THE WOMAN

IN MSME

SHE CLIMBS TO CONQUER

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
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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.

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.

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 ablebodied men were drafted into the war and women were forced to
come out of their social seclusion and assume responsibilities for
production and administration.

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:

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.

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.
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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.

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 sexmale and
femaleand 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.

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 behaviour
supportive 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

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.
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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:

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

transgender persons in the economy. Some of the advanced
countries have already recognized the third gender, in its various
perspectives.

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.

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
Women In Industry During World Wars
Opportunities For Women Entrepreneurs
State Support And Encouragement
The Transgender persons
Women Migration
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About the Author

Dr. J.M.I. Sait

PhD. FCMA. FCS. FBIM
DipMA. DIOMI, MNAAA, MMI
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 conducted 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 complete 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.
His works have been published by ISED, Kochi and the Kerala State Institute of
Languages, Thiruvananthapuram.
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