Despite decades of investment and policy attention, the dominant narrative on women’s entrepreneurship continues to overlook a critical question: how are new ventures led and operated by women driving key policy goals, including innovation, exports, and job creation? That narrative has been shaped, in large part, by the very metrics used to measure it. International development programmes track women’s business activity through the lens of poverty reduction (e.g. microenterprises, loan repayment, and household income), rendering high-potential women entrepreneurs who innovate, export, hire, and scale largely invisible to policymakers and programme leaders. This report argues that the problem is not simply one of neglect but a structural consequence of measurement design. It also makes the case that the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is uniquely positioned to correct it. Drawing on the 2025 GEM Adult Population Survey (APS) of 150,799 adults across 48 economies, this report introduces a composite high-potential index – combining product and process innovation, export intensity, and job creation expectations – to make this population visible, comparable, and addressable for policymakers, investors and development institutions.