Preface
Within the International Labour Organization's core mandate for the promotion of social justice, the protection of women workers and the promotion of equality between men and women in employment have been areas of longstanding concern. Although the principle of equality of opportunity and treatment between men and women at work is widely accepted in most countries in the world, in practice inequalities persist on a global basis.
The overall strategy of the ILO is to ensure that gender issues and equality concerns are integrated across the board within its programme and project objectives and activities, and are reflected in the various means of action (standard setting, research, meetings, information dissemination and technical cooperation).
This strategy is based on the recognition that women's equal participation is essential to the achievement of all major development objectives - sustainable development, eradication of poverty, human rights and democracy. The ILO and its constituents are fully aware that there is still much to be done to ensure that the mainstreaming of gender concerns takes place effectively in day-to-day work. Therefore, a gender training programme for ILO staff and constituents is currently being implemented. The purpose of the programme is to strengthen the capacity of ILO and its member States in dealing effectively with equality for women at work.
The following materials have been developed for the gender training programme:
The Office of the Special Adviser on Women Workers' Questions has decided to print the following selection of the briefing notes to introduce the training and information materials developed on Gender Issues in the World of Work to the public:
- Gender issues in poverty alleviation and employment promotion
- Gender issues in labour legislation, labour management relations and remuneration
- Gender issues and international labour standards
- Gender issues in conditions of work and welfare facilities
- Gender issues in occupational safety and health
- Gender issues in micro-enterprise development
- Gender issues in training and employment of people with disabilities
- Gender issues in social security
- Gender issues in labour market policies
The present briefing note on Gender issues in micro-enterprise development was prepared by Josiane Capt, Focal Point on Women and Gender Questions in the Entrepreneurship and Management Development Branch of the ILO. This note is based on research and technical cooperation activities undertaken by the ILO for the last two decades, mainly in developing countries. However, in view of the globalization process, many developed countries and countries in transition are now interested in the issues raised in this note, as could be observed in such international arenas as the First Enterprise Forum, organised by the ILO in November 1996, or the OECD Conference on Women Entrepreneurs in Small and Medium Enterprises that took place in Paris in 1997.
This briefing note was first published in 1995, on the occasion of the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women. It was subsequently updated to take into account the latest developments in the ILO, mainly the launching of the More and Better Jobs for Women programme, in 1997, and the International Small Enterprise Programme (ISEP), in June 1998.
For more information on the ILO Gender Training Programme, or the Training Package and Briefing Kit on Gender Issues in the World of Work, please contact:
The Special Adviser on Women Workers' Questions
International Labour Office
4, route des Morillons
CH - 1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland
Fax: +41 22 798.86.85
E-mail: Zhangy@ilo.org
For more information on the International Small Enterprise Programme, please contact:
International Small Enterprise Programme
Enterprise and Cooperative Department
International Labour Office
CH 1211, Geneva 22, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 799.64.20; Fax: +41 22 799.79.78
E-mail: isep@ilo.org Internet: http://www.ilo.org/entreprise
Gender issues in micro-enterprise development
a briefing note -
I. Introduction
1.1 Rationale for ILO's interest in women's entrepreneurship
In many countries, at all levels of development, women's access to the labour market is consistently more difficult than men's. Employment opportunities as wage workers are often denied to women because of their family responsibilities, lack of skills, social and cultural barriers or lack of wage employment. In this context, self-employment or the setting up of their own enterprise -generally a micro-enterprise- may constitute the only possibility for women to get access to employment and to earn an income. This is more so since the private sector is more and more taking precedence over the public sector in terms of employment creation. An increasing number of women have come to realise this and have launched some kind of economic activity.
As a result, in many countries -especially in developing and transition economies- women represent the majority of entrepreneurs in micro-enterprises and the informal sector. However, policies and programmes relating to micro-enterprise development, when they exist, are still often based on the implicit assumption that entrepreneurs are mostly men.
The rationale for supporting the development of women-headed micro and small enterprises is two-fold. First, it contributes to poverty alleviation. Second, it contributes to women's economic and social empowerment. More generally, it is now widely recognised that the main vehicles for economic growth are the micro and small enterprises therefore, as a matter of economic efficiency, it is important to ensure that potential women entrepreneurs are not left out of any development process.
The unprecedented increase of international trade and the rapid pace of technological change that are commonly referred to as globalization, while offering new opportunities to the economies, constitute a formidable challenge for women-headed micro and small enterprises, as well as for all those interested in equality issues.
1.2 Definitions
Micro and small enterprises (MSEs)
While there is no universal definition of micro and small enterprises, there is some agreement as to their general characteristics in developing countries: very small scale of operation, low level of technology, low access to credit and lack of managerial capacity. Further description of these enterprises is related to their considerably low level of productivity and income, as well as to their strong tendency to operate in the informal sector where they have few linkages with the modern economy and do not comply with government registration.
The size of an enterprise may be defined according to various criteria, including: the number of workers, the volume of output or sales, the value of assets, the use of energy, etc. The criterion of the number of workers is the most widely used, because of its apparent simplicity and because data on the other criteria are generally lacking. For operational purposes, it is often agreed that micro-enterprises include self-employed persons and enterprises with up to 10 workers (including apprentices and paid and unpaid family workers); small enterprises comprise between 10 and 50 workers. These "definitions" have to be adapted to specific conditions prevailing in various countries.
The entrepreneur
It is often stressed that the human being should be at the centre of any economic activity. Given the human dimension of the enterprise, it is hence of utmost importance to mention the role of the entrepreneur. The report of the 1997 ILO Conference on General conditions to stimulate job creation in small and medium-sized enterprises defines an entrepreneur as "one who surveys the potential of his or her business environment, identifies opportunities to improve it, marshals resources, and acts to maximize operational opportunities". Another important characteristic is risk taking.
Entrepreneurs are usually assimilated with owners and managers of registered enterprises. Since many women are self-employed, they are seldom recognised as entrepreneurs, not even by themselves. This lack of visibility and recognition may result in women entrepreneurs being overlooked by institutions and programmes interested in enterprise development.
II. Key gender issues in entrepreneurship development for women
2.1 Constraints
Women face constraints at almost every stage of their business operation (start-up, survival, diversification, growth). While some of the constraints are also experienced by male entrepreneurs, women have additional, gender specific constraints. These constraints and barriers can be summarized as follows:
- behavioural barriers, e.g. women have little self-confidence and a negative self-image;
- role barriers, e.g. conflicting role demands and time constraints;
- social and cultural barriers, e.g. negative attitudes towards women in business; the fact that women are supposed to fulfil other roles; restrictions as to the choice of sector; lack of family support; lack of mobility; etc.
- educational barriers, e.g. women have relatively lower education levels, have received a biased education and usually have limited access to vocational training opportunities. Even in transition economies where women have a good educational level, they frequently have problems in accessing relevant vocational training;
- occupational barriers, e.g. women have fewer opportunities in the formal sector of the economy for skill development;
- infrastructural barriers, e.g. access to credit, technology, support services, land, information is systematically more difficult for women;
- legal barriers, e.g. independent legal action is limited for women.
It can be assumed that most of these constraints have a socio-cultural origin and, as such, require fundamental attitudinal changes in the socio-cultural environment, which is a long-term process.
2.2 Characteristics of women-headed micro-enterprises
Women who do manage to set up their enterprise in spite of all the above mentioned constraints often set up micro-enterprises rather than small, medium or large enterprises. Therefore, female businesses disproportionately concentrate in the micro-enterprise sector of the economy.
Because of the variety of constraints and their different socio-economic levels, women entrepreneurs do not constitute an homogeneous group. They may have different motivations, interest and potentials. An increasing number of women have had access to education and are willing to make use of their skill and experience not only as wage workers -where their carrier is often hampered by the glass ceiling and where they may lack the flexibility required to combine their multiple roles- but also as self-employed and entrepreneurs. Many more women are engaged in entrepreneurial activities, even without a proper educational background, out of sheer necessity.
Over and above their differences, women-headed micro-enterprises generally display some common features:
- They are set up with existing skills (evolving around the domestic sphere) and little capital.
- They are most of the time unregistered and operate in the informal sector of the economy.
- In many cases, production takes place at home. In some cases, women sit at the market place while producing (i.e. basket weaving), selling, as well as cooking and looking after the children.
- They rely heavily upon family workers (paid or unpaid).
- They tend to concentrate in the least rewarding sectors. Production usually covers a fairly narrow range of consumer goods (garments, woven goods, processed food) and handicrafts. Most of the time, these sectors are related to the tasks traditionally performed by women.
- As the economic activity is most often undertaken in addition to household chores and, in rural areas, to agriculture, women are not able to dedicate continuous attention to it. There is a lack of clear-cut division between household and business, both in terms of time allocation and financial flows (re-investment is often subject to prior fulfilment of the family's basic needs). The total work load is heavy.
- The owner/operator performs all the functions herself. The marketing and managerial functions are embryonic.
- Output is marketed locally (this is usually the case for local consumer goods) or intended for the tourist and, rarely, the export markets (this is usually the case for handicrafts).
- Depending on the socio-cultural environment and transport facilities, women may market directly their production, or use intermediaries: male members of the household or traders (including money lenders).
- Depending on the socio-cultural and legal environment, women either may or may not fully control revenues from their economic activities. In many situations, the male members of the household have control over these revenues. Usually, women loose some control whenever they cannot market their own output. However, women in trading activities are more likely to control the revenues from their business.
It must be emphasized that women-headed enterprises cannot be envisaged in isolation to the economic and socio-cultural environment in which they evolve. This environment may or may not be conducive to entrepreneurship development for women. Such societal practices as undervaluation of women's economic role, sex-role stereotyping, women's limited access to certain types of vocational training, policies, legislation, etc., may prevent women from engaging in business, sustaining or expanding their current business, or may even exclude them from important segments of the micro and small enterprise sector (e.g. enterprises with a high growth potential).
III. Interventions to support women-headed micro- and small enterprises
3.1 Types of interventions
In recognition of the potential of MSEs as a source of employment, many programmes have been implemented to further entrepreneurship in general and female entrepreneurship in particular. They may include the following:
- skills training to impart skills to potential entrepreneurs or to upgrade skills of existing entrepreneurs (to improve productivity and quality of output);
- managerial training;
- provision of credit (for investment and/or for working capital);
- marketing assistance;
- other support services (e.g. information, technology, incubators, inter-firm and inter-sectoral linkages, sub-contracting, consultancy services, etc.);
- action to facilitate women's involvement in economic activities, through the organisation and funding of various supporting activities (for instance child care, provision of equipment to alleviate household chores, training in basic literacy and numeracy, group discussions to develop better social awareness of women's role, etc.);
- action to facilitate the establishment of women's groups.
Among these various interventions, training and credit are the most widespread.
3.2 Providers of business development services
A growing number of organisations (public, semi-public, private) are interested in promoting women's access to economic activities, whether through income generating activities or entrepreneurship development. Business development activities are carried out by such intermediary organisations as:
government organisations and semipublic organisations: industrial development agencies, handicrafts development boards, marketing boards, management development institutions, financial institutions operating credit schemes for small enterprises, technology institutes, etc.
non-governmental organisations (NGOs), local, national or international
professional associations (Chambers of commerce, sectoral associations, associations of traders/exporters, etc.). There is also an emerging trend of women entrepreneurs setting up their own associations and providing advice to other newly established women entrepreneurs;
employers' and workers' organisations.
In addition, some private sector firms may also provide goods and services to micro and small enterprises on a commercial basis. Such firms may include equipment and spare parts suppliers; raw materials and intermediate inputs suppliers; maintenance and repair firms; transport firms; exporters; private banks and money lenders; and consulting firms. These firms are often medium or large enterprises and they target mostly other large enterprises both in the private and public sector.
3.3 Approaches used
Depending on the nature and objectives of the intermediary organisations the approaches taken to provide support services to micro-enterprises may vary greatly:
• "welfare oriented" (i.e. they focus mainly on short term action to alleviate certain aspects of poverty) or "economic" (they focus on entrepreneurship development);
• single focus -credit only, or training only- (also called "minimalist approach" when only credit is provided), versus a package approach (combination of several services);
• single or multi-sector coverage;
• geared to enterprises of all sizes, or geared specifically to micro and small enterprises;
• interventions may be provided to upgrade existing enterprises or to set up new ones;
• country-wide or local;
• services may be targeted to entrepreneurs in general or specifically to women entrepreneurs;
• lastly, and this is often the case with income generating activities for women, they may be geared to groups rather than individual entrepreneurs.
3.4 Performance criteria
The following criteria are commonly used in evaluating the performance of interventions:
- outreach : how many people - or enterprises- are reached by an intervention, and, more specifically, how many women are reached, or what percentage of women are reached;
- efficiency: at what cost is an intervention being carried out? It is not easy to measure the efficiency of a particular intervention. There are direct and indirect costs. Indicators such as amount per assisted enterprise or average number of enterprises per staff member may be used;
- effectiveness: this determines whether an intervention achieves its objectives and whether it is relevant. In the case of women entrepreneurs, one has to examine to which extent the intervention improves significantly women entrepreneurs' capacity to earn an income, as well as their total work load and their working conditions; whether the intervention results in alleviating their exploitation by intermediaries such as money lenders, contractors (in the case of sub-contracting), or some members of their own family;
- sustainability: sustainability should be achieved at two levels: intermediary organisations should aim at the sustainability of their client enterprises; they should also ensure their own sustainability as organisations, by generating their own resources.
These criteria may be given varying levels of priority, depending upon the objectives of the interventions. In any case, it is quite difficult to meet all the criteria simultaneously.
3.5 Some issues
• The very purpose of interventions designed to induce women to start a business is sometimes called in question. Entrepreneurship does not always represent a panacea for women. It has been argued that, because of their multiple roles, their work load may become unbearable, while their earnings are not significantly higher. Qualitative aspects are also questioned, as well as the lack of social security coverage for micro-entrepreneurs.
• Interventions to upgrade existing enterprises are generally more efficient than those targeting new enterprises. However, this should not be a reason to exclude incipient entrepreneurs, especially when taking into account employment creation.
• Interventions geared to enterprises of all sizes tend to overlook micro and small enterprises, particularly women-headed microenterprises. As mentioned above, women are not taken seriously in their capacity as entrepreneurs. When by chance they are considered, their specific needs are not properly understood. The visibility of their enterprises is often imperceptible since many women entrepreneurs operate from their home. This is compounded by the fact that women entrepreneurs themselves do not contemplate to seek assistance from intermediary organisations dealing with entrepreneurship development. In these circumstances it is sometimes necessary to develop women-specific programmes to ensure that women are given the chance to participate. On the other hand, some intermediary organisations targeting only women may not have the professional capacity to deal with entrepreneurship development. Their interventions may even result in excluding women entrepreneurs from the world of enterprises.
• Women-specific programmes often operate in a distinct manner from supposedly gender neutral programmes. Indeed, many women specific programmes have an income-generating approach and tend to ignore market realities. Organisations in charge of such programmes often subsidise the production of the income-generating activities they establish rather than preparing women to start genuinely profitable enterprises. Instead of prompting entrepreneurship development, such organisations perform themselves all managerial functions of the production units, ending up in reinforcing women's dependency.
• In order to be more efficient, some intermediary organisations tend to prefer educated women, operating modern enterprises, rather than more disadvantaged women in the informal sector of the economy.
• It is widely acknowledged that single purpose intermediary organisations are more efficient (when they concentrate on what they are best at) than multi-purpose organisations. However, minimalist interventions may not be sufficient in an environment that lacks a business culture. It also happens that institutions providing services to micro and small enterprises lack coordination.
• It has been documented that in spite of the multiplicity of organisations working in the field of women's entrepreneurship development, the majority of women micro-entrepreneurs do not benefit from their interventions.
IV. Enabling business environment
Interventions geared to support micro and small enterprises may not achieve much if they do not consider the business environment. Enterprises operate in a given environment that is shaped by the level of economic and social development, human and other resources, policies and regulations, etc. and by the local culture. When the environment is favourable to the development of enterprises, it is termed as enabling business environment.
Enterprises are not an homogeneous aggregate. They vary in size, sector, type of ownership, etc. Therefore it is necessary to have a good knowledge of the characteristics of enterprises and of entrepreneurs, the constraints they face in setting up, consolidating and expanding their businesses, in order to determine what could constitute an enabling business environment. The following components may be envisaged:
• Policies: general development policies, regional development policies, sectoral and industrial development policies, trade policies, fiscal and monetary policies, educational policies, employment policies, especially those dealing with wages, working conditions and the social protection of workers, technology policies, etc. Some countries have adopted specific policies for micro and small enterprise development. In addition, policies geared to the promotion of equality of opportunity and treatment for women are particularly relevant for women's entrepreneurship development. Of utmost importance also is the consistency of the policy framework with respect to the development of women-headed micro and small enterprises;
• supporting legal, regulatory and administrative environment: business registration and permits to operate a business, taxation, labour and employment legislation, property rights, enforcement of contracts, investment code, price control, access to foreign exchange, access to public tendering, social and labour legislation, etc.; of crucial importance is the transparency of regulations towards micro and small enterprises and the way these regulations are enforced as well as the stability of the legal and regulatory environment;
• infrastructure: transport, communication, water, power, etc.;
In many countries, policies have been formulated that are intended to enhance the development of the private sector. Unfortunately, in many cases, this has resulted in favouring large, capital intensive enterprises -most of the time owned and managed by men- sometimes at the expense of micro and small, often labour intensive enterprises -where women owners/managers are usually better represented.
In general the issue of female entrepreneurship should not be treated as a "special" case. However, in some countries/sectors there is a need to evolve specific policies and programmes because the social position of women is utterly different to that of men. As the strategy should be mainstreaming women micro-entrepreneurs rather than segregating them, the focus should be on overcoming the constraints they face. Therefore, the strategy should combine policy and programme interventions related to micro-enterprise development per se as well as broader measures to tackle the socio-cultural barriers, such as:
- improving girls' access to education and to training in modern technical skills as well as in leadership;
- training women to gain confidence in their own potential and, more generally, raise public awareness of women's economic role (i.e. through multimedia information dissemination, education, etc.);
- publicizing some role models of successful women entrepreneurs; and
- improving women's access to and control over productive resources.
Programmes more directly related to the promotion of women's entrepreneurship should give importance to the following aspects:
- give due attention to the characteristics of the target group (women entrepreneurs are an heterogenous group) and to existing barriers and constraints when designing services directed at women entrepreneurs or potential entrepreneurs;
- identify viable business opportunities and design support services based on them with sufficient flexibility to take into account new sectors, depending on changes in market demand;
- provide accessible, relevant and effective training;
- provide access to sustainable micro-finance schemes, based on savings mobilization, and with simplified procedures;
- ease administrative procedures for the establishment and operation of enterprises;
- identify and strengthen appropriate channels to deliver both financial and non-financial services to women-headed micro and small enterprises. These channels may be governmental or non-governmental organisations, business associations, chambers of commerce, common facility centres, etc., or even commercial firms, depending on their comparative advantage. In order to be efficient and effective, they should be decentralised (because women generally have limited mobility), specialised (rather than trying to cover the whole range of possible services), and demand-driven;
- establish networks and ensure appropriate co-ordination between all relevant government and non-government departments and institutions in the field of business promotion and development (credit, technical and managerial training, choice of technology, input procurement, information, legal counselling, marketing, management, etc.);
- training of officials (mostly male) in many public sector departments and in banks and other lending institutions to recognise the economic potential of women entrepreneurs;
- strengthen data collection on the many aspects of women's participation in MSEs -nature and extent of women's participation as owners and managers of MSEs, their motivations, constraints, strong points, individual strategies, time allocation, stratification of women entrepreneurs, linkages between the various categories of women-headed enterprises and the rest of the private sector, effectiveness and efficiency of the existing assistance and support mechanisms, growth potential, etc. This could be done through household surveys or ad hoc surveys;
- widely disseminate information on available business opportunities and support services through the above mentioned networks;
- obtain male acceptance of the programmes geared to female entrepreneurs.
All the above mentioned components are important, even though their degree of priority may vary according to local conditions. The combination of these components - policy and regulatory framework for an enabling business environment and relevant programmes providing financial and non-financial business support services- may be termed as a holistic or integrated approach.
Since such interventions are carried out by local institutions, it is necessary to strengthen the local capacity to deliver support services to women micro-entrepreneurs. Good support services can only be provided by well trained, motivated professionals.
As it is not realistic to ask one single institution to carry out such an important agenda, networking should be the key. Such networking could take the shape of an inter-organisation committee to examine themes of common interest such as credit, training, etc. It could play a consultative part, lobby for the improvement of the legal framework, and act as an agent of change in the society in general. It could stimulate local initiatives and contribute to mobilise local and external resources for projects of common interest. In this respect, associations of women entrepreneurs should be created or strengthened to fully play their role in such a network.
The ILO has a vast international experience in promoting micro and small enterprise development, especially in the developing world. It endeavours to ensure the mainstreaming of gender concerns into its programmes and projects relating to entrepreneurship development. ILO's activities in this field involve research, technical cooperation and advisory services. These means of action are mutually reinforcing. For instance, research may be undertaken to acquire a better knowledge of the conditions in which women micro-entrepreneurs operate in order to better respond to their needs through the improvement of assistance mechanisms and the formulation of policies aiming at an enabling environment; and to suggest interventions or changes in the institutional environment that can ease the constraints faced by women and improve their opportunities. Research results are disseminated through publications and seminars.
The ILO has been extensively involved in the development and implementation of programmes to promote women's entrepreneurship. To the extent possible, ILO's technical cooperation activities in this field use a holistic approach, designing and implementing programmes in such areas as entrepreneurship training, productivity improvement, managerial capacity building and facilitating access by enterprises to productive resources, institution building and strengthening, policy advice, etc. In order to yield long term benefits and ensure sustainability, the projects often combine direct assistance to the beneficiaries with institutional support. Institution building or strengthening relates to all types of institutions that deliver the kind of services required by women entrepreneurs -not only government institutions but also employers' and workers' organisations, private or semi-private bodies, NGOs, common services centres, business associations, etc.
The advisory services provided by the ILO deal mainly with the formulation of policies and regulations and the elaboration of assistance programmes that are conducive to the creation and growth of enterprises. These policies have a wide scope. They may address issues related to micro-enterprise development or gender issues, or both. Attention is also focused upon ensuring that policies and regulations aim at promoting the integration of informal sector enterprises into the economic mainstream by progressively upgrading their standards and practices.
The ILO launched two important international programmes related to women's entrepreneurship development:
• The "More and Better Jobs for Women" programme. The focus is not only women entrepreneurs but women workers in general. Again, women entrepreneurs will be an important component of this programme.
Both programmes use the holistic approach mentioned above: a combination of technical assistance and policy advice.
This same approach is also used in the programme known as the Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme. This is a business training package geared to micro and small enterprises. This training package has a modular structure, which gives it flexibility to respond to the needs of the target group. It is highly practical and is designed to facilitate the process of learning. The package was first applied in Eastern and Southern Africa and is now being extended to other regions. It may be worth mentioning that in some countries, more than half the participants of SIYB programme are women.
Another element that clearly demonstrates the interest evolved by ILO's constituents on the issue is the adoption by the General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the Recommendation on Job Creation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, in June 1998. This Recommendation will represent a very useful instrument to provide guidance for Member States in the design and implementation of policies relating to job creation in small and medium-sized enterprises as well as in micro-enterprises.
In conclusion, the ILO is highly involved in entrepreneurship development and women micro-entrepreneurs constitute an important target group. Umbrella programmes such as the "International Small Enterprise Programme", SIYB and "More and Better Jobs for Women" offer a range of possible frameworks for the ILO to develop its support to women's entrepreneurship. Furthermore, as an international organisation with field offices in all regions of the world, the ILO is in a good position to be a focal point for the exchange of experience among countries and regions with various backgrounds. Indeed, one way of reaching a better understanding of women's entrepreneurs' difficulties is through exchange of experience on good practices and networking.
VII. Suggested reading
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