Women More Active in Social Start-Ups

A study conducted on different start-up types on over 10,000 individuals from 52 countries reveals that women are 1.17 times more probable than men to establish social enterprises than economic enterprises. Personally, I am not surprised by the finding. Why?

By tradition, men play the primary role of breadwinners while women are the primary caregivers of a family.  Generally, women are found to be more active in community activities than men as well. This kind of traditional upbringing has instilled women with qualities like resilience, empathy, intuition to be successful social entrepreneurs. Moreover, in comparison to traditional businesses, profit maximization is not social entrepreneurs’ key priority. As such, women who juggle multiple roles (e.g. career and motherhood) could have less work stress and more flexibility in their working practices and working hours.

On the contrary, in the face of several social and cultural barriers, women’s potential is not fully utilized and thus women social entrepreneurship activity remains low. 

The key barrier to entry is gender inequality. In developing countries especially, because of gender inequality, women are expected to perform their primary role as caregivers and are not given access to educational opportunities or networking platforms.  As such, by and large, women do not have the required knowledge, contacts, capital, guidance and confidence to carry out their initiatives and pursue their social goals.

I strongly feel that there is a vial need to eliminate gender gap to create a favorable environment for social entrepreneurship to flourish. Surrounded by umpteen social problems, the world cannot afford to disadvantage women from opportunities to exploit their talent and expertise to create greater social change.

For instance, to help various women to enter into the social entrepreneurship sector, successful women social entrepreneurs can conduct mentorship or training programmes to enhance other women’s know-how and competence. Based on their experiences, successful women could also boost others’ confidence by sharing how they actually overcome certain odds and protect their legal rights to educational and career opportunities.

In brief, the progress against world social problems will improve if more than a few social entrepreneurs believe they can solve them. Women social entrepreneurship matters. We will need more favorable policies to encourage and develop more social entrepreneurs, especially the women to create sustainable social impact and make our world a better place.

References

University of Cincinnati (2012, April 3). Men start businesses for the money: Women for the social value. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120403124404.htm