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The 21st Century Challenges Among Women Entrepreneurs: Revisiting the

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RESEARCH ARTICLE Adv. Sci. Lett. 23(8), 7845-7848, 2017

Copyright © 2017 American Scientific Publishers Advanced Science Letters Vol. 23 (8)
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

The 21st Century Challenges Among Women

Entrepreneurs: Revisiting the Literature
*Azizan Zainuddin, Jasmine Ahmad, Fadilah Puteh, Suseela Devi Chandran,
Aliza Abu Hassim, Tuan Nooriani Tuan Ismail

Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Malaysia

The aim of this paper is to revisit the literatures on women entrepreneurship and the challenges they faced. Though women are
making significant progress in entrepreneurship, their achievements are not without glitches. Most studies identify funding and
family support as the main hurdles faced by women entrepreneurs. By using the meta-analysis of the past literatures this paper
summarizes studies conducted on women entrepreneurs from the late 1980s until present. The 21 st century poses more
challenges in several aspects namely technology, globalization and the influence of social media. Thus this paper suggest for
future research to consider these factors to signify its causal relationship in women entrepreneur.
Keywords: Women Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Literature Review, Challenges.

1. INTRODUCTION The Malaysian Government has always encouraged

The current development and changes in the world
shows that women are currently making notable
contribution towards the wealth of the country. Forbes
reports that they are becoming more entrepreneurial,
owning more than 36% of all businesses in 2012 [35]. This
was a tremendous jump from year 2007. The Global
Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) reported that there are
126 million women starting or running businesses. Among
them 98 million operating established (over three and a
half years) businesses. That’s how women entrepreneur are
impacting the global economy [37].
The development of women entrepreneurs globally is
echoed in Malaysia. The numbers of women entrepreneurs
in Malaysia are growing and they contribute in promoting
the economics and job opportunities [24]. Society no
longer expect women to stay home, instead dealing with
women entrepreneurs are normal.
*
Email Address: azizan_zainuddin@salam.uitm.edu.my
entrepreneurship. Numerous policies and programs are
designed to encourage the involvement of Malaysian in
business, especially the involvement of women and youths
in entrepreneurship. The initiatives include
entrepreneurship programs, physical infrastructure and
business advisory support.
The government is also building the entrepreneurial
ecosystem to facilitate the conditions that encourage
people to work together and foster economy prosperity and
wealth creation. One entity that play important role in
encouraging and supporting women entrepreneurship is the
Ministry of Women, Family and Community
Development.
Though women are making significant progress in
entrepreneurship, their achievements are not without
glitches. Most studies identify funding and family support
as the main hurdles faced by women entrepreneurs. This
paper embarks on revisiting the literatures on women
entrepreneurship and the challenges they faced. The focus
of the paper is on the challenges faced in the 20th century
where technology plays an important role.
Adv. Sci. Lett. 23(8), 7854-7848, 2017
2. PAST LITERATURE ON WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURS
The study of entrepreneurship in general had begun in
the 1930s, and most of the preliminary studies on the
entrepreneurship assumed that the needs of men and
women are homogenous and there are non-initiatives have
been taken to explore the divergences among them in this
field [39], [5], [9].
During this era, women are not seen as a development
partner but more capable with their routine tasks which are
to take care of children and family [23], [12], [10]. This
situation has contrary to the feminist’s perspective
mentioning that men and women are essentially having a
same capacity to contribute and to think rationally [1].
This stereotyping perspective later has led to the
negligible untouched issues such as the challenges towards
the development of women in entrepreneurship. Past
studies agreed that women had played an important role in
entrepreneurship since it has offered a great opportunity to
women in challenging themselves in the field that have
been dominated by men previously [38],[16].
However, in the late 1980s until 2000, this
phenomenon has demonstrated changes when the issue on
women challenges in entrepreneurship began to be given
an attention by the researchers [1]. In conjunction with
those changes, amidst of challenges that have been
highlighted by researchers during this period can be
identified in Table 1.
Table 1: Analysis of literatures on women challenges in
entrepreneurship in late 1980s until 2000
Author/Year Challenges
Birley Lacked of basic commercial networks and the
(1988) underestimation perspective towards women
[7] capabilities in entrepreneurial activity by
society.
Brush Differences in the aspect of education, work
(1992) [8] experience, skills, and approach compared to
their male counterpart
Masters & Women been identified as conservative when
Meier made a decision compared to men more risk
(1988) [29] taker.
Nelson Current family member influenced women in
(1987) [33] term of providing information to start their
business.
Fischer et Women accessibility of business resources
al. (1993) have been discriminated
[18]
Baker et al. Women businesses are mostly small and been
(1997) [5] identified as insignificant to the society
Gundry et Industry, family and goal oriented give an
al. (2002) high impact towards women involvement in
[21] entrepreneurship
Gundry & Knowledge as a supporting factor in
Welsch expanding their business ambitions
(2001) [20]
The above analysis found that during 1980s until year
RESEARCH ARTICLE
2000 the most challenges dimension that have been faced
by the women entrepreneur are very much related with the
discrimination actions displayed by the society especially
in giving them opportunity and encouragement in
exploring the entrepreneurship field.
As we know that in this period, the achievements of
women in education are quite limited and since then the
entrepreneurial sector has been widely dominated by men.
Lack of main resources such as knowledge, skills and
support either from the authorized agencies or family
institutions, have created barriers in advancing women in
this field.
In the next section of this paper, further discussion on
the present challenges faced by the women entrepreneurs
are highlighted.
3. PRESENT CHALLENGES FACED BY WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURS
The 21st century is very much shaped by technology and
innovations. Hence, to become a successful entrepreneur
in this century, one must be competent in the use of
technology, be innovative, and be global. Kuratko [27]
mentioned that the words used to describe the 21st century
are dream, create, explore, invent, pioneer and imagine.
The irony is that these words are applicable for all
entrepreneurs, regardless men or women. However, for
women entrepreneurs the challenges are much greater in
the 21st century as they are faced with different issues
besides the technology and innovation. Among those are
financial resources, social environment issues, gender
issues, inadequate skill training and access to information,
and others.
Besides the above challenges, there are many other
obstacles faced by women entrepreneurs that can be
confined to different regions and cultures. Among those are
work-family related issues, women’s safety and gender
bias industries, societal pressure, stereotype perception on
women’s role. Each of these factors can be discussed
lengthily in a different paper. Although women
entrepreneurs significantly contribute to the success of an
economy in various nations of the world, the challenges
definitely hinder their entrepreneurial progress. The
analyses of the challenges based on common themes are
presented in Table 2.
Table 2: Analysis of literatures on women challenges in the 21st
century
Author/Year Present Challenges
Dionco-Adetayo et al. Women faced with limited access
(2005) [15]; to financial resources.
Halkias et al. (2011)
[22];
Kinyanjui (2006) [26];
Goyal & Parkash (2011)
[19];
Mwobobia (2012 [32]
Chinomona & Maziri Women are confronted with lack
(2015) [11]; Goyal & of knowledge and access to
RESEARCH ARTICLE Adv. Sci. Lett. 23(8), 7845-7848, 2017

Parkash (2011) [19]; knowledge, lack of business and services innovations, weak networking and advocating,
Kinyanjui (2006) [26]; acumen. financial constraints, insufficient means and opportunities
Mwobobia (2012) [32] of advancing skills and talents and absent of role-model
Commonwealth Women are faced with gender (see [22], [11], [19], [6]) are among the crucial issues that
Secretariat (2002) [13]; discrimination and gender impedes women entrepreneurs.
Dionco-Adetayo, et al. stereotyping.
Further meta-data analysis on women entrepreneurs’
(2005) [15];
Goyal & Parkash (2011) literature revealed several similarities and differences in
[19] terms of challenges. Studies in the late 1980s until present
Goyal & Parkash (2011) Women encounter lack of family years found that women entrepreneurs are still having
[19]; Zororo (2011) support, juggling between work difficulties in terms of gender-role stereotyping,
[40]; Ahmad et al. and family, and complexity of complexity of roles, juggling between work and family,
(2011) [2]; Halkias et various roles. weak networking and advocating, lack of business
al. (2011) [22]; knowledge as well as limited access to resources. For
Commonwealth instance, a study by Hampton et al. [3] found that
Secretariat (2002) [13]; networking and advocacy remain significant challenges
Halkias et al. (2011) Social pressure from the society among women entrepreneurs. Hence, these limitations
[22]; Goyal & Parkash was identified as another challenge
affect the dynamic and quality of women entrepreneurs.
(2011) [19]; Mauchi et towards women entrepreneurs.
al. (2014) [30] Despite the existing and on-going challenges, women
Athanne (2011) [4]; Women faced tough challenges in entrepreneurs are also facing new forms of challenges.
Ahmad et al. (2011) [2] terms of red-tapes and Recent development shows that businesses around the
bureaucracies globe also facing intense challenges in terms of
Goyal & Parkash (2011) Other challenges faced by women globalization (read [31], [28]), the influence of technology
[19] entrepreneurs includes (read [34]) as well the popularity of social media (read [17],
economically not stable/ not self- [25]) to name a few. These have chartered the new wave of
dependent; high production cost of revolution in doing businesses.
some business operations; lack of Having these new forms of challenges in mind, this paper
availability/access towards: suggests that future research should integrate these factors
technology, training, innovative
schemes, concessions, alternative
in order to develop a practical framework.
markets; lack of self-confidence, Current literature on these prominent challenges are
will-power, strong mental outlook, also limited particularly in the Malaysian context in which
fear from committing mistakes number of women entrepreneurs are still consider small
relatively compared to male who are mainly dominated the
4. DISCUSSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR business sector. An-in-depth analysis via qualitative study
FUTURE RESEARCH should also be conducted for future research to further
understand as well as to gauge the root cause of the
This section discusses on the literature gap with problems. How these problems refrain women
respect to women entrepreneurs followed by suggestions entrepreneurs from advancement in business need to be
for future research. As highlighted in the previous sections, further explored to provide substantial evident before
it is important to note that literature on entrepreneurs concrete remedies or framework could be proposed. The
assumes homogeneous needs between genders. importance of “why” questions must be addressed wisely
Nonetheless, between 1980s until early 2000s, there are to better understand these challenges.
several key challenges of women involvement in
entrepreneurship namely gender-role stereotyping, lack of 5. CONCLUSIONS
networking and support, social and cultural differences,
limited access to resources, lack of business knowledge The days where women are only recognized as the
and merely confined in small business scale (see [7], [8], house makers were outdated and irrelevant. Countries
[29], [33], [18], [5], [14], [36]). This era remarks around the world are showing similar trend where women
discriminations and barriers against women entrepreneurs out numbered the men in education. It is also observed that
in various fields. many women become entrepreneurs in various fields. In
Literature of post 2000s shows more intriguing Malaysia, the young women entrepreneurs are engaging in
challenges. Several scholars highlighted that the 21st online business. This is the initial steps needed to enable
century is the great hallmark for women entrepreneurs. them having their own enterprise. Those who are involved
Women entrepreneurs have advancing successfully in their in the online businesses are using the technology and are
quest for greater height in this male dominant discipline. very much technology savvy. The social media is widely
As highlighted by several scholars, the 21st century poses used to its best benefit for promoting their available
more profound challenges to women entrepreneurs. products and services.
Advancement of technology that drives intense product The current environment especially in Malaysia is
Adv. Sci. Lett. 23(8), 7854-7848, 2017
working towards the benefit of the women entrepreneurs.
The focus on entrepreneurship is given close attention at
all level of education institutions namely at the primary
school, secondary school as well as at the tertiary
institutions such as public and private universities. Policies,
supporting agencies, micro finance and even the consumer
are welcoming the change in the role of women and given
them high recognition as significant partners or key players
of economic contributions. It is time that challenges are
viewed as opportunities for the women entrepreneur.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research is supported by RMC, UiTM Shah Alam
under MOHE FRGS research grant 600-IRMI/FRGS 5/3
(43/2016).
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