Women Entrepreneurship: An Integrated Approach

Part 1

The plight of fostering women entrepreneurship and women entrepreneur role in

economic development evolved in early 1970s through the International Labour
Organisation Report on Informal Sector. The attention on women’s roles focused in
particular on how women served development aims. It is noted that the disciplines of Women in Development (WID) and Gender and
Development (GAD) grew through the 1980s and 1990s respectively, and within these disciplines there were those focusing on fostering
women entrepreneurship and Micro and Small Enterprise development.

They identified women’s important presence within the Micro and Small Enterprise sector in developing as well as developed countries as
well as constraints limiting their contributions.These constraints included lack of: access to financing; information; productive resources
and markets; high levels of skills and knowledge and relevant education and experience. Other constraints included effects of market
saturation and compliance costs.

Women entrepreneurs often have difficulty accessing loans. In some cases, this is due to the requisition of smaller loans that are not
profitable for formal financial institutions to offer. Banks may not have enough information about them hence unwilling to advance loans
due to the perceived risks involved. Women either lack collateral or are unwilling to use household assets as collaterals. Many women
entrepreneurs experience compliance costs, which include costs related to the time and money involved in learning about and meeting
government regulations, and the cost of meeting informal penalty costs from favors requested by government officials. Differential
access to credit based on gender differences is debated in the literature on Micro enterprise development, with studies in Canada and
Australia discovering little difference between women and men.

Women entrepreneurs often lack information on markets, suppliers, export opportunities, and availability of training programs. This is
due to their dual work roles and resulting time constraints. Lack of relevant skills and knowledge compounded by deficiencies in basic
education inhibits the growth potential of Micro and Small Enterprises.  

Market saturation is a major problem for Micro and Small Enterprises related to lack of access to higher value markets and lack of
innovation. Many women entrepreneurs are located in low value markets where there are few barriers to entry. The sectors tend to be
crowded because of these low barriers. This leads to saturated markets and little room for growth.

Finally, women entrepreneurs tend to face constraints resulting from gender roles and responsibilities; occupational segregation; internal
constraints; and cultural values. Women’s more demanding role in the family relative to men’s, affect their entrepreneurial ability by
reducing the time, energy and concentration levels they can apply to their market work. The amount of time they have available for
market work is limited by the time necessary to care for the family. Their concentration while working is reduced by multiple distractions
leading to a further reduction in productivity and earnings. Household responsibilities makes them risk averse, while societal perceptions
affect their treatment when they step beyond their perceived boundaries, limiting their access to the resources required for successful
entrepreneurship.

Traditions pertaining to the type of work that is appropriate for women results in a gendered division of labour in productive work that
limits womens’ potential. Activities most readily available to women entrepreneurs are those similar to their domestic tasks. This
similarly between the productive and reproductive work makes their productive work undervalued. Cultural values may conflict with
women entrepreneurs’ need for freedom of movement and socializing with men. This is clearly observed in several countries around the
world where women cannot travel outside their homes or transact businesses without their husbands’ consent.

Integrated Framework for the Development of Women Entrepreneurs in Atlantic Canada

Stevenson and St-Onge in Creating an Entrepreneurial Environment to Foster the Start up and Growth of Women-Owned Enterprises:
Best Practice from Atlantic Canada  introduced an integrated approach framework for supporting the start up and growth of women
owned enterprises in an underdeveloped region of the Canadian economy during the 1990s. The validity of this framework was
reinforced in a ten country study of entrepreneurship policy undertaken in 2000 to 2001 by Stevenson and Lundstrom.

Background of Integrated Approach Framework in Canada

Researchers first started exploring the phenomena of women entrepreneurs in Canada in the late 1970s. At that time, there was very
little awareness of the characteristics and behavior of women entrepreneurs and even less knowledge about the nature of their
enterprises. In 1977, about one in five enterprises was owned by women, and almost 90 percent of these businesses clustered in retail,
trade and services sectors.

Women owned just over seven percent of manufacturing enterprise, largely a male domain. The focus on women in self employment
became an issue during the 1970s and

1980s, when in response to changing social and cultural norms (the women’s movement)

and economic imperatives (pressure for dual income earning families), increasing numbers of women entered a labor force where the
supply of labor exceeded demand. Unable to find employment, they were forced into a self employed activity. In this domain, they
encountered challenges similar to the ones faced by many African women today: stereotypical and negative attitude towards their roles
as entrepreneurs, limited access to financing, a paucity of management and business experience, limited access to mainstream business
networks, lack of credibility among bankers, suppliers and landlords and often a lack of support from their husbands and family
members.

During the 1980s, women entrepreneurs began to form associations and networks while at the same time researchers’ highlighted their
needs and challenges making isolated corners of the business support environment to  notice the growing phenomena. The National Film
Board of Canada launched the country’s first video documentary on women entrepreneurs in cities across the nation in 1997; several of
Canada’s banks started to offer special seminars to attract women entrepreneurs as borrowers; and provincial governments began to
explore ways of increasing women owned enterprises as a job creation and rural development strategy.

As mentioned earlier, when women were first identified as a target group in Canadian national Small and Medium Enterprise policy and
program support, there was lack of national coordinating mechanism for the implementation of policy and program measures.
Consequently, efforts to promote women’s entrepreneurship were largely regionalized. The one piece of national glue was the Business
Development Bank of Canada (then the Federal Business Development Bank), who took seriously the challenge of addressing the
business development needs of women. The funded research studies sponsored national and regional conferences for women
entrepreneurs, and initiated a number of women focused entrepreneurial training programs. They also participated in the joint
organization of two national policy forums on women entrepreneurs. As input to these national policy forums, research, discussion
papers and inventories of best practice economic support programs for women entrepreneurs were commissioned.

By Moses Ngoze 
Moi University, School of Human Resources Development

general overview of woman entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan

At the beginning of the 1990's immediately after proclaiming independence, Uzbekistan faced a boom in
entrepreneurship. Many women, both from urban and rural areas, started their business activities doing what
was called "charter trade" (micro scale import / export, very active between Tashkent, Beijing and Bangkok).
Many women could then open small shops and enterprises selling goods and providing services. BWA
(Business Women Association), the first Uzbek women NGO, has contributed to the development of the private
sector by encouraging Uzbek women initiatives. 

Unfortunately, the road is long and difficult. Women still face many constraints impeding their access to self-
employment. Some of these constraints are shared by both men and women, but other, like in many developing
countries concern specifically woman empowerment. 

The solidarity chain established by the tutorship system and the women oriented activities should ensure a
multiplier effect within the country and is expected to bring to the economic empowering of women at large.
Dissemination of Project outcomes should increase the knowledge of business opportunities in Uzbekistan. And
encourage trans-national business partnerships between business circles of Uzbekistan and Europe.  

Political constraints for the development of entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan:

From 1995 until 1998 the Government decided to restrict and control entrepreneurship to avoid chaotic and
unregulated development of the private sector. The lack of adequate legislation to regulate the emerging market
efficiently, led to the reinforcement of governmental control. Although the law "On state guarantees and support
of the private entrepreneurship" enacted in 1999, lifted some restrictions for private entrepreneurship,
independent private businesses still face many administrative constraints. A number of resolutions and decrees
have been adopted, weighting down private business development. For example, it has become very difficult for
an Uzbek company to open a bank account in hard currency and use foreign currencies for international trade.
The lack of legal knowledge of the organisations supposed to protect the rights of small entrepreneurs impeded
the full recovery of entrepreneurship initiative as well as the expression of the propositional power that NGOs
could and should have. 

Today, women represent 20% of high-level business structures in Uzbekistan, but they are being left aside from
the privatization movement and, depending on the region, only 0 to 15% of the women have access to credit.  

Specific needs and constraints for women:

Women have been disproportionately affected by the negative aspects of the current socioeconomic transition
in Uzbekistan: increasing poverty, rising unemployment, reduction of the financial ability to educate both girls
and boys, greater pressure to marry at younger ages, more visible domestic violence, etc. These problems are
exacerbated by the fact that many Uzbek laws designed to protect and promote women's rights and gender
equity are not widely known, implemented or enforced. Or if they do, they can have the opposite effect, like for
example the three-year maternity leave, adopted to relieve the pressure in the labour market and protect
women's rights but that created a discrepancy in the labour market by increasing women employment costs.
Although Uzbek legislation recognizes the equality of men and women and prohibits discrimination on the basis
of sex, the reality relies more on traditions than on legislation. Uzbek traditional cultural and religious practices
do not encourage women to have a public role in the society. This cultural pressure is a very strong deterrent to
women empowerment, above all in the economic sector, preventing them from taking advantage of the equal
opportunities encoded in the Uzbek law. 

Specific barriers impeding women full-insertion in the private sector:

The effects of transitional economies have been particularly sensitive on women. One of the major social
consequences of the economical transition was that women were left aside from the new economic
development scheme. Out of an employed population of 9 million in 2000, women represented only 44% of the
active population (Source: Statistics Division, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific, ESCAP,2000). Being more vulnerable, they face specific gender sensitive barriers impeding their
effective empowerment. 

-   Cultural barriers: As mentioned, the traditional Uzbek society does not encourage women empowerment.
The concept of gender equity is not uniformly known nor accepted. Woman entrepreneurship, above all, can be
perceived as a questioning of male predominance. This barrier, though being informal, has a strong effect on
women determination to undertake entrepreneurship activities. Besides, this discrepancy in the treatment of
men and women is also reflected in other sectors where women have to face prejudices and employment
reluctances.
-   Educational barriers: Although women are generally more present than men in the Higher Education
system, their curriculum is not adapted to the new requirements of the labour market. According to the ADB
RETA Project "Sub-regional cooperation in managing education reforms" (2002), Uzbek women are almost
totally absent from Management, Financial and Information Technologies courses. The specific educational
programs preferred by women, such as Education, Health or Culture, are not well linked to the existing demand
of the labour market, and thus disadvantage female professionals. To maintain a well-developed human skills
base, that is a major asset for the future development of the country; a stronger link between women's higher
education preferences and labour market demands needs to be established.
-   Economical barrier: Women are mostly present in the less well-paid sectors of the economy. Their
concentration in the public "non-productive" sectors of Health, Education and Culture has seen their wages fall
further below the national average over the past 10 years. Despite efforts deployed towards economic
empowerment of women, the majority of the active female population continues to be confined in the micro and
small-scale enterprises and the informal sector (like cross-border trade, subcontracting work at home or street
trading). Clearly, women's entrepreneurial potential remains untapped in transition countries, especially when
compared to global trends. Like, for example in most countries of Western Europe, where the number of women
entrepreneurs has rapidly increased during the last ten years, contributing to GDP growth and the creation of
new jobs.
-   Financial barriers: The integration of women into the formal sector is still constrained by limited access to
credit and property. This barrier, effective for many entrepreneur men and women, is even more sensitive for
women. Apart from the gender prejudice limiting their access to traditional sources of funding, women are more
accurately disadvantaged by their lack of; technical knowledge in the redaction of business plans, the absence
of efficient high level networking (for string-pulling and guarantees). Besides, even if women are seen as more
rational in their choices, they are restrained by their lack of ambitions and self-confidence.

There is, today, mounting concern that poverty is undergoing a process of feminization. It is hard to evaluate
women unemployment, based only on official data. But more than unemployment, women are facing a situation
of underemployment. A large part of the population is relatively highly skilled (according to the UNESCO, the
literacy rate of the population in 2000 was 99.6%), nevertheless, skilled women are more and more
underemployed if not unemployed. Among unemployed women, 55,6% are graduated, whereas graduated men
are only 44,4% to seek employment. But it has been reported that more and more professional and skilled
women are looking for unskilled labour which implies wasting of valuable human resources. A new category of
poor people is emerging from the traditional educated middle class. The real decline of the wages paid to
professional and skilled women, particularly in the public sector, where women are over-represented, has led to
the growth of what is usually termed in CIS countries, as the "new poor". Highly trained professional women
are, more and more, seeking badly paid and non-prestigious work to improve their families' material well-being.

Past research on women workers in 18th century England has focused on their role in the
manufacturing industry.Although women did play an active role in industrialization and
factory work, women laborers were not limited to industrial activities.Women in Manchester,
for example, played a vital role in the development of the town's economy, becoming
significantly involved in both trade and service industries. Women also played a vital role in
operating their family businesses, especially following the death of a husband.The link
between women's business involvement and the growth of "polite" society is further
explored. To investigate the effects of family traders and, particularly, of female traders, on
Manchester's economy, this investigation focuses on the role of Elizabeth Raffald, an
influential businesswoman and a member of a successful trading family in 18th century
Manchester.While previous literature has suggested that women were greatly limited by
familial constraints, this examination seeks to eliminate this generalization by providing
evidence that more accurately presents the existence of female participation in various 18th
century businesses. (AKP)