This paper is a critical review of recent national policy developments in the United Kingdom to support women's enterprise. The progress and increased pace of national policy development in this arena reflect a renewed focus on women's enterprise in the United Kingdom, and in this paper we aim to place these developments in relation to historical and current paradigmatic approaches taken to supporting women in enterprise, existing and new research evidence, existing support and delivery structures, and the underpinning rationale behind these new policy approaches. New UK policy developments in Scotland and England are set out and we first discuss the economic rationale for these, presenting the variety of evidence and data on the rate of women's business ownership in the United Kingdom and commenting on the policy and programme implications of the available data. Next, new policy developments in the United Kingdom are reviewed and tested against a variety of paradigmatic approaches in support of women's entrepreneurship. Policy design in gender mainstreaming is outlined and the extant literature and research evidence are then discussed in relation to the design of new UK policy and programme objectives. The paper concludes with a summary of findings under these four areas and our comments on the practical implementation of recent policy initiatives and potential pitfalls in the realisation of stated policy objectives. Recommendations on a future research approach are also included.Abstract. Against a background of perceptions of women's low participation in entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom, this paper critically reviews recent policy developments in the provision of public sector support for women in enterprise. The available statistical evidence for women's participation in business ownership in the United Kingdom is reviewed against comparative data from the USA that is promoted by the UK government as a potential benchmark. We argue that programming and resource-issue problems are evidenced in new policies that are a direct consequence of lack of data. Next, policy is tested against various paradigmatic stances in women's enterprise support, and problematic areas in poverty alleviation, social inclusion, advocacy, access to finance, and gender mainstreaming are discussed. Selected literature that addresses barriers identified to women's enterprise is reviewed, and issues of confidence, risk, motivation to business start-up, and childcare are discussed in terms of programming. We conclude that, although the Department of Trade and Industry/Small Business Service Strategic Framework for Women's Enterprise in England is flawed, the framework has assembled a broad church of opinions and approaches to women's enterprise support in a democratic, participative, and cross-cutting fashion.
