Reasons why you are seeing more women entrepreneurs among your friends, than men
Women are doing something right
I’m not a business owner, but I know atleast 20 women business owners, and only 3–4 business-’men’.
I wondered if this is a microcosmic representation of the world we live in, and found some interesting statistics —
38.8% of entrepreneurs worldwide are women, while only 7% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women!
And in economies like North America, women represent 46% of all entrepreneurs!
So what is the advantage that women have over men in businesses, which they don’t in the corporate world?
Perhaps they are getting better at using generational conditioning to their advantage.
1. No delusions of grandeur
Almost everyone at some point dreams of starting something of their own. But most men dream on a grand scale. Many big plans get made during college days or boozy nights, which never get to see the light of the day, as they are very hard to act on.
But for good or bad, women are conditioned to be humble, and keep their feet on the ground even when they are dreaming. They do not shy away from humble beginnings. Nothing is too small. They don’t sit on their high horse, and are willing to do all the thankless dirty work that businesses require but no one sees. Because guess what? We have done this half of our lives!
2. Fail-fast method comes naturally to women
“Fail-fast” is an approach in which the faster you get a business/idea up and running, the sooner you will be able to test it, learn from your failures, and get chances to improve it.
The reason why there are so many women -small business owners is because they put plans to action, even if they are small and imperfect. You know why? Because we have been made to feel inadequate and imperfect way too many times for it keep us from progressing👊
The feedback for improvement does not hurt our egos either. Because we have received countless unsolicited ‘feedbacks for improvement’ even from our distant relatives. So we know exactly what to filter out and what to take.
3. Chronic people-pleasers
Given the generational conditioning of women to please others, it is only obvious that women will do an even better job in identifying the needs and pleasing their customers!
4. Transforming passion into expertise
For many women, business is a way of monetising their passion rather than being a purely profit-making venture. And this enables them go that extra mile. They are in it because that’s where their heart is. This by no way means that money is not on their minds, but they put their money where their passion is.
Many men on the other hand see the profit that can be made in a particular area, and that’s what attracts them and drives them to become passionate about it.
Who wakes up in the morning thinking – I’m going to get into oil business! You are passionate about it because there is money in it.
5. Helps navigate after maternity or career-break
According to a report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, 49% of mothers reported experiencing discrimination in the workplace at some point during pregnancy, parental leave, or on return to work. This discrimination can take many forms, such as being denied promotions, given less challenging work, or made redundant.
‘Mumtrepreneurs’ are on the rise, and it is not a coincidence. The maternity leave (IF provided in your country), is never enough, which is why many women end up taking a loss-of-pay or even a career break to put family first. This provides a (tough but)perfect opportunity to re-evaluate and shift gears. This by no means is easy, but at least gives the much needed flexibility to work on your own terms. And also, juggling and hustling is second nature to women.
6. The Glass Ceiling is real. And so is Gender pay gap
According to a report by the World Economic Forum, Women held just 29% of senior management roles globally in 2019. And women earn 63% of what men earn on average.
Businesses, on the other hand, have no gender. It is either successful, or not.
Despite women’s advancement in business, there is still a long way to go –
- Securing funds has always been tougher for women. This is because men are confident beyond their means, skills and knowledge; thus attracting funds. But women self-doubt and are risk averse in general.
- Research shows that the burden of shared responsibilities always falls unequally on women.
- Scalability issues – Many women are small business owners where the business is entirely dependent on them and have no scope of scalability. So their profits hit a ceiling beyond which they cannot grow.
We are far from the perfect world we dream of, with many complaining about the negligible ‘unfair advantage’ which women get in certain sections of the society or areas of work.
We are still not there, but we are getting somewhere.
Some wonder why Women’s Day gets so much focus and glory while no one even notices International Men’s Day.
It’s precisely for these reasons – because the ground was never even and women still find ways to thrive!
Happy International Women’s Day to all you incredible women!
