Source: Forbes
You can find the future of the world’s women not in Scandinavia or the U.S., but among the entrepreneurs who line the streets of Mumbai, Manila and Sao Paulo.

Selling everything from mangoes to home-made blouses, these women, usually considered the very bottom of their home country’s employment barrel, represent the cutting-edge of progress for women in the 21st century. This marks a departure from past decades, when the advancement of women was visible almost solely in the wealthiest of countries. Surveys of female achievements have consistently singled out just a sliver of the globe, but increasingly, women are making the greatest strides elsewhere — in the rapidly growing developing world.

Women in these countries are newly empowered by remarkable gains in political representation, legal rights and, especially, education. But more important, they are rising in the 21st century’s key economic strata: as business owners. 

For our analysis of the countries where women are rising the fastest, we looked at three factors: education, politics and entrepreneurship. We studied the United Nations’ demographics on post-secondary education (current and historical) and on political participation. To assess the business environment, we examined statistics from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor on nascent entrepreneurship and the World Bank and World Economic Forum on gaps between male and female business ownership. We searched the global press, pored through research publications by financial institutions and NGOs, and visited some locations. Finally, we crunched the numbers, information and observations and came up with our own impressions. 

Our top picks for places where women were rising the fastest — as opposed to merely surfing an already advantageous position — were found largely in the developing world — particularly in Brazil, India, Vietnam and the Philippines. 

A vital benchmark of this progress is the large role that women play in business ownership in these places. In many developing countries the rate of female entrepreneurship surpasses that in the G-7 nations. Many become entrepreneurs by necessity: Often locked out of the of the best opportunities in the job market by cultural and sometimes legal barriers, women are starting businesses at rapid rates in Latin America, India, East Asia and even Africa and Central Europe. 

In contrast, female entrepreneurship rates aren’t rising in many of the most advanced countries. Despite talk of the feminization of advanced societies, the percentages of women-owned businesses are inching downward in the U.S., and they are stagnant in the E.U. To some extent, this slowdown reflects greatly expanded opportunities for a new generation of women, considerably more educated than their mothers, in both the mid-level job market and the highest corporate tiers. These changes have been accelerated by shifts in the nature of employment that favor “brains” and collaboration over traditional male advantages in “brawn” and single-minded ambition. 

The Rise of the Female Entrepreneur 

Latin America is a premiere example of the rise of female business ownership. Both Brazil and Costa Rica rank in the World Bank’s top 10 countries for female ownership participation. The region also stands out for its small gender gap in new businesses: Women are now starting businesses as often men, and sometimes succeeding. Among the top countries with the greatest equality between women and men in establishing new ventures, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor notes that many Latin American countries, especially Brazil and Peru, now have a gap that is smaller than in the U.S. or anywhere in Europe. 

The same trend is emerging in Asia. In the more tropical countries, where women are impeded by unpaid family work combined with a notoriously grim labor picture, many own marginal businesses. South Asia’s bright spot for female entrepreneurs is India, with its highly developed support structure of national-level and local organizations for women’s SMEs and early participation in micro-finance. And female entrepreneurs are thriving in Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand as well. For example, 24% of Vietnam’s 100,000-plus incorporated enterprises are owned by women; 27% of its 3 million household businesses are also female-owned. The rate of female private business owners in China, at 11 out of 100, is also higher than the world average of 7%. Surprisingly, famously chauvinist Japan is the only country in the world where the percentage of women who own their own businesses, 13%, edges out the percentage of males who do.