Female entrepreneurship: breaking down barriers around work-life balance, digitisation, and financing
“Without racial, cultural and gender diversity, there is no innovation or progress.”
—BBVA Bank
August 20, 2021
The gist:The standard obstacles: lack of role models, stereotypes, difficulties accessing funding, are still the main talking points cited when discussing the hurdles that stop more women from launching businesses. In addition, this article puts a finer end on what happens 'on the ground':
women entrepreneurs launch businesses out of necessity, more than men, without the education or entourage of support they need
as employees, women are assembled in, for example, the service sector, and therefore lack exposure to other markets and the pipelines to enter them successfully
there is a historical (to date) digital skills divide, while digital entrepreneurship is becoming the primary driver of value creation in the economy
women lack the assets that can serve as guarantees for financing
What will help to make "entrepreneurial opportunities more egalitarian?"
baking work-life balance into work life, which addresses explicitly women's lived experiences as breadwinners and heads of households
innovating and normalizing new business/digital models that require less entry capital
creating female-centric financial products that specifically address women's position in society
The Stats:
increasing women's purchasing power leads directly to more robust local economies because they invest a higher percentage of their income than men do in their communities
Entrepreneurship is also a way of supporting women in vulnerable situations and can significantly improve their families' economic prospects, according to America's Quarterly magazine.
the Women's Entrepreneurship Report 2019 indicates that companies with leading women work with more consistent business plans
"It's not that women are risk averse, we measure it better; we are more inclined to save money and have our feet more firmly planted on the ground.” And, “during the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, BBVA found that it was not women who were failing to pay their debts.
—BBVA's Director of Legal Strategy and Development, Karla Valenzuela
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