If you're a female entrepreneur Australia's not a bad place to live

Sydney and Melbourne have landed inside the top 20  in a global ranking of a city's ability to attract and foster the growth of women owned firms.

If you're a female entrepreneur Sydney is the 11th best place in the world to base yourself and Melbourne is the 17th according to the Dell Women Entrepreneur Cities Index announced on Monday in San Francisco.

The global gender-specific index ranked New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, London, Boston and Stockholm as the top-five cities for high-potential women entrepreneurs

Building on the past five years of Dell research on women entrepreneurs, cities were ranked on five characteristics: capital, technology, talent, culture and markets.

The WE Cities index found access to capital is still the biggest barrier faced by female entrepreneurs.

Sydney's strength is its 'enabling environment' culture, ranking second in the world for this category behind only New York City.

The WE cities report notes Sydney has a high standard of living and a growing start-up culture, although Melbourne is also regarded as a significant hub of technological innovation in Australia. Read more

Cara Waters - Brisbane Times - 18 July 2017