on who is on the other side of the desk," she says.

Danti finds this especially surprising since women are generally better at managing debt than men, she says, citing the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, which signs micro-finance loans exclusively to groups of women. Moreover, the average financing needed by women entrepreneurs in Europe is low, she says - just €10,000 to €20,000. (Vereecken's only financing, received from the Belgian government, is within that range.)

The Ambassadors Network now comprises 270 ambassadors in 22 countries. Danti says that its influence alone has led to the creation of 55 companies in five countries. She sees its primary focus as training women to create business plans and maintain proper accounting.

The value of networks
Women are good at networking, says Danti. "But they aren't as good at using their network professionally."

A 2009 survey led by Ghent University of 125 Belgian start-ups found that those who had friends in banking got better loans. Having a lot of friends in business led to better business deals. Traditionally, women relied on family networks for funding and formation. The Flemish ambassadors are no different. If more Flemish women want to start new businesses, first they need to make new friends.

Networks matter equally for men and women and, according to the survey, raw knowledge isn't as important for entrepreneurship as networks. Improving networks would help women open not only more successful businesses, but more diverse ones as well. But Danti does not yet see networking activity among women increasing. Maybe in the next generation, she says. The Ambassadors Network will try to speed it up.

Meanwhile, Vereecken ponders her future. A full-time investor would be nice, she says, especially to buy office space. She reckons she can break even in one year. Then, maybe, she will franchise throughout Flanders. Though she doesn't imagine staying forever. There is still her script to finish, for example.

Her ambassador life has nonetheless begun promisingly. Her first assignment was to escort a Philippine woman who was receiving an entrepreneurship award from Princess Mathilde.

"This woman, who runs a textile shop and has never left her country, flies to Belgium, of all places, and on her first day she meets the princess," says Vereecken. "When she spoke in front of everyone, you could see she felt she was speaking for all the women in her country."

The feeling, it seems, was mutual. "When we spoke, just the two of us," Vereecken adds, "we had so much psychology in common. Entrepreneurs in rich and poor countries, they struggle with the same things."

www.tinyurl.com/ambassadorsnetwork

JUMP Forum

For the fifth year, Brussels-based women's business organisation JUMP hosts its forum on women in the workplace on 5 May. This year's theme is leadership, emphasising the search for the perfect leadership style depending on just who you're leading. Speakers include Flemish author and business owner Michele Mees, a partner at FEMCO Female Empowerment Consulting and Coaching, and the UK's Peninah Thomson, co-founder of the FTSE 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Programme and author of A Woman's Place is in the Boardroom.

Speakers present in English, Dutch or French, with simultaneous translation in all three languages available. As Flanders Today went to press, there were still a few places left in the day-long forum. www.forumjump.eu