Paper
Women Entrepreneurs: Issues and Barriers - A Regional, National and International Perspective
Challenges and the need for networks to promote women entrepreneurs and foster business development
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This report discusses two main issues and barriers pertaining to:
- Women's entrepreneurship and business growth;
- Establishing a network of business support centers for women entrepreneurs.
While discussing the first issue, the paper elaborates the following factors hindering women-headed enterprises:
- Per-start up experiences of the labor market;
- Traditional views on women's role;
- The financing of female-owned firms;
- Use of networks in the management of firms;
- Lack of knowledge and training in business and information technology (IT) skills;
- Low self esteem/perception.
While elaborating the second issue, need for networking support, the paper discusses the following points that need to be taken into consideration:
- Tradition, perception and self-perception;
- Longer incubation period for businesses started by women than by men;
- Different types of networks created for women and men;
- Variations in network usage;
- Inconsistency of current networks to support women entrepreneurs.
The paper further highlights some of barriers that women entrepreneurs face:
- Family obligations;
- Low priority to traditional women set-up enterprises;
- Social barriers;
- Lack of strategy to foster entrepreneurship and overcome barriers;
- Need for research regarding the usability of networks.
The paper concludes by throwing light on some contemporary trends in helping women-owned enterprises reach success.