This is About Women’s Entrepreneurship
Do you interest to know about Women’s Entrepreneurship? Or Are you prefer to be a women entrepreneur? So, this is one of the most popular topics at present in the world. Today, we are discussing women entrepreneurs, their characteristics, Male centered entrepreneurial qualities, the importance of women entrepreneurship, Business sectors related to women, and their barriers. This article will provide you with a full idea about this topic in a very simple manner.
Women Entrepreneur
First of all, let’s understand this word clearly. The term “entrepreneur” origins from a French term. That is “entreprendre”. So, the meaning of this term is undertaking an obligation. Based on that we can say that a women entrepreneur is a person or a lady who puts various resources together and takes up the responsibility of achieving targets and taking full or partial risk related to them.
Considering the above, we can come to the understanding that entrepreneurship is the ability to conduct a business. Further, organizing that business and directing resources of production in a proper manner for the process of production bears the risk and uncertainty. Most importantly, an entrepreneurial woman plans her business, organizes, gathers capital, and deploys materials and labor resources to establish connections between various planners, and consumers and executes the business ideas successfully.
Women and Entrepreneurial Characteristics
To clarify, let’s see the characteristics of an entrepreneur first. The Management System International has identified ten personal characteristics of entrepreneurship. In short, they are as follows.
- Opportunity seeking
- Persistence
- Commitment to work contract
- Efficiency
- Risk Taking
- Goal setting
- Monitoring
- Information seeking
- Persuasion and Networking
- Self-confidence
As per the literature, these qualities are supporting entrepreneurs to start and develop her or their businesses. Moreover, each and every entrepreneur is containing these qualities as his or her soft skills. It does not mean that each character is equally improved in someone’s life. But, each quality has been improved as per his or her requirement.
Women’s Entrepreneurship
Most of the time, women’s entrepreneurship define as an economic or commercial phenomenon. But, when we study the concept of entrepreneurship in a deep way. We also can see the Sociological and Psychological background within Women’s Entrepreneurship. However, women have relatively less participation in entrepreneurship in each society both developed countries and developing countries. On the other hand, it is also important to understand the sociocultural factors which have influenced a reduction in the participation of women in business or entrepreneurial activities.
Male-Centered Entrepreneurial Characteristics and Women
To clarify, look at the above characteristics. Society commonly expects all these qualities from a male in our society. Normally, we expect all these qualities from a leader. Isn’t it? Therefore, it is clear that Entrepreneurship has been recognized and popular as a male-centered activity in Society.
For example, under the traditional sociocultural explanations and gender stereotypes, women are considered as a person who cannot think beyond, cannot take risks, have less confidence, are less intelligent, and have no decision-making capacity. So society has labeled women as a person who does not have a vision for the future and don’t have the ability to achieve targets. That’s why males always influence all in her lifetime. In her childhood, she is controlled by her father and brothers. In the same rein, she grows up, she is controlled by her husband. Finally, her sons control her when she got older.
Therefore, we can understand that all these mentioned entrepreneurial characteristics are commonly expected by males and therefore, men attract to business, not women. But, when women improve such entrepreneurial characteristics as their soft skills, society cites them for not following traditional women’s behavior. Maybe society will say “she acts like a man”. Isn’t it? Therefore, this system, culture, and society does not support women to come forward as an entrepreneur or as business person.
Importance of Women’s Entrepreneurship
Most importantly, Women’s Entrepreneurship is one of the most popular topics at the global level at present. Because women’s entrepreneurship and the significance of women entrepreneurs’ role in the livelihood development of their families is a very important factor. On the other hand, the majority of the women entrepreneurs in the world are performing their entrepreneur role parallel to their domestic roles. So, they generate additional income for their family.
Therefore, the number of women entrepreneurs and women decision-makers in an economy is an important indicator of development and policy-making for the country. Accordingly, strengthening women’s economic activities and promoting women’s entrepreneurship is considered one of the major factors for the Sustainable Development of the country in this modern world.
Entrepreneurial Model and Women’s Entrepreneurship
Meanwhile, the term “Entrepreneurial Model” was very popular and widely discussed in contemporary society for poverty alleviation and regional development all over the world. Most of the International Level Donor Organizations and Communities had a greater interest in this. Therefore, they mainly focused and work on Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurship Development Programs in Developing countries. Therefore, Entrepreneurship Development Model is the main strategy in the 1990s for developing economies.
Moreover, Women’s Entrepreneurship is a very important channel not only to achieve gender equality or women empowerment but also to support the economic development of the country. Furthermore, that also done a great role in job creation. Therefore, the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship can minimize unemployment in the country too. In addition, the 2015 Development Agenda in United Nations Plans mentioned that women’s entrepreneurship development is a strategy to eradicate poverty and hunger with sustained growth. Therefore, most Governments all over the world are taking steps to promote women’s entrepreneurship through a gender-sensitive enabling policy framework.
Women in Business
As everyone knows, the majority of enterprises or businesses are dominated by men in each country. Though women represent nearly 50% of the total population of a country, business ownership is considerably very low among women. So, this is a common condition in each country. When we think about the capacity or the scale of the businesses, the majority of the women’s businesses are on a micro or small scale. There are very limited businesses grown up as large-scale or middle-scale businesses among women.
Among all the regions in the world, South Asia represents the lowest rate in the world in women’s labor force participation as well as women’s entrepreneurship. As per the reports of the United Nations, only 8% to 9% of formal Small and Medium scale businesses are owned by women in South Asia.
Business Sectors and The Relationship with Women’s Entrepreneurship
The majority of women entrepreneurs are engaging in these business sectors.
- Apparel Industry, woven garments, tailoring, Dressmaking
- Beauty clinics, saloons, Bridal Dressing, Makeup artists, Spa, Event Management, Production or marketing of cosmetics,
- Agriculture (Cultivation of vegetables, fruits, grains, spices, etc., Value Added products based on this sector such as pepper powder, chili powder, and dehydrated vegetables, )
- Food Industry, Cooked and Canned food (cooked or take away breakfast/lunch/dinner packets, bottled drinks, Canned Jam, Half cooked food items, Boiled Food, )
- Education, arts, and entertainment
Here we can observe that most of the women entrepreneurs are engaged in the business sectors which are related to providing education for children, socialization, supplying food for members and caregivers, etc. Look, they were doing these works as gender roles in traditional society and now they have converted these roles into business. Maybe the experience and influence in her life being a woman forced her and made her interested to engage in such activities.
There are considerably very fewer women who are engaging in the sectors of Finance, IT, Science and Technology, Engineering, Administrative services, Industries, Transportation, Storage, Construction Mining, and Quarrying sector. Those sectors are still dominated by men. Therefore, it is visible that still women have to face sociocultural and economic barriers to engaging in such sectors.
Common Barriers to Women’s Entrepreneurship
- Access to financial resources and access to credit
- Inadequate training and access to information
- Women’s safety and gender-based violence
- Legal barriers for women, property rights, and complicated procedures
- Ability to work outside, limited mobility
- Less ability to network and engage in strategic partnership
- Lower asset ownership
- Influence by male family members
- Negative norms, attitudes, Socio-cultural practices, beliefs, and considerations
- Balance household work
- Invisible structural barriers, social expectations
Conclusion of Women’s Entrepreneurship
Women in each country have to struggle a lot to achieve their positions and recognition. The whole world today is talking about women’s empowerment and promoting women in business which is a positive mark that we have achieved as women. We as women can grow and win this world as leaders, professionals, and women in business by looking at the success stories of women in business, positive achievements, and changes.
Summary of the Content
This article will provide you with a full idea about women’s entrepreneurship. Accordingly, the article has included the subheadings such as Women Entrepreneur, Women, and Entrepreneurial Characteristics, Women Entrepreneurship, Male Centered Entrepreneurial Characteristics and Women, Importance of Women Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Model and Women, Women in Business, Business Sectors and the relationship with Women’s business and Common Barriers of Women Entrepreneurs.
We also provide some links and references for readers who prefer to study more on this topic. The related posts will also be important to you if you are a person who likes to read about women’s empowerment and gender studies.
Special Note
Thank you for reading us. So share your ideas about our article. Please comment on us if you are facing any challenges as a women entrepreneur. Share your experiences on women entrepreneurship in your respective country. We value such information. Your comments will improve the knowledge of our readers as well.
Further Readings on Women’s Entrepreneurship
- UN Women’s official website
- Country Gender Assessment, Asian Development Bank
- Jerinbi U, “Micro Enterprises for Women”, Discovery Publishing House Pvt Ltd, New Delhi 2008
- Murthy M.S. Narasimha, “Rural Entrepreneurship and Women Empowerment”, Mohit Publications, New Delhi 2012
- Policy brief, women’s Entrepreneurship, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (ESCAP) 2015
- Sarkar I, “Women in Changing Society”, Serials Publications, New Delhi 2008
- United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, “Women Empowerment Principles”, 02 nd edition, 2011
- “World Development Indicators”, Women in Development, World Bank Report, 2015
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- Know the Challengers of Women’s Empowerment at present
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