This is the path that an entrepreneurial woman has to travel

September
2, 2021

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

^{Dafne Navarro Miranda / Leader of Communication, Public Relations and Content / Great Place to Work® Mexico.}

Deborah ends her workday at 8 pm. He has attended the many scheduled meetings, answered dozens of emails and resolved the pending issues that he had to finalize. She feels exhausted but the illusion recharges her with energy. He opens a new Zoom meeting and connects with Cecilia and Verónica to continue building his business plan.

The enterprising woman finds the time and space to develop her projects, maintaining responsibility for her home, perhaps for her children if she has them, her partner or a pet.

Deborah is a single woman in her mid-forties and directs a strategic area in the organization where she works, Cecilia is a single mother and Human Resources consultant, she is also a dance teacher, Verónica is a 30-year-old woman who works on her own As an educator and workshop worker, she loves painting.

• Read: The 5 wounds you need to heal to spread your wings in business

All three, like many women who are entrepreneurs, are finding themselves with the challenge of combining their jobs, family responsibilities, their personal life and the desire to undertake.

Of the almost 4 million women in the country, according to INEGI figures, 19% are entrepreneurs. Of that total, 53% are single, 49% are between 18 and 34 years old, and 41% are between 35 and 54 years old.

The biggest challenge facing Deborah, Cecilia and Verónica is the gender gap in business and the inclusion of women in entrepreneurship.

Reconciliation of work and family life

Women dedicate an average of 4.29 hours to the home and their family, surpassing men in 1.12 hours. However, in paid work women occupy 6.43 hours in contrast to men who employ 7.55 hours a day.

The woman gives up activities such as hobbies, meetings, sports, the media and social life, to be able to attend to work and her family.

Family burdens and responsibilities represent an obstacle to the full incorporation of women into the entrepreneurial market. The female dedication is double that of the male, 2.06 hours a day in them and 3.84 in them.

The feminization of economic sectors

The stereotypes generate that the destiny of the woman who undertakes shops in the fashion, perfumery, aesthetics, art and creativity trade; while man is oriented more by production, transport, construction and technologies.

Women’s personality factors (advantages)

1. They are more determined, tenacious and constant when setting up a business
2. Fighters and are willing to do all kinds of jobs
3. They better manage businesses and comply with their payments in a timely manner, which is why they enjoy more guarantees in economic support
4. They have been educated more in a culture of order, of aesthetics
5. They are geared more to competitiveness than efficiency
6. They optimize their time and do things in the best possible way
7. They work harder for results
8. In hiring they prefer women because they are perceived as more active, serious and organized to do the job
9. They value personal treatment, which is softer and the capacity for social communication
10. They are predisposed to help, since they are perceived as more generous.

Main obstacles to entrepreneurship

Both men and women encounter three main obstacles when undertaking entrepreneurship, which are:

• Access to financing
• Access to networks of contacts or mentors
• Lack of preparation and knowledge in the matter.

Women assume the existence of a lack of confidence to take risks, and for men it is the availability of time.

The self-perception of women entrepreneurs

They identify themselves as people, they do not restrict themselves to being just businesswomen or mothers; because they have multiple facets of mother, friend, wife, daughter, entrepreneur … and they try to keep their personal life in balance.

They have an awareness that their dedication should be focused on their business and sharing other vital priorities in their personal and family trajectories.

Women join entrepreneurship to obtain a better quality of life, and due to the need to generate two incomes for their home. Entrepreneurs are not so valued, since due to their dedication to their project, they must abandon a part of their reproductive role. Likewise, high dedication to entrepreneurship is not accepted to the same extent as men, since this is associated with the “abandonment” of household activities and family care.

• You may be interested: The Neni Academy is launched to train 200 women for free

As I finish this text, Deborah, Cecilia and Verónica have inaugurated their business and started operations with a tumult of challenges that awaits them. They are united and entrenched in order with their own resources to make their entrepreneurship another one of those success stories that is talked about so much.