Today’s world is advancing in terms of empowering women in various directions. That also includes business and entrepreneurship. Today, more than ever, gender equality is being talked about, but in practice, there are still many things that are not clearly defined. Therefore, such things are still tacitly expected from women. Despite choices, these expectations require raising awareness of all the challenges that women face.
Women In Business
If you take a look at today’s world of business, you will see that it is still dominated by men. This is not surprising if one takes history into account. Until recently, only men were recognized as capable to deal with “difficult” issues, which certainly includes running a business. It’s true that there are women on the lists of the most successful entrepreneurs, but men are still the majority. The future will surely turn this relationship into the benefit of women entrepreneurs. But in order to do this, it is necessary to be aware of things that women entrepreneurs face.
Awareness is needed in order to speak more openly about these problems so they become a smaller taboo than they are today. For this reason, we will look at some of the biggest challenges of women entrepreneurship. We’ll try to show them from the perspective of lady bosses. Try to use a bit of experience, and shared thoughts of some of the successful women in the world of entrepreneurship.
Social Discrimination
Although we are living in the 21st century, the number of people who still believe that men are more adequate for business is not negligible. However, we are still inclined to believe in certain stereotypes about what are “masculine” and what “female” jobs are.
You have probably happened to see a woman driving a bus, maintaining a call centre software, or being a mechanic, and think: “Why does a woman do this job”? The truth is that behind stands a deep culturally and socially conditioned view that some jobs are simply not for women. The fact is that many would rather choose to work with a man than with a woman.
This particular point of view makes problems for many women entrepreneurs.
With these challenges, more developed and liberal societies are faced, too. This battle is taking place on a huge number of fronts, every day. Therefore, it is important to know that such stereotypes and prejudices can be found anywhere and at any time.
But the crucial is that we accept them just as they are – prejudices and stereotypes. We can not change what the environment thinks, but we can influence what we will do with our own capabilities.
Lack Of Investor Confidence
This is a challenge that arises when you need to raise money to start your own business.
Investors, in general, are more inclined to believe men, but this is not something that could be pronounced just like that. Behind this, stands the fact that women generally need much more time and effort to prove their value. In any case, women will certainly need more patience and persistence to present their business story to parties interested in financing it. All in order to find the sustainability of the idea rather than the gender of the presenter.
Balancing Between Business And Private Life
This is probably the first thing most people think about not only when it comes to women entrepreneurs, but also in the context of women who do any job. The thing is – even those women who have perfectly organized all their work, will pay dues to tiredness and too many obligations. Not to mention those who agree to play under full equipment on two grounds: a housewife and a businesswoman. One thing certainly doesn’t rule out another, but it requires serious planning, quick adjustment and compromises. If the man is the head of the house, then the woman is his spinal column, and this is precisely what society is likely to fear when looking at the female entrepreneurial spirit. However, instead of waging war on the role of garbage disposal, wouldn’t it be more constructive to make a plan – and then adheres to it?
Stress
Stress is definitely not reserved for women entrepreneurs. It affects all people who care what they do in order to meet the set criteria. However, if we recall that women, besides business, have to bear with everything described above – it is clear that this stress is even more complex. Therefore, it’s necessary to deal with everyday challenges. What more, with things that make the position of a female entrepreneur different in relation to the male. There isn’t an almighty recipe that will take away all these problems. But the awareness of them, as well as the way we choose to deal with such challenges, is what can make this game more equitable.
In the end, we can say that things are slowly moving in forward. From the world that was ready only for a housewife, we made a long civilization step. But there is still much left in front of us. Still, remember Hollywood. Just 20 years ago, would it be expected that Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey be equally paid for the main roles?
The answer to this question is what gives hope that the future will be more supportive of women’s entrepreneurial ventures.