New research reveals that the building finishing trades have the most self-employed women
Posted by: electime 13th March 2025
The money.co.uk business loans team has investigated the state of women’s entrepreneurship in the UK, and the data highlights the top 10 industries with the highest rates of self-employed women.
The industries with the most self-employed women:
| Rank | Industry | Total number of women in work | No. of company- employed women in occupation | No. of self-employed women in occupation | per cent of self-employed women |
| 1 | Building Finishing Trades | 6,100 | 1,000 | 5,100 | 83.6 |
| 2 | Agricultural and Related Trades | 49,000 | 13,900 | 35,100 | 71.6 |
| 3 | Artistic, Literary and Media Occupations | 195,800 | 72,500 | 123,300 | 63.0 |
| 4 | Hairdressers and Related Services | 187,700 | 69,800 | 117,900 | 62.8 |
| 5 | Other Skilled Trades | 24,200 | 9,500 | 14,700 | 60.7 |
Building finishing trades – 83.6 per cent of self-employed women
Despite remaining in first place since our last report, the percentage of self-employed women in building finishing trades has dropped from 97.6 per cent to 83.6 per cent. However, this could be due to the total number of women working in the industry increasing from 4,200 to 6,100. 5,100 of these women are self-employed, equaling over four-fifths of the trade’s total female workforce.
Further study findings
- Other skilled trades, which refers to any occupation that requires a specialised set of skills and knowledge for manual work within the construction or maintenance sectors, ranks fifth for the highest number of self-employed women
- Over 83 per cent of female painters and decorators are self-employed, and there are over 2,000 more women in the profession since the last report
- London tops the list as the UK region with the most self-employed women, totalling 13.2 per cent of all women working in the region. Some of the most common roles of self-employment in London are in construction
