Literature Review: Barriers to Women Entrepreneurs

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Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of Barriers to Women Entrepreneurs in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on business women and the problems they face in setting up a business. The research also analyzes many aspects of women entrepreneurship and tries to gauge how the barriers impact women. Finally the research describes various elements due to which women face difficulties in competing with their male counterparts.

Introduction

Women entrepreneurs have attracted considerable attention during the past few years. In fact, they have become a major focus for the practitioners and policy makers around the world, who are working in the field of entrepreneurship and small business management (Smith, 2000, 225).

Women face a number of barriers in terms of career development primarily due to old-fashioned perceptions of the society and the complex situations that are created because of their family interruptions. Half of the world's population comprises of women. Women have made a significant difference in the corporate sector. But still there is a need to enhance and maintain this growth in the area of entrepreneurship(Wennekers, 2005, 293). It is seen that mostly women belonging to ethnic minorities or are immigrants face social barriers such as language barriers, cultural differences and biasness in professional development.

Women have a number of responsibilities such as looking after their family, managing everyday tasks as a wife and being a custodian of the children. Combined responsibility of work and family is a major concern for most of the women. Due to this reason women usually leave the corporate world and establish their own businesses.

There are various reasons of why women opt to become entrepreneurs; there is a set and the standard profile that can be applied predictably. For every woman who is an entrepreneur or wants to become one, each has her own set of reasons, motivations, and many cannot classify or tag there reasons. The profile of women entrepreneurs is quite similar to men as they all are generally innovative, bold, and independent, self-determining, possess a higher tolerance for vagueness and have an internal locus of control. Though some of the researchers classify the differences amid women and men because of their desires, determine the reasons of why they want to become entrepreneurs, the family duties they carry out, which still have a same personality profile required for any business, apart from of gender.

Overall, women entrepreneurs have been in a minority compared with men, still most women are represented as entrepreneurs. Therefore, now it is widely accepted that women entrepreneurs make a valuable contribution to national economies worldwide in terms of job creation, economic growth and wealth generation(Schein, 1973, 95).

Contrary to the traditional perceptions of women entrepreneurs with new companies, mainly small and home, has also been reported that women are leading the "new economy companies," with success in high technology, life sciences life, and professional services. Therefore, the need to increase their participation in business is increasingly important for future ...