ENG105: Advanced Composition

Research Paper on Women Face More Difficulties to Become Entrepreneur

Section: 20

Submitted to:Michelle Draper

Submitted by: Anupam Saha

ID:1330

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all I would thank my honorable faculty of Marketing and International Business, Ms.

Farzana Choudhury who inspired me the most about entrepreneurship and made me understood

how hard women have to work to survive successfully in this male dominated world. My upmost

gratitude to Rupack Halder, who is like my elder brother to me for the help he did in conducting

my survey on the upper class female entrepreneurs. I would like to thank all the people who

helped me in the research, especially to those who participated in the survey.

Finally, I would like to thank Ms. Michelle Draper for her incredible patience and for inspiring

me to be better than what I thought I could be.

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ABSTRUCT

Entrepreneurship is one of the most challenging professions for women in this male dominating

society. It is hard for people to trust a woman in case of a huge amount of money. It is hard for a

man here to obey a woman as his boss. It is hard for our society to ensure total safety for each

and every woman in the work place. Collecting capital and other resources are always a

challenge for entrepreneurs. When a woman decides to do this challenging task, it becomes

harder. Still some brave women become entrepreneurs. Though they face a lots of problems in

each and every step of their work, still they are walking in this path.

The purpose of this research would be to understand the difficulties and the reasons behind these

problems of female entrepreneurs. This research aims to answer the question asked throughout

all the time: why is it harder for a woman to do something challenging?

The research aims to find out the problems every female entrepreneur faces. More importantly

the reasons behind the problems a woman face in our society just because of gender.

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Table of content

# Table of content Page no.

1 Introduction 5

2 Background 6

3 Research Questions 8

4 Hypothesis 9

5 Research Methodology 9

6 Primary data presentation and analysis

7 Secondary data analysis 20

8 Limitations 21

9 Conclusion 21

10 References 22

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Introduction

She became an entrepreneur because she wanted to survive with her family. Her family ensured

batter food, better cloths, better education for her brother with a hope that her brother would find

a job after completing graduation and earn a lot of money for the family. No one ever think about

her. No one ever ask what she wanted to do in future because she was a girl in a third world

country like Bangladesh where the birth of a girl child is like a curse. Her brother was

everybody’s hope. Her brother was everybody’s apple in the eyes because he would earn money

and take care of the family. But the reality was different. Her brother could not find any job and

earn money. Instead she is now taking care of her whole family. She’s earning money. Her name

is Shuman and she is an entrepreneur. She became an entrepreneur in need of money. But she

became successful because of her willpower and power of leadership, the most important

essences of entrepreneurship. This is not only the story of Suman, but also the story of a lot o

female entrepreneur in Bangladesh who face a lot of problems each and every day of their lives.

They struggle for their rights. They fight for their rights. But the cruel world makes their ways

rough. They have to face social, financial and sexual problems to become entrepreneur.

Women entrepreneurs in rural area are unaware of available support services and the procedures

for getting it. Mechanisms for disseminating information on investment opportunities and the

types and sources of assistance available are inadequate. (Karim, 2001).

In Bangladesh, a large number of women work in the informal sector, but the real value of their

participation and contribution is not recognized in the society. Differences and inequalities

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between women and men exist in terms of opportunities, rights, and benefits. There are various

constraints in the way to the up-gradation of their skills and enhancement of their productivity.

These include poor access to market, information, technology and finance, poor linkages and

networks with support services and an unfavorable policy and regulatory environment. However,

it is heartening to note that despite many barriers, a new women’s entrepreneur class in the Small

and Medium sector has developed in the country taking on the challenge to work in a male

dominated, competitive and complex economic and business environment. It has been found that

at present women entrepreneurs constitute less than 10% of the total business entrepreneurs in

Bangladesh whereas women in advanced market economies own more than 25% of all

businesses. In spite of these, in Bangladesh, not only have the women’s entrepreneurship

improved their living conditions and earned more respect in the family and the society, but they

have also contributed to business and export growth, supplies, employment generation,

productivity and skill development.

In spite of all their contribution, hard work and patience, women entrepreneurs’ lives are much

harder than males’ lives. Their path to success is full of thrones and stones. But how and why is

it hard for a woman to become entrepreneur? I will try to find out this through my research.

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Background

In recent years, like other developing countries of the world, Bangladesh has been focusing

attention on the most disadvantaged group in the society – the women. Realization has gradually

dawned on all concerned that a society cannot afford to waste half of its human resources by

discrimination on grounds of sex. The overwhelming majority of women in Bangladesh are not

only poor, but also caught between two vastly different worlds — the world determined by

culture and tradition that confines their activities inside family homesteads, where they are

regarded more as a commodity necessary only for bearing and rearing children and the world

shaped by increasing landlessness and poverty that focus them outside into various economic

activities for survival. In Bangladesh, the women entrepreneurs, who have accepted the

challenges of life and have emerged as leaders in the socio- economic development, earn for

themselves and for their families or contributing towards the socio- political condition of the

women. In our country women lack assistance is in the access to credit, provision of skill

training, and market facilities.

Bangladesh has very few successful female entrepreneurs. Usually women prefer job over

business. . A study completed by Dr. Jahangir Hossain Sardar (1995) indicates that support

services have had some positive effect on the growth of small firms. It shows a significantly

higher performance by assisted firms than similar non-assisted enterprises. Ideally, programs

should be home-grown and driven by Bangladeshi perceptions of what is needed, rather than

being excessively donor driven, as is now the case with most government programs (Hye, 1996).

In South Asia, women are almost invisible to formal financial institutions- they receive less than

10 percent of commercial credits (Haq, 2000). “Seed Working Paper No. 14”, by Nilufer Ahmed

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Karim made for ILO was based on the findings of the most comprehensive study done till the

date by ILO (1995) with a sample size of 500 entrepreneurs (374 women and 126 male). 6% got

loans from family members, o.5% got loans from commercial banks. 0.3% got loans from

national banks, 61% got loans from NGOs. About 43% of women entrepreneurs are not aware of

credit facilities granted to women entrepreneurs. Inadequate financing was ranked first by 76%

of women entrepreneur (92% rural and 69% urban).

Doing entrepreneurship in the village is much tougher than doing it in town or cities. Still we can

see a lots of women entrepreneurs in the village area. They face more problems than women do

in Dhaka.

Research Questions

In order to find out how and why it is hard for women to become entrepreneur, I asked some

questions to 40 women entrepreneurs. To do this research it was important to know the answer of

these questions. Here are the questions I tried to find the answers of-

1. Why did you want to become entrepreneur?

2. At what age did you start entrepreneurship?

3. What was the source of your capital?

4. What is your profit per month?

5. Who is your strongest support in your business?

6. Do you think women face more difficulties than men to become entrepreneur?

7. What are the most valuable factors for a woman in our society to become entrepreneur?

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 8. Do you think it is easier for a man to control the employees and workers?

9. What is the main problem you face in workplace?

10. Do you face more problems because of duties to family?

11. Do you find it more difficult after marriage to work?

12. After marriage when do you mind it most difficult to work?

13. Who inspired you most to become entrepreneur?

Hypothesis

Women can be facing a lot of economic and social problems, sexual harassments, physical and

mental torture because of their gender to become entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is may be one

of the toughest and most challenging professions for a woman. May be women need to have

more survival power and patience, minimum family support, education and wealth to choose and

survive successfully in this profession.

Research methodology

The primary research was carried out on a target group of female entrepreneurs from different

places of Bangladesh. A questionnaire was created in order to conduct the survey. As I found it

difficult to find out the truth by asking the questions directly, I asked them to tell me the story of

their life. From their stories I found the answers. Sometimes I interfered and ask questions when

they were talking about their life and professions. The personal informationI wanted to know

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were age range, type of their business and educational qualification. The rest of the survey

consisted of questions aimed at finding out the answers to the research questions proposed

above. Almost all the questions were multiple choice questions with some of them having an

‘Others’ option. It was carried out on 40 random female entrepreneurs from different districts of

Bangladesh.

Secondary research, however, was hard to carry of as there weren’t many traces of previous

research conducted by people on the subject of the perception of problems of women

entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. Various journal articles gave only slight information and then

followed through by moving onto another topic. Regardless, search engines such as Google were

used in order to find out relevant media articles posted on the internet. Further information was

obtained from several articles that covered the topic of female entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. I

found some videos on women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh in YouTube.

Primary data presentation & analysis

In order to collect sufficient amount of data, I conducted a survey on 40 female entrepreneurs.

I asked total of 13 questions to them directly or indirectly.

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 1. Why did you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

passion; 8%; 8% other; 2%; 2% self dependent; 10%; 10%

self dependent
more money than job
financial support to family
financial support to family; 30%; 30%
passion
other
more money than job; 50%; 50%

The very first question I asked was about the reason behind their choosing this career. To answer

the question 50% of them said they became entrepreneur to earn more money than they could by

doing job. 30% said they did it to help their families financially. 8% said they became

entrepreneurs as it was their passion. 10% did it to become self dependent and 2% did it for other

reasons. The most surprising thing is most of the female entrepreneurs didn’t wanted to be an

entrepreneur willingly. They knew it before that this path is never easy. The 8% who became

entrepreneurs because of passion, all of them are highly educated.

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 2. At what age did you start entrepreneurship?

below 18
18-25
25-35
35-45
above 45

I found 5% of these entrepreneurs started their business when they were not even 18 years old.

They started working because of family pressure. 20% of them stared their business when their

ages were between 18 to 25 years. The highest number of entrepreneurs (45%) started working at

after 25 years to 35 years. 20% answered in age range of 35 to 45 years. Only 10% started

entrepreneurship after age of 45. As we can see most of the entrepreneurs started their

entrepreneurship after 25 years, it is because they started it after graduation.

3. What was the source of your capital?

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 own money
family and relatives
bank loan

To answer this question, 70% of them said that they started their business with own

money, 25% said that they found financial support totally from family and 5% took loan

from bank. Most of the educated entrepreneurs saved money from university life as they

knew that the toughest work would be collecting money for business. Most of the women

used all their savings for their business. Those who got money from family belong to rich

family.

4. What is your profit per month?

15% of these women earn less than 10K money. 35% earns 10-25K, 25% earnes between

25-40K, 20% earns 40K to 50K and only 5% earns more than 5K. Most of the cases these

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 women could not earn as much as they work. It is because of their gender. For example

man prefer to go to contract with male entrepreneurs. And after doing all the household

works women can’t give enough time in the business.

10K 10-25K 25-40K 40-50K More than 50K

5. Who is your strongest support?

25% said that their strongest support is their father or mother, 35% said they get support

from husband, 5% said their support is their friend , 15% entrepreneurs’ strongest support

is their children. Actually they were not enough confident about answering this question

as they usually don’t get enough support from others. They are themselves their strongest

support.

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 Parents Husband Friend Entrepreneurs

6. Do you think women face more difficulties than men to become entrepreneur?

Almost all the individuals said that they think women face more difficulties than men.

Only 5% of them said they don’t think so. Most of the entrepreneurs faced a lot of

problems, sexual harassment and they know men do not face these kinds of problems.

7. What are the most valuable factors for a woman in our society to become entrepreneur?

40% women said that they thought the most valuable factor was beauty as they found it

easier to communicate with the customers. 35% thinks it was leading power as it is the

most essential element of entrepreneurship. 20% answered that it was education and rest

5% said that is wealth.

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 Beauty Leading power Education Wealth

8. Do you think it is easier for a man to control the employees and workers?

90% of these individuals agreed that it was harder for a woman to control the employees

than men. Employees are not usually willing to listen to female boss. If a woman

becomes rude even for professional reason, employees say she’s too bossy.

9. What is the main problem you face in workplace?

25% said their main problem was gender discrimination. 15% said it was sexual

harassment. 50% of them said the biggest problem they face is financial crisis as it is

really hard for a woman to collect enough money for the business. Most of them run their

business only by their own savings. So when they need extra money, they face a great

problem. 10% of these women said they face problem regarding safety issue as our

society cannot ensure safety completely for a woman.

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 Gender Discrimination Sexual harassment
Financial crisis Safety essue

10. Do you face more problems because of duties to family?

75% of the entrepreneurs said they face problems because of duties to family. They said

they have to think about family first when a man can concentrate more on his profession.

A woman has to look after the whole family, raise the children up, take care of the old

members of the family, cook for everybody etc. But a man usually doesn’t need to think

about these at all. 20% women don’t think they face more problems as their families also

help them. Rest 5% think man and women equally face problems.

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 Duties to family No problem from family
Man and women equally face problem

11. Do you find it more difficult after marriage to work?

55% women said that they find it more difficult to work after marriage as their husbands

and in laws didn’t like their working. They preferred women to do job or don’t even

work. Rest 45% women didn’t find it difficult to work after marriage as their husbands

like that they contribute to the family financially.

12. After marriage when do you mind it most difficult to work?

5% individuals found it most difficult to work just after marriage as they needed time to

cope with the new family, people and environment. They said at first their new families

were not willing to let them to work. 35% women said that it the most difficult to work in

the time of pregnancy as they needed to take care of their health the most. 20% women

said when they had a baby of 0-36 months; it was too difficult to work. 15% found it

most difficult when they had school going child as they needed to take care of the child

more. 25% women found it most difficult when they have more than one child.

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 After marriage In the time of pregnancy
having a baby having more than one child

13. Who inspired you most to become entrepreneur?

50% women said their parents inspired the most, when 35% said they got inspiration

from their husbands. Rest 15% said their teachers inspired them. As most of the women

came to this profession to help their family financially, they got inspiration from family.

Parents Husbands Teachers

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 Secondary Data Analysis

Though I didn’t get any kind of direct information as secondary data, I got ideas about women

entrepreneurs of Bangladesh better. I found that there are lots of rules and regulations for the

betterment of female entrepreneurs of Bangladesh. But the problem is there are very few

implementations of those rules. There are lots of opportunities for them given by government

and many NGOs. But again the main problems are corruption and no mental support from the

family. Most of the women who want to be entrepreneurs don’t even know about these

opportunities.

Another big problem is our women do not have proper trainings. Many times they start business,

but cannot run it further because of lack of knowledge. Here well trained and educated women

do better. They act more smartly and able to ensure enough money for the business.

Security of the women is a big issue here. Women are not enough comfortable with traveling for

business because of security problem. It is surely can be said that our male dominated society

most of the time blames women when they speak against the violence or sexual harassment they

faced.

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Limitations

The main problem I faced was getting time from the upper class female entrepreneurs. I could

not personally meet most of the individuals who participated in my survey. So I had to conduct

the survey over phone most of the times.

Another problem was getting the truth from the entrepreneurs. Most of them were not interested

to talk about their family life. Many of them were afraid of coming out the truths about their

personal and family life. They were reluctant to talk about sexual harassments they faced. So I

requested them to tell about their whole life and ensure them that the information must not be

used outside this research paper and I must not disclose their name outside.

Conclusion

Around 50% of our population is women but they are the most disadvantaged group in our

society. Women are deprived when compared to men in virtually all aspects of life.Women

around the world are more likely to live in poverty, simply because they are women. Their

unequal position in our society means that they have less power, money, protection from

violence, and access to resources and decent employment.In Bangladesh the majority of working

women still have not been able to impose a controlling authority in mainstream production.

Women entrepreneurs are the new class who have accepted the challenges of life and have

emerged as leaders in the socioeconomic development.Though doing this research I found it very

tough to get enough information, still it was a nice experience as I saw how strong Bangladeshi

women are actually. If these women get enough opportunity, they will do much better. If our

country can ensure enough resources for these female entrepreneurs, our unemployment problem

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will be solved. Lastly I would say, if anybody want to work on this topic further, he/she must do

they survey all over the country. The person need to take more time to conduct the survey as it is

hard to get appointment with the upper class entrepreneurs. Still this topic is very interesting to

work on. I am concluding here with the hope that very soon out country will be able to ensure a

better working environment for these strong and brave women.

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Haq, M., (2000), Human Development in South Asia: The Gender Question, Human

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