Post-centenary celebrations of ‘International Women’s Day - small business owner and female-entrepreneurship writer, Olwen Dawe, wonders whether her colleagues’ experiences have changed? And what, if any, supports they feel are available to them.
It took me a while to realise I wanted to run my own business. In fact if I hadn’t finally been ousted from the world of employment as a result of my employers’ recessionary woes, I probably wouldn’t have taken the leap for quite some time yet. I’d always held massive regard [and indeed, still do] for friends and colleagues who showed the steely determination and pure confidence it took to start up in business on their own. The mere thought of it absolutely terrified me. Even after years of frustration and often, boredom, in the jobs I worked at, I remained where I was, paralysed by the fear of failure... or more importantly, the lack of a monthly pay-packet, and in essence, losing the sheer regularity of the employed life.
As the daughter of a most-entrepreneurial mother, the subject of women in business and entrepreneurship has always been close to my heart. Since joining the ranks of the self-employed, I find myself questioning the ‘glass ceiling’ more and more – not necessarily disagreeing with its existence entirely, but simply wondering if, betimes, we use it as a smokescreen for our own attitudinal or behavioural nuances?
At the Network Ireland International Women’s Day event on Friday 4th of March, Special Olympics M.D. [Europe and Eurasia], Mary Davis, referred to an Irish Times piece published that day, quoting some alarming statistics from Accenture survey ‘Reinventing Opportunity: Looking through a new Lens’. The survey hints, broadly, at a reticence amongst females to ask for promotion [despite a higher success rate, versus the opposite sex when they do] or seek pay increases – which in turn, points to dissatisfaction at work [due to lack of advancement].
Do we stymie our progress by virtue of our own foibles? It seems like we might ... afraid to ask for the advancement available to us... and at times imagining obstacles that may [but probably aren’t] in our way? Another International Women’s Day speaker [this time in Mayo] Susan Hayes, the Positive Economist, highlighted the many successful Irish and International businesswomen, of all walks, during her presentation – did they stand back and see what would come their way? Unlikely.
To satisfy my own curiosity, I collated a survey on the subject of ‘The Experience of Female Entrepreneurship’ in order to gauge the attitudinal temperature amongst the country’s female entrepreneurs. The profile of the women surveyed showed a professionally experienced group - 55% with over 10 years’ experience prior to starting up. 47% stated that they had ‘always wanted to’ work for themselves, 41% cited ‘point-in-time’ [e.g. another factor assisted in the decision], while 29% claimed the recession as their motivation. When asked their impression of the supports available through State bodies, respondents were somewhat polarised in their estimation: 44% citing inaccessible / irrelevant, 28% as helpful, 33% supportive and 28% useful. Comments also pointed to specific experiences being quite varied “unhelpful, condescending and arrogant... support structures and follow-up are not there... unsuccessful”. The supports requested by the group were: funding 87%, coaching/mentoring 67%, workshops 40% and training 33%.
Given the prevalence of ‘online’ in business marketing, it seems that female entrepreneurs are finding it hugely important in driving their business – with 81% stating that networking online/social media/ forums helped drive their business forward, followed by networking events / organisations 50%, private training 19%, and state funding just 6%. Interestingly, neither state training nor bank funding were credited with providing support to these businesswomen.
So, you may ask, what can we glean from this information? As a female entrepreneur, I am most proud to note the resourcefulness and tenacity of my colleagues, however in light of the constant commentary recently pertaining to the importance of small business [and, indeed, the female entrepreneur’s contribution to it], it is a concern that funding, support and accessibility remain an issue. Undoubtedly, the new government must work to ensure a clear, structured strategy for small business development is put in place to rectify this. As a realist, I know that this is not an overnight possibility – but at the very least, it should be feasible to research and respond accordingly, as opposed to offering short-termistic bandage-style solutions.
Putting on my employee hat again, with a sense of hindsight, I think I would have fallen into the statistics quoted in ‘Reinventing Opportunity: Looking through a new Lens’. Why? Perhaps self-belief or confidence? Or lack thereof. One thing’s for sure, based on the Grant Thornton’s research this week, a focus needs to be directed on women in employment generally – given that the global proportion of women in senior management has shown no growth – instead reverting to 2004 levels.
I find myself mulling over a quote by Moira Forbes “If you rewind a year, two years, pick a number in the past decade, doesn’t it feel like we’ve already had the very same conversations, quoting the very same bleak statistics, sharing the very same frustrations?". Yes, Moira, it does... now it’s time to take action to change it.
