Barriers Faced By Women in Starting a Business

 

Barriers Faced By Women in Starting a Business There is a substantial difference between between beliefs of men and women regarding the possession of ‘entrepreneurial capital’ that is, the skills, knowledge and experience to begin a new firm. Initial levels of capitalization are strong indicators of the future performance of a new firm. Thus, where the owner has high levels of human capital (education, managerial experience), social capital (extensive networks) and financial capital (income, savings, collateral) the venture is more likely to succeed. Entrepreneuriall capital is largely accrued from either previous Entrepreneuria employment (before becoming self-employed) or prior business ownership. Evidence suggests that women begin their firms with lower levels of both human and financial capital and this relates to their experiences of employment and serial entrepreneurship entrepreneurship. . Women have high levels of human capital in terms of educational attainment but this is still not translated into an equitable share of senior management roles. This affects women’s access to networks and, crucially, constrains the accrual of financial capital and associated collateral. Essentially, women enter business ownership with lower levels of entrepreneurial capital capital overall which in turn, affects the sustainability of the enterprise. Such factors, combined with a lower level of engagement with business ownership and an absence of relevant role models combine to suggest that women, as a population population,, have lower self-confidence to move into entrepreneurship. entrepreneursh ip. Women are less likely to personally know someone who has recently started a new firm given there are fewer women overall in the business population.