Gender issues in entrepneur development

GENDER ISSUES IN ENTREPRENEUR
DEVELOPMENT
By
SEIDU Moro
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS
COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE,
CCS HAU
February, 2014

Overview of Presentation
• Introduction
• Gender and Sex
– Definition
– Difference between gender and sex
• Why gender issues is a problem in the society
• Subordination of women
• Why gender issues need urgent attention
• Women in Entrepreneurship
– Characteristics of women Entrepreneurial activity
– Factors affecting the Characteristics of women Entrepreneurial activity
• Gender as a development tool
• Policy approaches to women entrepreneurial development
• References

INTRODUCTION
As gender issues have become more mainstreamed in scientific research and media
reports, confusion associated with the terms sex and gender has decreased.

Sex
• Sex refers to the biological characteristics distinguishing male and female.
• This definition emphasizes male and female differences in chromosomes,
anatomy, hormones, reproductive systems, and other physiological
components.
• Sex makes us male or female;
• Sex is an ascribed status because a person is born with it.

Gender
• Gender refers to those social, cultural, and psychological traits linked to
males and females through particular social contexts (i.e. social construction).
• those characteristics and roles of women and men that are socially constructed.
• Thus gender makes us masculine or feminine which is a clear indication that
gender is an achieved status because it must be learned.
• According to Orhungur et al. (2003) gender is the expectation a society has
formed about someone simply because the person is a woman or man.
• It is what we expect men and women to do and behave.

Gender
• Gender can be viewed as a continuum of characteristics demonstrated by a person
regardless of the person’s biological sex.
• Gender relations are not viewed as either natural or immutable but as historical and socio-
cultural productions, subject to reconstitution.
• It changes over time.
• It is about how power is used and shared
• It affects all parts of our lives (social, economic and political).

Differences Between Sex and Gender

Why Gender Issues is a Problem in the Society
• The socio-culturally defined characteristics inferred on males and female creating
the term man (masculine) and woman (feminine) has created a lot of differences
between these two sexes in the form of aptitudes, abilities, desires, personality
traits, roles, responsibilities, and behavioral patterns.
• These socio-cultural characteristics contribute to differences or inequalities and
hierarchies in society.
• These characteristics have not only created differences or inequalities and
hierarchies in the society but also have tilted power and respect of dignity
mostly in one direction, where the woman is always at the losing end.

Why Gender Issues is a Problem in the Society?
• Gender has not only treated women as subordinate to men, child bearers and
rearers but has also subjected them to discriminations, humiliations,
exploitations, oppressions, control, and violence.
• Women experience discrimination and unequal treatment in terms of basic
right to food, health care, education, employment, control over productive
resources, decision-making, and livelihood not because of their biological
differences or sex, which is natural but because of their gender differences
which is a social construct.
Cont…

Subordination of Women
• Domination of man over woman (relational dominance)
• Women follow the total dictates of men
– Even what to eat, drink, wear and when to speak is dictated by men
• Women not part of decision making in the home
• Where women inherent freedom, dignity, integrity, and equality is being
undermined by men
• Women only considered as appendages to men
The subordination of women is in fact the prototype of discrimination

“We talk about poverty across societies, and no-one raises any problems. We
talk about gender subordination across societies, and people cry cultural
imperialism!”(White, 1993:9)

Why Gender Issues Need Urgent Attention
Women at Risk
• More people have been lifted out of poverty in the last 50 years than in the previous 500; yet more than 1.2
billion still subsist on less than $1 per day. According to some estimates, women represent 70% of the world’s
poor.
• The International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD) reports that in the developing world, the
percentage of land owned by women is less than 2%
• According to U.S. Government-sponsored research completed in 2006, approximately 800,000 people are
trafficked across national borders annually. Approximately 80% of transnational trafficking victims are women
and girls and up to 50% are minors.
• An estimated 72% of the world’s 33 million refugees are women and children.
• Every minute somewhere in the world a woman dies due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

Violence against Women
• The most common form of violence experienced by women globally is physical violence inflicted by an
intimate partner. On average, at least 6 out of 10 women are beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise
abused by an intimate partner in the course of their lifetime.
• It is estimated that, worldwide, 1 in 5 women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape in her
lifetime.
• The cost of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceeds US$5.8 billion per year: US$4.1
billion is for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly US$1.8
billion.
• In Canada, a study estimated the annual direct costs of violence against women to be approximately
Can$1.17 billion a year (1995). Similarly a study in the United Kingdom estimated the total direct and
indirect costs of domestic violence, including pain and suffering, to be £23 billion per year or £440 per
person (2004).
Cont…

Women and HIV/AIDS
• The AIDS epidemic has a unique impact on women, exacerbated by their role within society and their
biological vulnerability to HIV infection – more than half of the estimated 33 million people living with
HIV worldwide are women.
• The prevalence of violence and of HIV/AIDS is interrelated. Women’s inability to negotiate safe sex and
refuse unwanted sex is closely linked to the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. Women who are beaten by their
partners are 48% more likely to be infected with HIV/AIDS
Cont…

Women and Education
• About two-thirds of the estimated 776 million adults – or 16% of the world’s adult
population – who lack basic literacy skill are women.
• 2/3 of the 130 million children worldwide who are not in school are girls.
• In developing countries, nearly 1 out of 5 girls who enrolls in primary school does not
complete her primary education.
Cont…

Poverty
• Of the world's 1.3 billion poor people, it is estimated that nearly 70 per cent are women.
Economic and Income-generating Activities
• A large number of women are mainly engaged in subsistence agriculture as well as in micro and small-scale
enterprises (MSE). In most of the developing countries, particularly in Africa, women constitute 70-80 per
cent of the total agricultural labour force and they account for over 80 percent of food production. It is not
surprising therefore to find many women engaged in food processing, weaving, personal services, beverage
preparation, and selling of snack foods.
• In the MSE sector worldwide, women make up one-quarter to one-third of the total business population and
in manufacturing they constitute one-third of the global labour force.
• The majority of women earn about 3/4 of the pay of males for the same work
• In most countries, women work approximately twice the unpaid time men do.
• The value of women's unpaid housework and community work is estimated to be worth $11 trillion

Women roles in the society
• As breadwinner of a family,
• Unpaid family workers,
• Service providers in the communities and
• Mother/care-taker of the family.

Women in Entrepreneurship
• Despite women's increased participation in the labour market over the past half-century, they
remain substantially underrepresented as entrepreneurs.
• When asked, fewer women than men say they would prefer to be self-employed.
• When they do chose to become entrepreneurs, more often than men, they cite a better work-life
balance and/or economic necessity as the main motivation for starting a business (GEM, 2010).
• In developing countries, the vast majority of women are engaged in entrepreneurial activity driven
by pure survival - out of necessity rather than opportunity - because there are no jobs or any other
options for income generation.

Women in Entrepreneurship (Cont…)
Male to Female Ratio
• In almost all economies, women are less engaged in entrepreneurial activity compared to men
• In Panama, Venezuela, Jamaica, Guatemala, Brazil, Thailand, Switzerland and Singapore the rates
of men and women engaged in starting a business are equal (GEM, 2012).
• The only economy with currently more female than male entrepreneurs is Ghana where 55 % of
entrepreneurial activity is conducted by women (GEM, 2010).
• Generally, countries in the Middle East and North Africa have the fewest women entrepreneurs.
Iran and Pakistan for example have the lowest levels of all countries in the world.
• In fact, some data suggest that women have outpaced men in the rate of new business they form
(Minniti and Naudé, 2010).
• GEM data (2012) demonstrates that men make up 52% of all entrepreneurial activity, compared to
48% of women entrepreneurs.

Characteristics of Female Entrepreneurial Activity
• When women do start businesses, they do it on a smaller scale than men and in a limited range of sectors,
often at low capital intensity.
• On average one-third of self-employed men have employees, while this is only one-fifth for self-employed
women.
• In emerging and developing countries, women often represent the majority of business owners without paid
employees in the informal sector.
• Even when enterprises in the same size class and industry are compared, women-owned businesses have
other features that are associated with lower sales, profits and labour productivity.
• Women start their enterprises with limited management experience, and they devote much less time to their
business than men. In OECD countries, 22% of self-employed women work less than 40 hours a week, while
this is only 10% for self-employed men.

Characteristics of Female Entrepreneurial Activity (Cont..)
• Women businesses are smaller scale than men and in a limited range of sectors, often at low capital intensity.
• Women are virtually absent from the manufacturing and construction sector while they are overrepresented
in the consumer sector and mostly engaged in retail businesses (GEM, 2010).
• Women businesses also tend to be smaller, have fewer staff and less growth expectations.
• Women generate relatively lower revenues than men, and earn less income from entrepreneurial activity.
• Maintaining and growing the business beyond start-up is a serious challenge for all women entrepreneurs,
especially in developing countries.
• Even though the exit rate of new businesses is high everywhere (40 – 50 %), exit rates of women-owned
businesses are even higher, especially in developing countries.

Factors affecting the Characteristics of Women Entrepreneurial Activity
Access to financial resources
• A common challenge for women to establish and run a business is access and control over finance (Minniti,
2009; Jamali, 2009). Women entrepreneurs appear to have less access to external sources of capital than men
when securing finances.
Inadequate training and access to information
• One challenge often mentioned in research on women entrepreneurs in developing countries is that they
enjoy a relatively low level of education, experience, and skill training. This, combined with a lack of career
guidance, generally seems to limit their access to various publically and privately offered support services
including business development services and information on business growth (Kitching and Woldie, 2004;
Davis, 2012).
• Inadequate or lack of access to ICTs, insufficient entrepreneurial and management skills, together with
problems in finding the markets and distribution networks.
• Women do not (yet) possess the necessary skills to adapt to the impact of globalization, evolving
technologies and changing patterns of trade.

Work-family interface
• The combination of the business with family responsibilities, which may undermine the success of the
business (Jennings and McDougald, 2007).
• Williams (2004) found that (in Europe) the amount of time spent caring for children are negatively related to
success
• The location of the business at home may also undermine the legitimacy of the business as perceived by
customers and creditors (Marlow, 2002).
• Women strongly rely on support from husbands, partners, and relatives in order to successfully start and
grow a business (Jennings and McDougald, 2007; Brush, de Bruin and Welter, 2009).
Cont…

Women’s safety and gender based violence
• The issue of safety and protection of women entrepreneurs, especially those operating in the informal
economy. There are numerous stories of killings, harassment and rape of female vendors and micro-business
owners. This results in stress, constant fear and not having the opportunity to freely choose your
business location and time of opening hours which seriously limits the chances and choices of becoming a
successful entrepreneur for women in some developing countries (Chu et al, 2008; Rajender et al, 2012;
Reeves, 2010).
Lack of societal support
• Normative constraints and societal attitudes based on cultural and religious beliefs in some countries are not
supportive of the work of women in general or that of women in entrepreneurship in particular (Jamali,
2009; Baughn et al, 2006). In various countries, the perception is that entrepreneurship is an appropriate
career choice for men and not women, or only for the poor and not the educated, which in most cases are
women.
Cont…

Legal barriers and procedures
• Varying across countries, the lack of government support in terms of policy, laws and services
has been identified as a barrier for women entrepreneurs (Jamali, 2009). Even though this varies
greatly across countries, most research indicates that regulations, taxation and legal barriers can
pose serious obstacles for running and starting a business.
• Data from the annual report Women Business and the Law (World Bank, 2012) measured that in
all Middle Eastern and North African countries, women have fewer inheritance rights than men
and
• Moreover, there are 1 or more legal differences between women and men that limit women’s
economic opportunity in over 75% of the world’s economies.
• According to that same report, women only own 1% of the world’s property and
• In 2/3 of countries, legal rights of women decline with marriage,
• 44 countries restrict the number of hours women can work and 71 countries restrict the types of
industries.
Cont…

“It is impossible to think about the welfare of the world unless the condition
of women is improved” –(Swami Vivekananda)

• Development is the process whereby an economy undergoes social and economic transformation towards an
improvement in the quality of life of its citizen (Osuman, 1997).
• Gender can be an effective development tool when Gender Equality and Women Empowerment is highly
promoted.
• Gender equality means that the different behaviours, aspirations and needs of women and men are considered,
valued and favoured equally.
• It does not mean that women and men have to become the same, but that their rights, responsibilities and
opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female.
Gender as a Development Tool

• When women are afforded the equality of opportunity that is their basic human right, the results are striking.
• In 2006, The Economist estimated that over the past decade, women’s work has contributed more to global
growth than China.
• If Japan raised its share of working women to American levels, it would boost annual growth by 0.3% over 20
years, according to the Economist.
• In 2007, Goldman Sachs reported that different countries and regions of the world could dramatically increase
GDP simply by reducing the gap in employment rates between men and women: the Eurozone could increase
GDP by 13%; Japan by 16%; the US by 9%.
• If women had the same resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30%
– raise agricultural output by 2.5-4% and reduce hungry people by 100-150 million (FAO, 2011)
Cont…

• There is evidence that income under the control of women is more likely to be used to improve
family welfare
– women spend up to 90% of their income on their families, while men spend 30-40%
– strengthening marital bargaining power and "voice" within the household decision-making
• The participation of men and women in agriculture research and development leads to better
decision outcomes, better performance, creativity and innovation and this has been shown in a
variety of settings, occupations, and organizations (Pelled et al, 1999; Hamilton et al, 2003).
• The Women’s learning Partnership (WLP) estimates that, for every year beyond fourth grade that
girls attend school, wages rise 20%, child deaths drop 10% and family size drops 20%.
Cont…

• Women spend close to 75% of their available funds on food, while men spend only 22% of their income on
food for the family.
• There would be an estimated 13 million fewer undernourished children in South Asia if men and women had
equal influence in household decisions
Cont…

Policy approaches to women Entrepreneurship development
Henry (2003) views entrepreneurship as the engine driving the economy of nations,
creating new industries, young entrepreneur, employment and wealth, so the need to
study entrepreneurship development skills and career counseling of the woman
becomes very important.
In order for the woman to attain these skills easily and successfully it requires policy
analyst to structure policies to facilitate easy acquisition of the skills.

Education & Training
• Gender issues are being investigated since women cannot meet this requirement if
they are not educated.
• Education is investment in human capital as a lasting legacy since it requires the
individual with the knowledge and skills needed.
• Education makes an individual more productive in whatever economic activities
he/she undertakes.
• Creation of Entrepreneurship development centers in communities to train women
to develop and sharpen their entrepreneurial skills
Cont…

Counseling
• Counseling is a helping relationship which helps individuals to change their attitude or
perspective for better achievements.
• Fuster (2000) posits that counseling is neither giving of advice nor offering solutions to
problems, but helping counselees to change their attitude, perception of self or others or of
habits
• Counseling psychologists should be available wherever women are working. They will be
of help to the women in counseling them for a change of attitude towards more
entrepreneurial development;
• Counselors should be involved in the lives of the women right from the crèche to nursery,
primary school and all around. The female should be caught young with counseling;
Cont…

Policy Catering for work-family interface
• Women friendly environment should be created in working places or offices to enable
children of working mothers to be well catered for, because that will take care of gender
issues that may tend to slow the women in entrepreneurial development;
• The population of women is significant so places like the market centres should have
affordable crèches to give women traders’ opportunity of business uninterrupted. The
crèches can be government supported to make them affordable to all categories of women.
Cont…

Increasing women’s access to finance (Financial Inclusion)
Several forms of formal help or other measures can be employed in order to increase women’s access to
finance:
• Commercial Bank Partnerships with Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) to increase access for women
(as examples can be taken the case of India with a partnership between ICICI Bank and Spandana, MFI, the
case of Tanzania with a partnership between EXIM bank and SELFINA, a leasing Finance NGO with
30,000 members etc. One kind of help that can be offered is for instance establishing a reasonable interest
rate);
• Mainstreaming Gender in formal financial institutions, where the banks are taking several measures like
giving gender sensitive training to its staff or carrying out outreach activities in order to facilitate women’s
access to finance. Examples can be NBS Malawi, Access Bank Nigeria, DFCU, Uganda or India where the
government elaborated an action plan for public sector banks;
Cont…

Increasing women’s access to finance (Financial Inclusion) [Cont…]
• Specialized women’s banks which focuses intensively on women’s need and try to adapt their policies and
engage in a set of actions that are meant to increase women’s access to finance. An example is Self
Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Urban Cooperative Bank in India;
•
• Integrated credit registries refer to a record of repayment histories, including microfinance foe women
who lack a formal credit history which usually represents one of the bank requirements when asking for a
loan. Credit registries should capture sex-disaggregated data;
• Improving investment climate can also increase the access by reducing crime corruption and simplifying
procedures and tax administration which are known as being more likely to discourage women than men;
Cont…

Increasing women’s access to finance (Financial Inclusion) [Cont…]
• Increase financial literacy and awareness can fill the lack of information about the bank products and
inform about all the available possibilities;
•
• Have more female voices at the decision-making table is considered as influencing the percentage of
women borrowers of a certain bank; this can attract changes in the recruitment criteria, training and
organization culture;
• Sex disaggregated data represents an important tool for measuring women’s access to finance. It can
provide an accurate image about the magnitude of the difference and in the same time facilitate in
monitoring the improvements in case any programs or action are implemented. Sex disaggregated data is a
crucial element in designing policies, in offering solutions for improvement and setting targets.
Cont…

References
• Agbe, N.N. & Agbe J.I. (1999). Handbook on vocational guidance and the 6.3.3.4. system of education: implications for counselors and
school administrators. Lagos: Hiwits.
• Agogo, P.O. (2010). Now that Nigeria is 50, what next? Makurdi: Optimism Press.
• Bola-Babs, S. (2001). Education for greatness - selected speeches of Tai Solarin. Lagos: Spirosensual Great Books.
• Drucker, P.(2005). Innovation and entrepreneurship: practices. New York: Harper & Row.
• EGBE-OKPENGE E. G. & Orhungur M. M. (2012), Gender Issues In Entrepreneurial Development In Benue State (Nigeria) And Counseling
Implications. Bulgarian Journal of Science and Education Policy (BJSEP), Volume 6, Number 2, 2012
• Fuster, J.M. (2000). Personal counselling. Bandra: Better Yourself Books.
• Gibson, C.E. (2001). Experimental learning: experience as the source learning and development. Upper Saddle Point: Prentice-Hall.
• Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2011) The Women’s Report 2010. Published online, http://www.gemconsortium.org
• Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2012) GEM 2011 Global Report. Published online, http://www.gemconsortium.org
• Goldman Sachs Group, inc. 2007. ‘Gender inequality, Growth and Global ageing’. UNESCO 2008. Education for all, Global monitoring
Report 2009. available from: http://www.unesco.org/en/education/efareport/reports/2009-governance/
• Henry,F.I. (2003). Entrepreneurship development in the third world: a realistic approach. New York: McGraw.
• IFAD website (fact sheet on women), http://www.ifad.org/pub/factsheet/women/women_e.pdf accessed 8th February 2014:
Cont…

References
• Agbe, N.N. & Agbe J.I. (1999). Handbook on vocational guidance and the 6.3.3.4. system of education: implications for
counselors and school administrators. Lagos: Hiwits.
• Agogo, P.O. (2010). Now that Nigeria is 50, what next? Makurdi: Optimism Press.
• Bola-Babs, S. (2001). Education for greatness - selected speeches of Tai Solarin. Lagos: Spirosensual Great Books.
• Drucker, P.(2005). Innovation and entrepreneurship: practices. New York: Harper & Row.
• EGBE-OKPENGE E. G. & Orhungur M. M. (2012), Gender Issues In Entrepreneurial Development In Benue State (Nigeria) And
Counseling Implications. Bulgarian Journal of Science and Education Policy (BJSEP), Volume 6, Number 2, 2012
• Fuster, J.M. (2000). Personal counselling. Bandra: Better Yourself Books.
• Gibson, C.E. (2001). Experimental learning: experience as the source learning and development. Upper Saddle Point: Prentice-Hall.
• Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2011) The Women’s Report 2010. Published online, http://www.gemconsortium.org
• Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2012) GEM 2011 Global Report. Published online, http://www.gemconsortium.org
• Goldman Sachs Group, inc. 2007. ‘Gender inequality, Growth and Global ageing’. UNESCO 2008. Education for all, Global
monitoring Report 2009. available from: http://www.unesco.org/en/education/efareport/reports/2009-governance/
• Henry,F.I. (2003). Entrepreneurship development in the third world: a realistic approach. New York: McGraw.
• IFAD website (fact sheet on women), http://www.ifad.org/pub/factsheet/women/women_e.pdf accessed 8th February 2014:

References
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Cont…

References
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• UNICEF. 2009. State of the World’s Children: maternal and Newborn health. available from:
http://www.unicef.org/sowc09/
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• United Nations Economic Commission for Europe – Statistical Division
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• White, S., 1993, ‘Gender and development: a review of key issues’, mimeo, paper for JFS Workshop,
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Cont…

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