‘Women who undergo discrimination in their workplaces get motivated to start their businesses and do well in their entrepreneurship career’.

Women worldwide have developed lucrative entrepreneurship ventures. In fact, women entrepreneurship has become a buzzword. However, the challenges for women entrepreneurs remain the same, and the level of complexities targeted at women entrepreneurs has increased drastically!

While women entrepreneurs ought to maintain their ‘entrepreneurial’ status by adapting to environmental changes and conforming to business trends, they also face gender-based stereotypes!

There is also a progressive nature to women’s entrepreneurship, where women who faced discrimination and the glass ceiling went on starting their businesses. It is a kind of women creating their own space for justice. Women entrepreneurship allows women to progress in their careers and set their standards! This is a way of expressing freedom and skills!

The surge of black women starting businesses in the USA is an exact example of this! Black women do not just go on starting businesses but also contribute to the ecosystem through diverse business models.

However, as mentioned earlier, challenges are more acute in the contemporary context. Many women who get into small businesses start it as a solo journey. While this gives freedom, it is also an equally exhausting path.

Unlike developed countries, most women in developing countries choose entrepreneurship as their prioritised career. For example, from the context I belong, Northern Sri Lanka, many home-based women entrepreneurs embarked on self-employment as a means of economic survival. Women who became widows in the post-war contexts had to enter entrepreneurship as their only means of economic generation.

‘I wanted to support my family, and my husband is into labour jobs. He doesn’t get a sustainable income. I must feed my family and thought of doing something I know. I am now making gift items from various materials, and they sell well. The income I generate from my business helps with bills’, said a women entrepreneur from Mullaitivu.

In contrast to the fundamental motives based on economic needs, Women entrepreneurship literature demonstrates the term ‘old-boys effect’. This is when men gain an advantage through their managerial circles and are often deemed favourites. Women in their careers are affected by this old boys’ network effect. Men, through their networks in organisational groups, gain an advantage over women, and this results in discrimination against women in workplaces. This is especially applicable when women compete with men for managerial positions. Women globally represent 32.2% of strategic leadership roles, according to Forbes 2023.

Many women feel that starting their own business is not just a means of empowerment but also an expression of justice for them. When speaking about their motives for starting their businesses with few women entrepreneurs, the following were the most mentioned.

Lack of work-life balance and freedom in their workplaces. This led women to start their businesses. Women especially in the eastern countries remain vulnerable to poor work-life balance. Social stereotypes affect the amount of supports women receive from their spouses and family members. Women in these contexts are ought to be responsible for taking care of dependents including children. Such an un-supportive environment correlated to the demands of insensitive work contexts gets them into an exhausting position.

Feeling unrecognised: many who left their work felt unrecognised in their workplaces even when they put in their best efforts. This inspired them to start their own ventures. It is like being a wage slave was not feeling right in their guts.

Women, after giving birth to their children, had reasons to stay close to their kids. This gave a boost to mompreneurship.

Young women who love travelling prefer adopting hippie lifestyles. Their quench for travelling and learning new cultures won’t fit their 8 to 5 works. This inspired them to start online businesses.

Women who felt discriminated against in their workplaces thought they would serve themselves better in their businesses. For them, starting a business and being successful in their way was a revenge.

It is further observed that women who start their businesses often perceive it as their expression of personality and freedom. Its like Women entrepreneurship gives wings to get that authentic self-expression!

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