International Bulletin - Fall 1997
Women Entrepreneurs: Challenges & Opportunities in the 21st Century
A two day workshop on women entrepreneurs was held in Kuala Lumpur recently for some 105 participants from 26 counties in the Pacific rim. It was hosted by the Malaysian Chapter of the Pan Pacific Southeast Asian Womens Association, which is the longest established women's organization in the world. The main theme of the workshop was to promote self-reliance and motivate participants towards economic independence while identifying constraints faced by women.
The pre-conference workshop on Women Entrepreneurs brought together women leaders in business, in corporations, in the public sector and in the community. Representatives from 26 countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia region were in attendance. The framework of the workshop focused on presentations by 10 Malaysian panelists who showcased their experiences in specific types of businesses. As well, 26 countries presented demographic profiles of their countries, linking this information to business opportunities available in their countries. Participants joined forces together and planned integrated systems for the future. More importantly it established friendships where mutual trust was reaffirmed. Unlike in the past, where business often is known for cut throat competition, we talked about partnerships and win-win situations.
At a time when goods, capital, people and services are supposed to move freely across international borders, the organizers could not think of a better way than having a forum to articulate concerns and know how, and to share the vision of "Excellence in entrepreneurship with a strong commitment towards improving the quality of life in the family and society."
In the past the Pan Pacific Southeast Women's Association has concentrated primarily on social and health issues, which are of course important, but we must now move on to the next level, to effect a greater fulfilment which benefits not only the individual but the family, community and indeed the nation.
After 3 decades on women's advancement, culminating in the 1995 4th World Conference on women in Beijing, our quest remains that of investing in women's capabilities and empowering them to contribute to economic development.
Women are starting businesses twice as fast as men world wide. Emerging opportunities are evident for women in society. There are career, entrepreneurial and leadership opportunities for women in advanced countries in the Asia-Pacific communities, in Mainland China, in Southeast Asia and South Asian countries.
In Canada, one third of small businesses are owned by women. In Britain, since 1980 the number of self employed women has increased 3 times as fast as men.
In Southeast Asia, women are making up more than 40% of the workforce, starting up businesses at twice the rate of men.
In China today, there are already 20 million private entrepreneurs and 25% of the entrepreneurs in China are women and they too are starting up businesses at twice the rate of men.
As we enter the next millennium, the role of women in the socio-economic system is increasingly more assertive and important, spurred on by growing spending consumer power. With two thirds of the world's wealth in the Pacific Rim, the Asia Pacific region beckons to the entrepreneurs to show them their wares. It is a 3 trillion dollar market, with 1.6 billion consumers. The emergence of women in society is witnessed in many Asian communities. In Japan where there are 19.2 million women, 4.3 million of whom are employed. Out of 5 million households in Taiwan, the female homemaker has at her disposal an annual income of $20,000, a total of 100 billion in purchasing power. In South Asian countries, Muslim women are becoming more assertive and have boldly ventured in business, playing an active role in the economic development of their countries.
Although the future looks bright, there are still challenges that need to be addressed. According to the 1996 Human Development Report of the U.N. women still "lack access to productive assets, land and capital" In 1990 multilateral banks allocated about $6 billion for rural credit to developing countries but only 5% reached women. Commercial banks are still reluctant to extend loans to women because of perceived likelihood of repayment and the cost of administering many small loans.
It is well known that competitiveness in the 21st century will rest largely on how we can access information to use for one's business. Therefore, education and training in the new skills of information technology will be a pre-requisite.
The glass ceiling syndrome, real and imagined, could be broken when women have faith in themselves. In order to overcome the traditional biases and prejudices towards women entrepreneurs, we could create management and leadership styles based on experiences and intuition. Managing employees in the workplace is not the prerogative of men alone as long as we value human resource. Developing a deep bench of talent and making technology work will therefore be a critical component of entrepreneur development.
Thus in the new millennium the challenge is to set the stage, to learn to coach employees, to inspire, to gain commitment, to set examples of excellence and to believe in good ethics for business. These internal tasks must be organized first, then only can they join with the business arena with market-sensitive awareness and keep the global perspective in place. Therefore when we enter the new information age, women will be on a level playing field with men. The emergence of women in business is not coincidental but evolutionary. Small and medium industry represent vital links to the economic backbone of the country.
The world is free to trade and the players are invited to play with all the forces reinforcing each other to shape economic growth as never before in the history of man.
The goals of the conference was to establish an entrepreneur network which forms a consortium to help participants build up businesses and then to trade internationally among themselves.
Among the projects that are in the works, is a collective economic action for women. The globalization of the world's economy has created an awareness of the marginal economic situation in which many women live today. There are countries that are still fighting for human rights for women. There is a worldwide effort through the PPSEAWA organization through chapter involvement worldwide to identify innovative women's grassroots economic projects that are functioning successfully in their own environments. Of particular interest are self-help projects that might be applied to other countries or situations. The purpose of the information bank would be: (1) to help women to globally communicate and exchange ideas, and (2) to produce a women's economic project resource book.
Examples of such projects are:
(1) The bank in Bangladesh that provides micro lending assistance to women who operate their own businesses.
(2) SEWA- the women's union in India.
(3) Common Threads- a support group for sweatshop workers in Los Angeles.
Any description of a project that you know about that is operating successfully in the Pacific Rim region is welcome.
Last Modified: November 29, 2002