Women in Business Challenges

It has been imperially discovered that women have fewer chances to excel in business than men. Today, it remains clearly visible that men and women maintain diverse social roles (Risman 1). Such social phenomenon is known to be caused by the following issues: stereotype threat, gender blindness, the qualitative difference in wealth escalator and debt anchor between men and women and historical attribution of the entrepreneurship as a ‘man’s domain’. Current paper will discuss the above-stated explanations and present relevant recommendations that would help enhance female’s participation in business.

The stereotype threat is the notion that is used to describe one’s declined performance, caused by the conditions when a person experiences concerns regarding being negatively viewed and assessed (Sandberg 22). The attribution of certain individuals to a particular group in accordance with their gender, race, social status and other characteristics, automatically creates better possibilities for the positively stereotyped group. It may greatly complicate the whole matter. Simply put, in terms of gender unequally, females are inclined to experience the stereotype threat of being inferior comparing to males; meanwhile, males gain an advantage in a form of approval. For instance, the example of the stereotype threat is woman’s low self-esteem if she is implied that men tend to outperform her. To avoid negative impact of the stereotype threat, it is appropriate to eliminate the relevant preconditions in the interpersonal relations of a child’s role models. Furthermore, it is recommended to eliminate the situations that may cause female’s stereotype threat during the process of education and while socializing. Finally, woman should remember that they are capable to become more successful in all spheres, including entrepreneurship if they learn the proper ways to eliminate the fears.

The osculating issue is known to emerge as a result of the gender blindness. Consider the case, whereas the gender blindness presumes the equity for both genders, the excessive social emphasize on fair attitude towards both genders may cause the opposite reaction. Patricia Lewis assumes that endeavoring to maintain the gender blindness females “appears to be trying to avoid being marked and symbolically constructed as ‘the other’” (458). In other words, under such conditions women are implicitly encouraged to constantly evaluate their performance. Naturally, it creates the permanent pressure that may lead to the stereotype threat or become the reason of distress and depression. Without doubt, it complicates females’ performance and discourages some of them from obtaining the leading positions. Therefore, to avoid the occurrence of unsatisfactory and/or conflicting situation, it is strictly recommended for every individual to develop equal attitude towards both genders. Specifically, all female entrepreneurs should learn to treat equally their male and female colleagues and competitors.

Another factor that is used to explain the smaller amount of women in a business sphere is the qualitative difference in wealth escalator and debt anchor. In particular, it is known that “the gender income ratio for women working full-time is 78%” (Lin Chang 38). Such statistics implies that men have better possibilities to escalate their wealth than women. Besides, the male workers tend to proceed in their careers faster than their female counterparts. Consequently, it is appropriate to state that the modern society still creates better conditions for men’s wealth escalator. Such term is utilized to describe “financial benefits that fall to some—but not all—in our society” (Lin Chang 40). Given current definition, the term itself refers to the unequal opportunities for men and women. The other thing that complicates the matter is that women are reported to have greater debt anchors. It occurs due to several reasons. Firstly, the notion of gender discrimination remains present in all fields of loans, mortgages and other types of lending. As a result, “women are less likely than men to attain housing wealth or to build it as quickly, because of the cumulative disadvantage of higher interest rates of their mortgages” (Lin Chang 54). Unfortunately, the situation with the education debts is similar and displays considerable financial disadvantage for women. Moreover, the correlation of females and males credit card debts reveals that approximately half of women have such type of debt anchor, whereas, only 38 % of men report the similar financial conditions. It occurs mostly because women are doomed to pay higher interest rates than men. Given the above-stated social mechanisms, which increase financial unequally between genders, females are advised to acknowledge the mechanisms, which can enhance and, vice versa, impede the wealth (Lin Chang 58).

Moreover, it is explained that the entrepreneurship is historically attributed as a ‘man’s domain’. Therefore, women entrepreneurship is poorly studied (Sandberg 615). The lack of knowledge leads to the premise that there is no difference in approaches utilized by men and women, while they strive to develop their businesses. The exploration of women’s entrepreneurship is poorly funded; besides, it lacks legitimacy and institutional assistance (Sandberg 615). Taking into account such explanations, it is necessary to elaborate strong institutional support of studying the females’ entrepreneurship.

Making conclusion regarding the above-mentioned facts, it is appropriate to state that there exist four major factors that stipulate the phenomena of women being less successful in business as compared to men. Specifically, the causes are the stereotype threat, the female’s endeavor to maintain gender blindness, different mechanisms of wealth escalator and debt anchor, which set unequal gender possibilities for financial prosperity, and the understudied female’s entrepreneurship. It is recommended for women to adopt the mechanisms that can reduce the stereotype threat and lessen the burden created by the gender blindness. Moreover, it is necessary to develop and fund the survey of woman’s businesses on a state level. Furthermore, it is recommended to lessen the gaps between male/female debt anchor and wealth acceleration. Finally, the society should learn to create equal possibilities for both genders in all life spheres.