How do female entrepreneurs in developing countries cope with role conflict?

Purpose Female entrepreneurs often face significant conflicts in allocating time and resources to the various roles demanded of them by their communities. This has been identified as a potential obstacle to their performance as entrepreneurs. This paper aims to examine the question: How do women cope with role conflict? Design/methodology/approach The authors tackled the question by conducting a survey that involved 307 female business owners in Ethiopia. The survey result was supported by 20 in-depth interviews. Findings The commonest coping strategies identified were negotiation, committing to the entrepreneurial role, committing to social roles, pleasing all, seeking social support and hiring outside support. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed that these coping strategies differed across the various stages of business growth. Meanwhile, structural equation modeling established that female business owners with high levels of personal resources (such as optimism, self-efficacy and resilience) committed more to their entrepreneurial roles than to their social roles. Originality/value This research contributes knowledge on coping strategies among female entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa, where family structure and orientation, the economy and social development differ from those in developed countries. The research also integrates the lines of empirical research on coping strategies with the process-based view of entrepreneurship.

SAUDI ARABIAN WOMEN IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP: CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND POTENTIAL

Although traditional cultural norms have tended to impede Saudi women’s engagement in entrepreneurship, there are successful female business owners in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government, seeing female entrepreneurship as a way to strengthen both the family unit and the economy, has recently created programs to encourage more women to become business owners. However, few women have taken advantage of these programs to date. This study aimed to identify factors that enable female business owners to realize their entrepreneurial potential. Nine business-owning women were interviewed for this phenomenological study. Drawing on Kreuger and Brazeal’s Model of Entrepreneurial Potential (MEP), the study investigated Saudi female entrepreneurs’ perceived self-efficacy, perceived desirability, perceived feasibility and propensity to act on entrepreneurial opportunities. Currently, limited empirical research exists on women’s entrepreneurial activity in Saudi Arabia. This study sought to fill that gap. Results from this study revealed unique strategic approaches and business success factors from the perspective of Saudi women, including their ability to work within or around cultural norms and rules to operate their businesses. The study suggests ways in which Saudi society can support women in realizing their entrepreneurial potential and also makes policy recommendations for government and business support entities.

Female business owners hiding in plain sight

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore what female business owners hide to better understand social norms and discourses that influence the decisions women make about how they structure their home and work lives. Design/methodology/approach The author used qualitative interviews to access the narratives of female business owners in public relations within the USA. This industry segment attracts primarily women and, unlike a retail store, offers women a variety of ways to structure their business hours and locations. Findings Women use hiding as a way to manage others’ impressions and as a way to gain legitimacy for themselves and their organizations. Specifically, the findings fall into three categories: hiding childcare obligations, obscuring their work locations and “fake it until you make it”. Hiding is used a strategy to deal with tensions that arise based on women’s interpretations of social norms and discourses. Research limitations/implications Based on the finite nature of any study, it is difficult to assess the long-term impact of hiding. Further, as with many studies, the geographic location, gender and industry segment provide a context for this research, which means the reader must determine the transferability. Originality/value Few studies explore hiding as a means to gain access to gendered discourses that can undermine identity construction and business growth. By uncovering what female business owners hide, it provides opportunities for self-awareness and agency.

Asserting Self-Worth

Asserting self-worth was necessary for twentieth-century female business owners in order to be successful and Lewis, Beech and Lewis each did it skilfully yet differently—respectively positioning herself in terms of stature, the irrelevance of gender or competence. They had to generate a positive valuation of themselves at a time when gender roles and stereotypes triggered an automatic discount to their worth expressed in lower pay, questions about their abilities, and the trenchant hold of the “family claim” positing that their job, first and foremost, was to care for husbands, children and homes. Articulating a counternarrative that established their value to their companies was important for female business owners and had an impact on the bottom line. Additionally, all three came from non-traditional backgrounds, making an unorthodox entrance into corporate leadership positions from secretarial jobs. This in combination with a lack of formal education beyond high school or even elementary school and the fact that they operated businesses in the highly male-dominated manufacturing sector, meant that the task of self-presentation was both complex and essential in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome for her company and herself.

DO WOMEN FARE BETTER IN FEMALE-OWNED BUSINESSES?

Numerous studies have chronicled the problems women experience in seeking to be hired and subsequently break through the glass ceiling in corporate America. These studies have been approached from the traditional perspective of male-dominated organizations. However, using a human resource management (HRM) framework, this article explores the possibility of further extending to female-owned businesses Kanter's homosocial reproduction thesis that increased numbers of women in positions of management would increase hiring and advancement of women in corporate America. Results show that, at each step in the HRM process, female business owners in this study fulfill expectations by hiring, promoting and retaining significantly more women than male business owner counterparts. In addition, there were significant differences between minority and non-minority female business owners in the proportion of co-racial managers. Moreover, Whites and Blacks showed a significant preference for co-racial managers, while Hispanics and Asians did not.

DIFERENCIAS POR GÉNERO EN EL EMPRENDIMIENTO EMPRESARIAL COSTARRICENSE. (Gender differences in the costa rican entrepreneurial environment)

<p>El Observatorio de Mipymes realizó el Segundo estudio nacional de micros, pequeñas y medianas empresas (mipymes) costarricenses durante el 2011, por medio de una encuesta aplicada a 1167 mipymes. En este trabajo se obtienen resultados desglosados por género para algunas variables principales indagadas en dicho estudio, las cuales permiten identificar características de las personas propietarias de estas empresas y las condiciones en que emprendieron sus negocios. Con el propósito de comprobar si las diferencias observadas son significativas, se aplicaron las pruebas correspondientes. Los resultados muestran que la participación femenina en el parque empresarial mipymes costarricense es muy baja y está limitada principalmente a las microempresas. Además, se verifican diferencias por género estadísticamente significativas que develan mayores dificultades para las mujeres en aspectos tales como: falta de experiencia en el sector empresarial, menor conocimiento del negocio, falta de recursos para emprender en forma individual y mayor dependencia respecto a los ingresos de la empresa.</p><p><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p><p>The SME Observatory developed the Second National Survey of micro, small and medium sized Costa Rican companies (SMEs) during 2011 using survey answers from 1167 SMEs. This work generated gender classified data for a few of the variables examined that led to the identification of characteristics for female business owners, and the limitations in which they developed their businesses. Tests for the validation of significant differences observed were applied. Results show that female participation in the Costa Rican SME population is very low and limited to micro enterprises only. Besides, statistically different gender differences revealed greater difficulties for women in areas like the lack of entrepreneurial experience, lesser knowledge of the business, lack of resources for individual entrepreneurship and a great dependency from the company’s revenue.</p>