New rankings: The world's top nations for female entrepreneurs Women have historically started far fewer businesses than men - but the gap is closing. In the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, the rate of business formation among women eclipsed the rate among men in three nations (Ghana, Nigeria and Thailand) for the first time in the study's 13-year history, and it was nearly equal in four other countries - suggesting that, albeit slowly and unevenly, women around the world are becoming more engaged in entre­pre­neur­ship and finding more opportunities to start their own firms. But where do they have the most opportunities? In the gallery above, you can see the nine nations where female entrepreneurs have the greatest potential to start their own businesses, according to new data analysis by Dell. Check out the gallery, and let us know in the comments whether you were surprised to see some countries included on or excluded from the list. Follow On Small Business and J.D. Harrison .