Lacking women in Leadership is problematic?

Table of Content

+ Introduction

+ Address the problem.

+ Solutions

+ Conclusion

+ References

INTRODUCTION

In the past, nobody could deny that the image of a woman was always associated with the

phrases “fragile” or “household jobs” instead of going outside and starting to do more significant

positions such as businesswomen. Therefore, women at that time firmly believed that they

should stand behind a man and lean on their man instead of creating their empire. Because of

these misconceptions, many problems could affect women’s position in society today, such as

the “lacking women in business.” Most companies do not recognize that they face the imbalance

between male and female employees at work, especially in the automotive industry. For

example, men have no interest in the beauty industry, while women have little interest in the auto

industry. As we all know, when entering any car dealership, people rarely see women working

there, and very few women have specialized knowledge about vehicles. Therefore, automotive

companies should consider adjusting the “lacking women” situation to balance gender equality in
business. There are so many reasons why lacking women in business should be more concern,

and most companies must figure out some solutions to solve this problem.

ADDRESS THE PROBLEM

As we all know, there is a problem of "lacking female workers in the business" that most

companies rarely recognize its actual affect to their organization in specific and the worldwide

businesses in general. According to International Labor Organization (ILO), less than one third

of the businesses around the world are owned by women. This number shows that the percentage

of women who owned a business is way less than that of men, and this incidence was resulted

from many cases of scenario.

Firstly, women have lack of financial support from all kinds, or even if they do there will

be limited sources that will aid them along their journey. Research numbers show that 60% of

man capital are funding through outsources, bank loans and angel investor, comparing to women

is 48%. The difference in percentage reveals the difficulty for women start-up, at very early

stages in their business, who do not have enough capital and money to raise and develop their

projects regardless of its function and creativity it can bring to our daily lives. The reason why is

that it basically comes from the gender differences and biases, not mentioning about stigma and

discrimination. Although the laws have attempted to create a more diverse environment through

many rights to protect woman entrepreneurs, yet it is still not strongly implemented.

Secondly, it is also the responsibilities that constraint them, coming from personal and

professional demands. It is impossible for a woman to balance out between two most important

things in their life which are business and family. She either must abandon her business or

family if she wants to really become successful. Her business needs a leader who make critical
decisions at the critical time that will change entirely the company fate as well as the employees

career paths, while her family needs a mother who takes care of the children and a wife who

takes care of their spouses. This adds up the pressure and burdens onto the women entrepreneurs

whether they have to choose either one of them, or if they decide to do both, it will not be good

for their health physically and mentally in the long run.

The fear of failure is also one of the reasons why starting and running a business is

everyone’s difficulties, including the experienced entrepreneurs. It is also applied to women

since their thinking and cognition of failure and success is way different comparing to men. They

identified the problems and lessons learned from the past experiences as well as failures as

significant as their lessons learning from the successes which is 44 percent and 37 percent,

respectively.

Not only they lack funding and money to operate a business, lacking mentors is the

critical problems to many and many women start up nowadays. As we all know, start-ups always

lack experiences, that is why mentors are so critical at this point. Therefore, without mentors,

there will be no one to show them the path or guide them to the better future for their company.

As a result, it is inevitable that they will face more challenges, temptations, and mistakes than the

others who do have a mentor by their side, which result in the waste of fund, time and capital.

Saying that they can read books, articles and dig deeper into the causes of the problems they see

in other corporations and organizations, but still that knowledge is not practical and it is much

more harder to apply those into the real world, where it is challenging even to a successful

entrepreneurs. So, it is invaluable to take the advice from someone who specializes in the area

with practical experiences specifically the issues.

 The environment which they choose to do the business is also the deciding factor if the

business works or not. The society from the past and nowadays was built based on a bias and

masculine structure where the man will make the money to take care of the family and the

women take of the house jobs and often be underestimate in doing the business. Therefore, that

mindset has been falsely fitting and running in people’s mentality for the past couple of decades.

Certainly, from that social mindset, it is usually not trusted when you hear about a women-

owned company in the society in general and investors in specific, since “the social and

traditional constraints that restrict women’s participation in business”. Different from men,

women have to really work their way up in order to be recognized in others perspective. Also, it

is very conventional for a women-owned company to have a man to do deals, negotiate, looking

for investors and sometimes be the face of the business because of the mentioned reasons.

Solutions

There are many studies showing why it is so important to have women in the board of the

business. It highlights the significance of the contribution of women when they are in the

leadership or manager department by saying the higher chance of successful of the company is

compromises by the higher the number of women in senior management and board members.

The first solution is that they can find the funding and capital not coming from angel investors

and bank loans. Instead, they could reply on the financing sources operation where if the projects

are valuable to enhance people’s life, they will support the projects regardless of the projects’

owner looks, nationality and gender. But this solution can be separated into 2 main options. The

first one could be the unconventional financing source which we can mention Kickstarter. It is

American public corporation located in Brooklyn, New York that keeps the worldwide
crowdfunding flatform that mainly focused on creativity to people daily life, and it is indicated in

its own slogan: “help bring creative projects to life”.

The second option is that they can raise fund through social network. Astia and Springboard

Enterprises are the two great examples of the option. These are the trusted worldwide network of

businessman and businesswomen, investors and especially advisors that fully support women to

start their business as well as guiding, leading them to the better future. Their mission is to

advance and aid significant resources, capital, and the community of experienced for women

start-ups in order to frame their infrastructure strategically so they will have a chance to break

through the difficult early stages. One special thing about these organization is that they are all

non-profitable, as a result it is a win-win situation when they the women start-ups can take

advice without spending a dime.

The second solution we can consider is that we can start with our internal factors which are

increase and balance the gender diversity on boards, offering mentorship opportunities, and

expand workshops and programs that can give financial access to women entrepreneurs out there

in the society. Starting from increase and balance the gender diversity, it all starts from recruit

stage when the Human Resources Department really have to see the opportunities in the

applicants in terms of personalities, opportunities, and the contribution that person can bring to

the company, regardless of their gender. Position promotion is needed, even to the Board

member position, when a women employee has a tremendous contribution or positive impact to

the company when it motivates them as well as their colleagues to do better, also that is how we

show our appreciation to what they have done and contribute.

Secondly, offering the mentorship opportunities to the many and many not only women start-ups

but also women entrepreneurs can support the community of businesses. As we mentioned the
problems where lack of mentorship is one of the main issues that women when doing businesses

might face, this can aid a lot. Having a person specialized in certain areas by their side definitely

will help them not only at the moment but in the long run, and it could be resulted in bypass the

avoidable mistakes, temptations and challenges that they might face. The mentor not only give

them the direction on their future career path but also open to them an ideal environment for their

business as well as the entrepreneurs network for their future connection.

Last but not least, expanding workshops and programs that can give financial access to women

entrepreneurs out there in the society. We can create a new department in the company where

new ideas from the start-up’s projects will have the voice. If the project is creative and efficient

enough, the company could raise money and funding the projects so no opportunities will be left

out or underestimate.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, there are so many misconceptions in business when most companies

decide to recruit men rather than women in some ways. In fact, employers always prioritize

choosing men because of knowledge, fast-updating trends, especially in automotive industry. In

contrast, female employees might not be knowledgeable about car, electricity, or engineering,

but they are always willing to learn. Besides that, they are highly adaptable, persistent, and

carefully assess every business situation. So, why female employees do not deserve the same

opportunity to get hired in a company as male employees? We could say that nobody can judge a

person ability by their gender. Everyone deserves a fair chance. Based on all the solutions above,

I believe that more than women could be hired as what they deserve.

REFERENCES
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