Challenges That Entrepreneurial Women Face in the 21st Century

Challenges That Entrepreneurial Women Face in the 21st Century A prominent arguable notion of the twenty-first century is how the women entrepreneurs are fairing in the society. Are they successful in real sense? The women workforce is not new in our society. The women have been professionally working since the colonial era. As per history, women’s active participation in business initiated during the course of World War II as the men had to participate in the war. At that point of time, the earning responsibility fell upon the ladies of the houses. This was during the period of World War II, the women started to discover their deep self-sustaining capacity. This helped them in attaining the authoritative positions both at home as well as business. The initial years undoubtedly were tough, and women started considering business as a serious profession. The challenge was that they were considered inferior in the business world.

This was between 1906 & 1919, the very first-ever women entrepreneur came up as an exemplary. Her actual name was Sarah Breedlove popularly known as Madam Walker. She changed the overall way on how the business-oriented and professional women were treated.

The overall trend of women from starting, growing & managing businesses have gained a lot of

prominence since that age. The overall skills, adaptability as well as knowledge in the business are major drivers for the ladies in undertaking the business ventures.

Several successful female entrepreneurs from different industries & various parts of the world have remarkable accomplishments. Their outstanding contribution & performance in the field of business has indeed set a great example for the other women. The overall attitude to accept the ladies as entrepreneurs & also granting them that desired equivalent status is not happening even in the present times.

This is true that the lady entrepreneurs are making some remarkable progress in the field of entrepreneurship but at the same time, this is also true that their achievements are not accomplished without glitches. The several extensive studies identify that the funding, as well as the family support, are coming up as the major hurdles for the women entrepreneurs.

Here is a list of the top five challenges which are being faced by the women entrepreneurs.

1. Domination by male in the workplace: Most of the industries are usually male dominated & thus it is quite difficult for women to earn their desired respect. This has been noticed that women also face challenges in directing the males. The male professionals also lack the temperament of being directed by the women bosses. Male domination deprives women of achieving deserved success.

2. Social expectations: The women business entrepreneurs are always expected to maintain a very modest attitude towards business ethics. Aggression and competitiveness are being looked upon as being harsh whereas the standards are different for the male counterparts.

3. Issues related to funding: Raising the funds while starting a business becomes quite difficult for most of the women entrepreneurs. The investors resist investing in womenled ventures and startups as they don’t have enough confidence in the business skills of women. The women-led startups are most often perceived to be a failure in a very short run. Hence, the women entrepreneurs are often deprived of the large investments by the investors and thus it turns out to be very difficult for the women entrepreneurs to raise adequate capital for their venture.

4. Absence of proper support network: Business world, especially in India, is largely dominated by men even in the 21st century and thus it becomes tough for the women to crave their path & connect with the several high profile business networks. The majority of the women end up expressing a shortage of adequate support network and also the lesser advisory availability & mentors. This eventually retards their overall professional growth. This is where the modern-day plug and play offices come into the role. There are dedicated women entrepreneurs’ communities in the well-organized and state-ofart plug and play offices which acts as a support system for the women entrepreneurs and guide them to the right path.

5. Balancing the professional as well as personal life: The entrepreneurs always possess a goal of balancing their personal and professional life but most of the times it becomes challenging for the women entrepreneurs to sustain the business as well as maintaining their families. Under such circumstances, the women entrepreneurs require a lot of flexibilities in terms of work timings as well as the mode of operations. The modern-day plug and play offices or Coworking spaces provide them with all the desired flexibilities.

As women-owned businesses invariably continue to create a long-lasting impact across various major verticals in the vast business world in the present times, women entrepreneurship is expected to reach a new milestone and the serviced offices can play a major role in defining the success of the dynamic women entrepreneurs. With the right support from the various corners, 2019 is expected to be a glorious year and would certainly yield positive outputs for the women entrepreneurs.

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