In today’s world where dreams and aspirations are measured with time and money, female entrepreneurs are leaving their marks and footprints to inspire everybody, irrespective of gender, to follow their dreams. Needless to say, the challenges faced by a woman in society are enough to be considered as barriers between her dreams and the success of the same. It is impossible to talk about this topic without taking into consideration the gender biases that cripple society even today. In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book, “We Should All Be Feminists”, she quotes late Kenyan Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai said, “The higher you go, the fewer women there are.” This statement is enough to give us a clear picture of how hard the struggle can be for a female entrepreneur to make her dreams come true. They all work theirs hardest and fight for themselves to achieve what they desire and that desire is a success.
The Set Of Challenges Faced By Female Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship is one of the bravest steps that one can take to become successful in life. This particular brave step is not easy for a woman to take owing to the challenges of patriarchy and misogyny, even in today’s world. The constant prevalence of sexism in the workplace acts as a severe demotivating factor that narrows down the avenues a woman can venture. In Adichie’s book “We should all be feminists”, she explores these aforementioned causes which act as hindrances in the path of a woman trying to achieve her dreams. She gallantly talks about the gendered disparities that prevent society to move forward. The idea of a woman working to support herself remains to be a subject of awe while the same thing for a man is a norm. We have indeed evolved a long way but why is it that women have to wait for holistic evolution of the idea of gender to happen in order to gain equal status in society? These questioned should be manoeuvred more often to make the lives of women a little less hard than it already is and that intern will instil much confidence in the female entrepreneurs all over the world.
History Of Female Entrepreneurship
The history of female entrepreneurship dates back to the 18th Century where the status of women faced gender segregation and various forms of prejudices, be it social, moral, racial, or economic. The first businesswoman Eliza Lucas Pinckney hailed from the United States who started her own business in 1739. In the past women had a significant role in the business economy attained from their inheritance or supplement income. They were also driven by the impact of poverty that forced them to find a means of livelihood. The first female entrepreneur was Madame C.J. Walker (1867-1919) who was the daughter of a former slave. She made her fortune starting from scratch and took advantage of the industrial revolution. This inspired many women to follow their dreams when they had nothing to start with. Black female entrepreneurs had to face the most difficulties back in the day when racial prejudices governed the entire society. Young women post World War II came into business owing to the boom in the textile industry. Young female entrepreneurs defeated the “cult of domesticity” that dictated the lives of women. The nineteenth-century saw the most valorous revolution of women stepping out of domesticity and aspiring to become independent, free from the prevailing male dominance that directed their lives. There was a practice of a male member of the family to sign a woman’s business loans, prevalent merely 40 years ago. From that point to where we stand now, the revolutionary improvement in the status of female entrepreneurs has been commendable yet it is not enough. Women have been deprived of their basic human rights for ages until Mary Wollstonecraft raised the voice for millions of women who were struggling even to breathe freely in a patriarchal society that still tries to cage women’s freedom. The female entrepreneurs over time have proved that nothing can stop them. The history of female entrepreneurship has witnessed courageous leaders take over and achieve their goals.
The Success Logistics That Makes Us Proud
There are millions of success stories of female entrepreneurs. These courageous souls represent the entire womankind, who surpassed all the hurdles and became immensely successful and also, makes us all proud. Here goes a list of successful female entrepreneurs who will inspire the generations to come. Young famous female entrepreneurs like Arianna Huffington, the founder of leading digital media outlet THE HUFFINGTON POST whose net worth was $315 million in 2011; Cindy Mi, CEO, and CO-FOUNDER of VIPKID that does a noble job of connecting students and teachers across the world. The total funding amount is more than $800 million; Amanda Signorelli, the CEO of TECHWEEK which aims at hosting multiple conferences across the globe celebrating diversity and entrepreneurship, is a constant source of inspiration for all. Black female entrepreneurs have brought in significant development in society. In fact, as mentioned above, the first female entrepreneur Madame C.J. Walker was a black woman who valorously went against the society that was characterized by racial prejudices in order to achieve her dreams. A few of the successful black female entrepreneurs are Jasmine Crowe, founder of Goodr whose net worth is $1.1 million; Lisa Skeete Tatum CEO of Landit, and so on. At the age of 21, Kylie Jenner became the world’s youngest female entrepreneur. Some of the top female entrepreneurs are Oprah Winfrey, Wang Laichun, Gina Rinehart, Sara Blakely, Thai Lee, Doris Fisher, and so on. The success stories of these lionhearted beauties are an all-time source of inspiration for many women across the globe.
To help these entrepreneurs there are numerous female entrepreneur associations that guide these women to achieve what they want. In these associations, they circulate videos containing tips about how they can grow their business, share audiobooks and paperbacks that help the female entrepreneurs to develop their skills, conduct guidance sessions, and many more, leading to the holistic development of the same. Some of the best books for female entrepreneurs are “The multi-hyphen method” by Emma Gannon; “Lean In: Woman, Work, and Will to Lead” by Sheryl Sandberg; “She speaks: The power of women’s voices” by Yvette Cooper; “In the company of woman” by Grace Bonney; “Shop Girl” by Mary Portas; “Girl on Fire” by Cara Leyba; “Dear Female Founder” by Lu Li; “Thrive” by Arianna Huffington and so on.
In conclusion, the article explores the diversified topic of Female Entrepreneurship. The social ills that stand in the way of these women are vehemently crushed under their soles as they strive ahead towards prosperity. Entrepreneurism is a huge support for the economic development of a country. Female entrepreneurs are thereby huge support to the economy as they destroy patriarchy at every step of their lives and move forward. There are times of crisis in business, be it the 1930s Great Depression or the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic, these fearless human entities have never given up and that indeed proves the following quote true:
“There is nothing more powerful than a woman who wants to rise.”
