THE WOMAN ENTREPRENEUR

Women constitute more than half of the nation's labor force. Although the greatest percentage of female workers is still concentrated in the traditional fields of teaching, nursing, sales, service, and clerical work, the federal government's role in requiring and monitoring affirmative hiring plans has resulted in the movement of women-albeit at a slow rate-into non-traditional areas. Women are now pursuing careers, for example, in aeronautical engineering, sportscasting, trade unionism, and business.

Nature and types of woman-owned businesses

Acknowledgment of their potential for substantial contributions to the United States economy followed the analysis of a special section on women in business in the 1970 U.S. Census. An insufficiency of information on the social and economic characteristics of the woman entrepreneur resulted, in 1977, in a presidential mandate which created the Interagency Task Force on Women Business Owners.

The focus of the Task Force centered on the problems of the woman entrepreneur within the small business (i.e., a firm with fewer firm with fewer than ten stockholders) sector since this is where most womenowned businesses are concentrated. To eliminate the possibility of confusion and/or equivocation, the Task Force developed a working definition of a woman-owned business as one which is at least 51 percent owned, controlled, and operated by a woman

or women.

Margaret Anderchild/Amazon

The only available statistics on women-owned businesses date from the 1972 Survey of WomenOwned Businesses by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. In comparison with all large and small U.S. business firms, women-owned businesses accounted for only 4.6 percent of the total. More striking, however, is the fact that the receipts of women-owned businesses of $8.1 billion represented only 0.3 percent of all large and small business receipts.

The Bureau of Census survey revealed that women-owned businesses were concentrated in laborintensive industries that require low capitalization and tend to show a lower return on investment. The 1972 data also showed that 98 percent of the firms were sole proprietorships, and that sole proprietorships accounted for 89 percent of gross receipts. Only 13 percent of the firms had salaried employees.

The woman entrepreneur and her business—A profile

The Interagency Task Force on Women-Owned Business examined available demographic data. The data revealed that in 1975 the typical self-employed

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woman was more than 40 years of age; her business was likely to be in the retail or service fields, and white collar in nature. That her annual income averaged about one-third that of her male counterpart is attributable to the fact that her labor-intensive operation tends to show a lower return on investment.

In order to generate additional socio-economic data on women business owners, the Task Force surveyed approximately 3,200 professional women. Demographically, the respondents were evenly distributed throughout the United States. Racially, eighty-one percent of the women business owners were Caucasian. Fifty-eight percent were married with families, while eighteen percent were divorced. The relationship between work experience and entrepreneurship appeared greater than the relationship between education and entrepreneurship. The majority of the survey respondents indicated that they had been in the work force for several years prior to becoming self-employed. Their businesses had been recently established and were created through individual initiative rather than through inheritance or partnership.

Relative to educational background, only three percent of the respondents had undergraduate degrees in business administration; one percent had earned the M.A. in the field. Those women who had completed one to four years of college constituted approximately 46 percent of the total surveyed, while 22.4 percent had obtained only a high school diploma. Consequently, factors other than academic training in business administration or economics are related to the emergence of the woman entrepreneur.

The American Management Association (AMA) survey, conducted concurrently with the study of the Interagency Task Force on Women-Owned Business, provided additional insight into the nature of the successful self-employed woman: she "comes from a close, supportive, family, exhibits a strong entrepreneurial drive, is persistent in her approach to work-related tasks, and has an uncanny ability to redirect negative situations and attitudes to her advantage."

Analysis of responses from both the AMA study and the Task Force inquiry revealed that women business owners are motivated by the same factors that drive men, i.e., the desire for independence and money, and the utilization of a skill or talent.

Barriers to the success of the woman entrepreneur, and suggested remedies

Results of both the Task Force study and the American Management Association survey show that the impediments faced by women business owners are legion: i.e., educational deficiencies, unavailability of financing, lack of management training and technical assistance programs, negative sex stereotyping, and discrimination.

The Task Force found that at all levels of the educational system, barriers to successful female entrepreneurship are encountered. Educators continue to exhibit sexist attitudes which perpetuate stereotypes. Non-traditional ambitions and career options are stifled by counselors who avoid discussing them or who explain them in the context of their being excessively demanding or unfeminine. Moreover, women are generally encouraged to select courses of study which are deficient with regard to the fundamentals of business tions-mathematics, accounting, finance, and marketing. Finally, the absence in text and occupation alike of female role models and female mentors in non-traditional roles serves, by default, to reinforce traditional occupational patterns.

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In the financial community, entrepreneurial women find their ambition thwarted by factors beyond their control. Due to educational discrimination, they are less well-prepared than men to deal

with business techniques and the intricacies of development financing. Not to be discounted, either, is the historical predisposition of men in the business and financial communities to disdain, rather than support, the woman entrepreneur. Lastly, the selfemployed woman is more likely to encounter the traditional bias of financial institutions which prefer to conduct business with large firms rather than small ones in that they tend to be less risky and more profitable.

Federally-sponsored assistance programs are supposedly available to all protected classes. Although women entrepreneurs constitute a small percentage of the self-employed population in the United States, their eligibility for special assistance programs has brought on substantial opposition from the wellorganized, minority male entrepreneurial lobby. This group views the inclusion of women business owners in such programs as jeopardizing their constituents' access to an already-limited resource.

It would be most advantageous for protected classes to lobby together as a body to pressure the government for additional aid and technical assistance. Due to to historical occupational divisiveness between the sexes in the United States, however, minority males tend to share the bias of the male majority against female entrepreneurs. The accelerated growth and success of women-owned businesses will be encouraged only through the active and vocal support of all concerned women. Those. women who at present fail to recognize the need for and the importance of their support must be sensitized to this fact. As support is mobilized, and effectively directed, it is reasonable to expect that institutional impediments to the growth and development of the woman-owned business will be diminished. Ultimately, however, the eradication of sexism and discrimination in society will occur only when those institutions which control socialization-education, media, and government—make that commitment.

Marnie Sweet has an M. A. in Urban Studies and is on the staff of the Department of Planning and Urban Development, Akron, Ohio.

Much of the content of this article was based on The Bottom Line: Equal Enterprise in America: Report of the President's Interagency Task Force on Women Business Owners, Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C., 1978.

Careers in Broadcasting

To help women become aware of the variety of career options available in the broadcasting industry, a new booklet entitled “Women on the Job: Careers in Broadcasting" has been published by the American Women in Radio and Television in conjunction with the Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor.

Aimed primarily at high school and college students, the booklet describes jobs in television, radio and other places where audio and visual systems are used, such as hospital audiovisual centers and commercial film production houses.

The career booklet includes some general information about employment opportunities, job descriptions for various occupations in the industry, and a list of colleges and universities that offer courses, programs, or degrees in broadcasting or broadcasting administration.

Single copies of "Women on the Job: Careers in Broadcasting" are available free of charge from the Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C. 20210, and American Women in Radio and Television, 1321 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.

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