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THE WOMAN
IN MSME

SHE CLIMBS TO CONQUER

A MILLION STEPS
FROM HOME MAKER
TO ENTREPRNEUR

Dr. J.M.I. SAIT, PhD

THE INSTITUTE OF
SMALL ENTERPRISES AND DEVELOPMENT

INSTITUTE OF
INSTITUTE OF
SMALL ENTERPRISES AND DEVELOPMENT
SMALL ENTERPRISES AND DEVELOPMENT

SYNOPSIS
Background
They drive job creation and economic growth, but are stuck in the middle: too big for microfinance, too small for commercial banks, and having few ways to
build the management skills or industry knowledge they need to grow, the IFC report writes of women. The goal is contributing to the development of
women-owned businesses as a sub-asset class in their own right, and encouraging more investors to look at investments through a gender lens.
Women do not appear to have used the word entrepreneur to describe their businesses until the latter part of the 70s; they called them side-lines or part-time
engagements and entrepreneurship was understood to describe what men did. Looking back, however, it can be seen that womens business ownership has had
a place in the broader history of entrepreneurship.
Women Entrepreneurship derives its importance from three broad aspects:
Producers:
Women produce 50-60% of food for Asia. Comprise 50% of the population in SSA but produce more than 80% of the continents food; 26% for the Caribbean;
34% for MENA; and more than 30% for Latin America
Owners:
There are an estimated 29 to 35 milliom formal women-owned MSMEs in emerging markets representing 25-33% of all registered small business. Eg. In
China, women have founded 25% of new businesses since 1978.
Employers:
About 203 million more women would be employed contributing $1 trillion to DP in the emerging markets, if womens labour participation were closer to male
participation rate.
The Historical Perspective
Women have always owned businesses; what changed over the last century is their increasing acceptance, prominence and movement into a vast assortment of
enterprises and the role of technology in making entrepreneurship more accessible and affordable. (Korngold, 2009). Women have amply demonstrated their
capability as entrepreneurs, self employed persons and as technical and administrative workers since World War I, in 1914-19 when able-bodied men were
drafted into the war and women were forced to come out of their social seclusion and assume responsibilities for production and administration.
World War II presented more serious opportunities where women had to undertake complicated technological responsibilities. Surprisingly, end of the Wars
marked resumption of status quo ante where women were pushed back to their age-old roles as home makers. Nevertheless, the post war renaissance with
liberation and emancipation movements paved the way for greater participation of women in the economy of many nations, developed and developing. In the
course of the few decades women have crossed paths with men in many fields once considered exclusive domain of men and men only, and moved away from
being restricted as home makers, even as presidents and prime ministers, administrators, technocrats, scientists, astronauts and top business managers.
Population surveys and census figures show that women entrepreneurs equal or exceed men in numbers in the micro and small enterprises.

Women entrepreneurs create new jobs for themselves and others and by being different also provide society with different solutions to management,
organization and business problems as well as to the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. However, they still represent a minority of all entrepreneurs.
Thus there exists a market failure discriminating against womens possibility to become entrepreneurs and their possibility to become successful entrepreneurs.
This market failure needs to be addressed by policy makers so that the economic potential of this group can be fully utilized.
Not only have women lower participation rates in entrepreneurship than men but they also generally choose to start and manage firms in different industries
than men tend to do. The fields of engagement, primarily tiny retail outlets, nursing, education and other services, chosen by women are often perceived as
being less important to economic development and growth than high-technology and manufacturing. Mainstream research, policies and programmes tend to be
men streamed and too often do not take into account the specific needs of women entrepreneurs and would-be women entrepreneurs. As a consequence, equal
opportunity between men and women from the perspective of entrepreneurship is still not a reality.
Perspectives on Gender
Correct perspective on gender is the key in assessing the social behavioursupportive and restrictive in order to frame appropriate policies for women
empowerment in general and female entrepreneurship in particular. Researchers distinguish three different perspectives on gender. One perspective considers
men and women similar and equally able and capable of rational thinking and behaviour. The gender gap is considered as the result of discrimination and male
dominated structural barriers. It is believed that the discrimination can and should be eliminated and barriers lifted through legal and policy measures. The
second perspective considers men and women equal but dissimilar. They have different qualities and endowments that are differently valued by the society.
They need to be and can be separately evaluated and the female characteristics of women should be seen as under utilized benefits or advantages that can be
profitably exploited by the .society for its common benefit. The third perspective questions the social order as a whole and its gendered power structures,
regardless of the question as to whether men and women are similar or different. This concept distinguishes between biological sex male and female and
socially constructed sex -masculinity and femininity. In the majority of entrepreneurial research gender is usually referred to simply as male and female, which
is considered as an undue perpetuation of a liberal view of gender that either tends to turn womens disadvantages into advantages or frames womens
disadvantages as barriers which can be overcome with right measures. However, most of the entrepreneurship research leaves gender gap unsettled leaving the
core issue that men and women are alike, operate in patriarchal economies and societies that are biased towards women over men. While applying a liberal
perspective to gender patriarchal issues are left unquestioned and power structures that erect structural barriers remain unchallenged. This, perhaps, explains
why serious change and real reform for women entrepreneurs has not occurred and the gender bias continues to exist.
Womens entrepreneurship is to be seen from two simultaneous view points - womens position in society and their role as entrepreneurs in the same society.
Women are faced with specific obstacles, such as traditional notions of family responsibilities and restrictive public behaviour, which have to be overcome in
order to give them access to the same opportunities as men. Self employment is considered as the most viable option for the large majority of women, because
of various social and other restrictions in many countries, not limited to developing economies.
Approach to the Study

The present study attempts to look, from a demand side perspective, at how the gender belief system and personal motivation
affect the entrepreneurship self-selection by women. From a supply side perspective the role of family policy, traditions and
beliefs, tax regime, entry and exit issues and access to finance and information are looked into. The major premises examined
in the present work can be enumerated as follows:
Women entrepreneurs make an important impact on the economy, both in their ability to create jobs for themselves and for others, judging from the
number of micro units created and run by them and the potential for growth.
Women still represent a minority of those that start new firms, are self-employed, or are small business owner-managers, compared to men in business.
Specific obstacles to womens entrepreneurship are: type of education, lack of role models in entrepreneurship, gendering of entrepreneurship, weak social
status, competing demands on time and access to finance.
Womens entrepreneurship is dependent on demand side factors such as political and institutional framework, family and society, and market sources and
supply side factors like availability of suitable individuals to assume entrepreneurial roles.
Education and industry affiliation or job experience are important factors that represent the kind of knowledge a person has and the kind of opportunities
available to her.
Womens contribution to their national economies goes beyond the political borders. Migration of women as income generators is over a century old
phenomenon, which in the recent decades has assumed meaningful proportions.
While the larger theme of women entrepreneurship is studied in the context of their contribution to the economy, the unaccounted contributions made by them
as home makers, and sacrifices made as migrants, the social and psychological barriers resulting in physical and financial exclusions, and discriminatory
attitudes and processes need to be assessed if we are to evaluate the progress made by women over time to mature from house wife to entrepreneur.

One other emerging area of study relates to the place of the transgenders in the economy. Some of the advanced countries have already recognized the third
gender, in its various perspectives.
Female immigration is an important facet of informal entrepreneurship creation in many host countries. While facing some of the same disadvantages as the
native women, the immigrants have to put up with many obstacles. Nevertheless, they have made great impacts on the economies of both the home and the host
countries.
The discussions are arranged in dedicated Chapters as :
Women As Partners In Economy
Economics Of Inclusion And Gender Dimension
Financial Exclusion
Women As Home Makers
Social Barriers To Womens Development
Psychological Barriers

5
Women

In Industry During World Wars


Opportunities For Women Entrepreneurs
State Support And Encouragement
The Transgender persons
Women Migration

About the Author


A consultant to several international organizations ,Dr. Sait was Chief Technical Advisor of UNIDO in five countries, including Bangladesh and China. As chief Technical Advisor of UNIDO
in Bangladesh, he led a team of experts for developing the Industrial Development Projects for the Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Sangstha and initiated the Global Investors Meet at Dhaka on behalf
of UNIDO. The entrepreneurship development process in Ghana was spearheaded by him, under a collaborative programme of the Industrial Development Bank of Ghana and UNIDO. Dr.
Sait also was instrumental in initiating entrepreneurship development programmes for construction and other Tanzanian industries, along with the Dar-es-Salaam Development Corporation of
Tanzania. Earlier he was responsible for the compete reorganization of the public sector construction industry in Tanzania as Consultant, Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, UK.
He was a Board Member on various International consortiums representing Tanzanias interest and a Steering committee member on the Construction Industry Reorganization Project in
Tanzania of the Sweedish International Development Agency (SIDA) besides being consultant to the Tanzanian Housing Industry. He was UNIDO Consultant to the State of Fujian in the
Peoples Republic of China, for the development of investment and diversification projects as part of that countrys liberalization and globalization initiative. His research contributions include
a number of papers / lectures on issues of small enterprise development including, women in self help groups, globalization, and migration. Activity based Costing is a key area of his interest.

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