PROBLEMS FACED BY WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN LAHORE,PAKISTAN

Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore Business Research Method

MUHAMMAD AHMAD IFTIKHAR FAST-NUCES LAHORE, PAKISTAN 2013

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

Abstract This research paper looks to find out the problems and issues faced by women entrepreneurs in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. Women are developing themselves and are an important part of the economy despite the lack of attention given to them in this part of the world. Apart from gaining an insight to the issues these entrepreneurial women have to face, the objectives also include researching into the problems they have in generating the finances and understanding the social reasons which force them to work. Gender specific issues are also to be discussed in this report. To fulfil the objectives a thorough primary research was carried out where a questionnaire (sample attached) was developed with exact questions reflecting the research purpose. The sample size was then further divided into literate and illiterate women entrepreneurs for the precision of the results. The results have shown that both literate and illiterate women entrepreneurs have problems all the way up from starting their business to keep running it successfully. However the literate women are slightly better off than the illiterate women as they have a greater exposure to this world due to their family backgrounds and education which helps them compete effectively and with courage. The literate women tend to open up their own business with a pursuit of happiness which automatically makes them more motivated to work whereas the illiterate women mostly end up working and opening their business to fulfil their basic necessities in life. The culture in this part of the world hasn’t seen a woman working in the past, thus making it difficult for them working in the 21 st century. This mentality is however changing with time as women grow in different sectors of the economy with expertise and making it clear that they are here to work and stay.

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 Literature Review .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Research Objectives ...................................................................................................................................... 9 Research Designs and Methods .................................................................................................................... 9 Sampling.................................................................................................................................................... 9 Type of data .............................................................................................................................................. 9 Procedure.................................................................................................................................................. 9 Ethical Requirements .............................................................................................................................. 10 Data Analysis & Results ............................................................................................................................... 10 Demographics ......................................................................................................................................... 10 Problems and Issues faced by literate women entrepreneur in Lahore ................................................ 10 Issues and problems faced by illiterate women entrepreneur in Lahore............................................... 12 Chi-Square Interpretation ....................................................................................................................... 14 Project Management: ................................................................................................................................. 15 Recommendations ...................................................................................................................................... 15 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 18 References .................................................................................................................................................. 19

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

Introduction An entrepreneur is an individual who, rather than working as an employee, runs a small business and assumes all the risk and reward of a given business venture, idea, or good or service offered for sale. The entrepreneur is seen as a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business processes. Narrowing this research down to focusing only on women entrepreneurs is an innovative idea in itself due to the lack of women working in Lahore. Entrepreneurs are a very important part of any developing economy as where on one side there are large multinationals, the other part of the economy is filled up by the entrepreneurs coming up with diversified businesses. Small businesses made up 90% of the economy back in the 1980s-90s in Pakistan! This figure clearly showcases the importance of these individuals working separately but towards one target, which on a personal scale is to make a living for them and on a countrywide scale is to boost up the economy through a growth in the GDP levels. It is important to consider the fact that every person needs to work in order to create a sustainable economy. This specifically means that women are an integral part of this development in every country. Women entrepreneurs in Pakistan have to face many hurdles before they can actually settle down, more than an average male entrepreneur. Women have established a reputable image of themselves as excellent workers in all industries, such as teaching, pharmaceuticals, IT, media, government sector, hospitals. They are also upfront in opening up new boutiques and beauty parlours. Many of them work in different NGOs and NPOs providing a helping hand to this society. Despite the fact that they are emerging in all industries they have to face difficulties in this male dominated society. They are not given a chance to come up in the upper hierarchy of a firm where vital decision is carried out just because of their gender. They are not allowed to work due to their gender as this has become part of our culture. The basic purpose of this research is to highlight the problems and issues which are being faced by the women entrepreneurs while performing their activities and to provide appropriate solutions, so that the future entrepreneurs can utilize them in the best manner.

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

Literature Review (Sanjay 2013) Says entrepreneurship is the core of economic development. Women are an emerging economic force in the present time. Women constitute the family, which leads to society and family. Sanjay further acknowledges the fact that the social and economic development of women is mandatory for the development of any country. He says every woman would want to start a business but fails to succeed in the Indian environment. However due to the changing environment men easily accept the women entrepreneurial opportunity. The service sector is now also increasingly supporting Indian women entrepreneurs. The purpose of Sanjay’s study was to find various motivating and de-motivating internal and external factors of women entrepreneurship. He further goes on to also suggest the investment and interesting working time of women. The study carried out by (Nelson 2011) analyses the challenges faced by women micro entrepreneurs in Ilala Municipal Dar es Salaam. Dr. Nelson chose this topic due to the massive public outcry concerning the treatment of micro entrepreneurs by the municipal officials in the area. The research was done through interviewing 120 women micro entrepreneurs in Ilala Municipality to get an answer to the research question; What are the challenges facing Women Micro Entrepreneurs in Ilala Municipality emanating from an on-going campaign to “Clean the City”. The results of the research indicated that the major challenges faced by women micro entrepreneurs are poor infrastructure, lack of business premise, decline in business and lack of prime space. Women entrepreneur should be encouraged in Pakistan because the author has shed light on the development in the south Asian region and how women entrepreneurship can help to reduce the poverty either by getting a job or starting their own businesses. The author (Tambunan 2009) has said that the representation of female entrepreneurs is significantly low in this region and the factors he cites as reason are lack of education, capital and pressures from the society. Even in some cases religion can effect it. According to (Ayesha 2012), women entrepreneur are the potentially emerging human resource in the 21st century to overcome the economic challenges in global perspective. Moreover, she adds that the women of this century is no more a traditional resource confined to homes only rather an educated, knowledgeable and innovative part of the overall population possessing the capacity to transform economies into thriving enterprises. The methodology used by the author

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

is reviewing different research articles, journals, and case studies regarding women entrepreneurs. The author (Dhaliwal 2004) discusses how the Asian women entrepreneurs are growing but the main focus of this work is to shed the light on the important subject that women entrepreneurs are performing dual duties as not only they are working for the business but also they are taking care of their families as well which in itself is a huge task. They are not appreciated according to their hard work and commitment. According to Dr. G. Jayammal women entrepreneurship is a journey from poverty to prosperity, dependence to equality and in today’s era it is more beneficial to run a business than getting employed in an organization and work with certain limitations. Moreover he contributed that the success journeys of women plays a vital role in the betterment of an economy as a whole. (Nawaser 2010)Highlights the changing political and economic conditions that how countries are converted to from command to demand economies, dictatorships move towards democracy and monarchies build new civil institutions. These changes have created a number of opportunities for women who want to operate their own businesses. In the present era 25% of the total businesses are owned by women and their numbers are increasing rapidly. The research report written by (Amber 2011) named Female Entrepreneurs at the Institute of Business Administration is focused on women empowerment and emancipation. There is some motivation, constraints and consequences discussed in this report which drives attention toward women development in term of entrepreneurship. The study makes us to understand the importance of females in developing world and more specifically in Pakistan. Considering the facts described in the paper that overall entrepreneurial activities are very low at rate of -3.43%. Pakistan has finished 132nd position out 134 countries in a survey conducted in (2011) in terms of female economic activities and opportunities available to females. More research is needed in both the urban and rural areas of Pakistan to understand the phenomenon of female entrepreneurs. In 2004 a research was carried out by Pat, Rhona and Gerry (Pat 2004) the International Labor Office (ILO) - Geneva entitled as The Challenges of growing small businesses: insight from entrepreneurs in Africa. This research involved interviews from more than 369 women around three different countries Tanzania, Ethiopia and Zambia. Fully organized research process would be too numerous to mention however a lot of contribution is been made by three national research teams. The study tells us that many women are still operating in smaller businesses in feminized sector similarly many of them are suffering a negative attitude of women in businesses. However their research shows that despite of all this discrimination many women entrepreneurs are running successful businesses that employ others to help support their

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

families and community. And important point is that these women entrepreneurs acting as role model for other women in society. They concluded their study as Africa’s future is brighter in terms of small and medium enterprises. According to a study by (Muhammad Azam Roomi 2008) the opportunities which are for men are not as same as women in Pakistan. He has cited a number of issues being the reason for it. Issues such as discrimination in values placed by the society and the traditions in this geographical area. Because of such discrimination the actual potential of the women entrepreneur is not realized and utilized. He also focuses on the inherited attitude found in this society that men are superior to women and because of this the encouragement a woman receives is very less compared to that of a man. In fact they are discouraged and ridiculed on such instances. The elder members of the family especially males do not allow them to work outside let alone starting their own business. The government and agencies should provide the proper resources and awareness among the masses to let the people know the importance of women entrepreneurs in a society. The same author (Roomi 2011) discussed different problems which effects different problems by doing a series of research and in depth interviews. The author discusses that the personal resources which the women have plays a significant role the development in their business. Other factors which we will be using in this research are family support, independence etc. While starting a business or working somewhere, a woman must make a balance between her work and home life. The author (Sumaira Rehman 2012) conducted a study which highlighted a number of prompting factors which effects the role of female workers in this environment. Because in Pakistan the image of a woman is to nurture the home and its environment so it is a big responsibility. Women working have to bear this problem to create a balance in the work and home. As this is evident that the role of women in flourishing an economy is vital, provided they have the best available and adequate resources. Still compared to the past decade women are entering the workforce in significantly high numbers. As well as female entrepreneurs are excessing in numbers. Still they need to get the main resource which is the backbone of any starting business and that is finance. A study was conducted by (Tania Saeed 2007) which focuses on the government agencies to provide women the right amount of money. Institutes such as kashaf microfinance bank is working on this initiative to provide micro loans to females to start their own work. This not only benefits the house in which there is dual source of income now but also if we observe it on a macro level we can see the impact as the power of purchase increases and the overall life style increases which benefits the economy. There is a lot of diversity in our culture. In some areas and cities it is okay for a woman to be an entrepreneur or even get a job but in some areas of Pakistan it is almost impossible for a women

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

to work outside. A very excellent work done by (Afza 2010) discusses that how the talented yet unaware women of KPK province. The lack of awareness is effecting the talent which is present there. The women are unaware about this field and also face some family issues as it is quite difficult for a women to work there. Not only that it is limited but it also is affecting the whole country as no one is taking a strong initiative in this process. Women in KPK starting business will be a source of huge encouragement for the rest of the women. A study conducted in Pakistan (Erum Fatima 2012) has revealed that women cannot work as men work outside however there are a number of female entrepreneurs who are currently operating at home and running their businesses with the help of social media. With the development of internet and media it is much feasible for women to work on their business while sitting at home. This reduces a lot of barriers as discussed above but still it cannot give the same amount of exposure compared to that women who is working outside. The main topic is that either women entrepreneurs are as effective as male entrepreneurs or not. Well if we give it a general thought than we can’t see any such difference but if we observe it on the small and medium scale businesses we can observe that even in this economy we cannot ignore the contribution of women entrepreneurs in our society. A report by World Bank (Xavier Gine 2014) indicated that women working in rural Pakistan are not as productive as men. This is because he has differentiated them on the basis of pure labour, not on entrepreneurial skills.

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

Research Objectives The main purpose of this study is to check the problems faced by the women entrepreneurs in Lahore. Since it was a vast topic we narrowed it down to the issues faced by literate and illiterate women entrepreneurs. Furthermore we picked 5 variables which might be having an impact on it. They are elaborated further.     

To gain insight of the issues and problems of women entrepreneur in the industry. Problem faced by the women to manage their finances. Pressures from the society. Social reason which force them to work. Gender specific problems.

Since our study is descriptive we do not require a conceptual framework. We will just be highlighting the issues faced by literate and illiterate women and what are the factors which cause these problems

Research Designs and Methods Our research design for this study is Descriptive – Social survey. Our research is basically identifying problems that are being faced by women entrepreneurs in Lahore Pakistan, we narrow the expected problems (that are derived by analysing literature review) in our research objective to find out response on each objective. More over to cross check our response we made at least two questions for each objective.

Sampling We conduct convenient survey in which our sample size is 41 and target population is Lahore, our research is basically focusing only on women entrepreneurs of Lahore Pakistan.

Type of data We have collected Quantitative data and for this we use Likert scale to analyse it (strongly Agree – agree – neutral – Disagree – Strongly disagree).

Procedure We visited various boutiques in Lahore and also visit Fanni Taleemi Idara run by Govt. of Pakistan in township Lahore, and Aurat foundation, these institutes basically help us in capturing illiterate women entrepreneurs.

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

Ethical Requirements First of all women are usually hesitate to give some of information we want them to tell like, financial constraints, family issues they faced and income. Though we somehow successful in getting information to make our study complete but we can derive more information if we have male audience so we consider this thing as an ethical hurdle.

Data Analysis & Results Demographics The age of respondents has mostly been above 35 (20) whereas 26 of them fall under being literate and 15 under illiterate. Most of the entrepreneurs have employed less than 9 workers in their business with just 1 entrepreneur having more than 30 employees working. The highest average monthly income has been Rs. 30,000, only 8 respondents were earning above Rs. 40,000 on a monthly basis.

Problems and Issues faced by literate women entrepreneur in Lahore The first questioned asked from the respondents is that financial constraints is the basic reason that leads them to work. The scenario is quite different in the case of literate women, as most of them belong to affording class and money was not the prime factor due to which they came out of their homes and become entrepreneurs. Many of them replied that they work because they have passion for work, whereas some of them wanted to be economically independent and few women added in this regard they are just living their dreams. When it was asked from the entrepreneurs that do they believe the culture supports them to start their own businesses. The response was quite obvious as most of the literate entrepreneurs firmly believe that our overall culture is not that much supportive, but a noticeable ratio of 30.8% finds no difficulty in starting their own businesses which is because of their family background, still most of the educated middle class families did not allow their women to work. To gain more insight of the problems the problems a questioned is asked that do they think that being women is it difficult to be an entrepreneur. 38.5% of the total respondents answered that it was difficult for them to open up their business in this male dominant society whereas 34.6% women oppose this point of view. This contradiction is the result of the mind-sets of their families. Things are much easier for women if their families support and encourage them to be what they want to be. But in some cases families proves to be the biggest hurdle to start their own businesses. Another major problem is the role of their families whether they support or oppose them. Most of the entrepreneurs replied that they always found their families on their side in this regard.

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

Supporting them, encouraging their hard work and motivating them to work. At the same time 11.5% of them answered in a different way due to the social class they belongs to. Gathering up the initial cost is the toughest job for any business personnel without the discrimination of men or women. 20.9 % of the respondents admit that getting the initial cost was the most difficult task for them whereas, 15.4% found no difficulty in this regard because of their financially strong family background. Education is not just to get the degree/ certificate which merely a piece of paper but it is the process of learning and evolution which enlightens the minds. That is why as compared to the illiterate entrepreneurs the educated women do not face that many difficulties that’s why 34.6% strongly oppose it. A mix point of view is observed when it comes to finances, some of the respondents belief that it was not a big issue for them to manage the finances on the other hand any of them agrees that finances is the major issues. A mixed attitude has observed of the respondents as 42.3 % of the total literate entrepreneurs go for the neutral option whereas 23.1 % of them agrees that our cultural taboos sometime proves to be hurdle for them whereas, 11.5% of them rejects this statement. Most of them replied that once they started getting income out of their businesses their families became more supportive whereas 11.5% agrees that no matter how good they are performing they always have the pressure to close their businesses from their family members. It is the responsibility of the state to provide its natives with all the support they need to set up their own businesses, a positive image is shown of the government as most of the entrepreneurs admire their efforts on the other hand 15.4% belief that there is still a room for improvement. A number of NGO’s are working for the empowerment of women, providing them with skills so that they can not only be independent but at the same time contribute for the betterment of their country. 26.7% agrees that the NGO sector is performing their duties in the best way however the same percentage of women find it more convenient and adopt the middle way rather than criticizing or appreciating them. The prime requirement for any business in order to compete in the market is the availability of sufficient resources so that they can run their operations in the desired way. 33.3% of them admit that to have the sufficient amount of capital all the time is the toughest job. Another major problem entrepreneur has to face is the exploitation of middle man. 47.3% of the entrepreneurs answered that the middle man doesn’t exploit them whereas 12.6% admits that this factor whereas 20% are against of it.

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

There is a strong feeling on their part that being a women entrepreneur in a society we live in limits their exposure 34.6% of the total literate respondents agrees with the statement. 30.8% of them replied that they have no difficulties in maintaining work and life balance as their families are quite supportive but on the other hand 26.9 % of them admit that it is difficult to manage things because of the work pressure and 19.2% answered that some time it was difficult but things don’t remain the same.

Issues and problems faced by illiterate women entrepreneur in Lahore When a question was asked that personal financial constraints are one of the basic reasons that forced you to grow up your own business, 40 % of them strongly agreed and 26.6 % of them agreed so these figures clearly indicates that in these poor economic conditions of the overall country along with a high inflation rate and declining purchasing power of the people living, most of the women are forced to go for their own business to meet up their finances and ultimately the survival in this world. When a question was asked that do you believe that our culture is not supportive for women to start their own business, 33% strongly agreed and 26% agreed upon this situation, whereas 20% where neutral in this case. What we can conclude from this that our culture does not support the entrepreneur women and it is performing the role of one of the major barriers for entry to them. Moving towards the difficulty faced by women entrepreneur in this society, majority of the respondents strongly disagreed (33%) on this situation and 26% were neutral. The thing to be observed is the changing trend of the society, the society is supporting the women entrepreneurs to go for independency and prove them as a helping hand for the overall society. Moreover, when these women were asked about the opposition from their families, 66% of them overall disagreed on this question. The reason is clear cut, the social and economic conditions of the country in present situation have forced each and every individual to work for survival and growth. This is a good sign as the women who are sitting ideal are not a burden to the weak economy of this country. The problems regarding the initial start-up cost has been a major issue for illiterate women in Lahore as the figure are showing that 60% of the respondents are agreed upon this situation that YES the start-up cost is a big problem for them. The reason behind this issue is also very clear, the poverty is increasing day by day in Pakistan, the basic necessities of the majority of people are not fulfilled in there limited budgets so to gather up the initial start-up cost is a difficult task. Everyone knows that the society in which we are living is a male dominant society so when the women entrepreneur of Lahore were asked that do they feel hesitation in opening up their own businesses in this male dominant society. 60% of them agreed on this point so this clearly shows

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

that women have been badly led down by our society. With the passage of time, now this trend is changing, the women are also coming up in different fields like boutiques, fashion designers, beauty parlours, hair salons, studios (photography) and many others but still the paced is too slow. As already mentioned above that the society in which we are living is a male dominant society in which the women has been led down very badly so when women entrepreneurs were asked above the finances as one of the major barriers for entry in the industry, most of the illiterate entrepreneurs agreed (40%) on this point. These figures clearly indicate that they are not given the chance or we can say the required amount of capital they need to run their businesses. Coming towards the cultural taboos which actually do not allows the women of Pakistan to do their own work and act as a barrier for their entry and then survival in the industry. When the respondents were asked about these cultural taboos, almost 74% of them all over disagreed on this situation which is a good sign. It means that the overall trend of the society as a whole is changing with the passage of time and the women are now been encouraged and accepted by the society. The changing trends in our culture and society have already been mentioned above several times. When a question was asked that do you have any sort of family pressure to close your business? 74% of the respondents disagreed, which shows that the women is now encouraged and accepted as well. They have been given the freewill to go for their survival and growth. The important thing to be noticed is that it can proof very healthy for our country in the upcoming future and we can pace up ourselves with this fast moving technological world. Another important thing to be observed is the supportive role the government is playing to actually gain the confidence of the women entrepreneurs working in Lahore. When the respondents were asked about the support from the government sector regarding strengthening their skills, almost 54% of them agreed and was in the favour of the government institutes. Alongside these government institutes, the NGO have also been very supportive to this helping hand for the society. 47% of the respondents were satisfied and agreed with the contribution done by the NGO’s. A question was asked regarding the financial capital throughout the business and how much it is difficult, almost 67% of the respondents agreed on this point that it is difficult for them to raise financial capital. The reason has already been mentioned above the poor economic conditions and the barriers for women entrepreneurs in the industry are actually making it difficult for them to rise up financial capital throughout the business. Does the middle man exploit you to transport your products to the market? 53% of the respondents were neutral in this scenario, so this again shows that women entrepreneurs are

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

now being supported by the society and they are also given the right freehand to go for their own businesses. These types of hurdles are now getting a bit easier to cross for the working women. Do you think being a woman limits your exposure to the market and affects your efficiency? 54% of the respondents agreed and were in the favour of this issue. Although the trend is changing and the women are been encouraged now bit still it needs a lot of time for them to actually make a reputation in the market. The illiteracy is also playing a role to let them down a bit if we compare them with the literate women entrepreneurs. Maintaining a work/life balance for working women in a country like Pakistan is not an easy task because majority of the women in Pakistan are housewives. Now the things are changing all around, the women are coming out from the houses to go for work and survive in this world. The difficulty in maintaining work/life balance is because our society isn’t use to of this western culture that is why altogether 60% of the women entrepreneurs agreed on this issue.

Chi-Square Interpretation In the following question we asked the women entrepreneurs that do they think it is difficult for a woman to start her own business in our society considering the phenomena of education in mind and the answers we got were insignificant means there is no relationship between the difficulties faced by new entrepreneurs and education. Because no matter what if a woman is educated or uneducated she has to face problems while starting a new business in our society. Another question was that has your family oppose you while starting a business and the answers had no association with education because most of the entrepreneurs were from lower and middle class and if a woman is poor or she doesn’t have any one for support and she has to bear her and her family expenses The reason for this question is to find out the relationship between financial barriers for starting new business and education. We had found that there is association between both of them. An educated woman is better able to overcome financial hurdles because she can engage investors and can gather financial loans from banks. Whereas, it is difficult for illiterate women to take such benefits because she is not aware of these opportunities and may be if she is aware, it would be hard for her to cater such barrier. The purpose of this question is to find whether government is offering any sort of support to strengthen your skills and the answers didn’t have association with education because government is supporting both educated and uneducated woman entrepreneurs to strengthen their skills. Research shows that most of illiterate women agreeing that Govt. is supportive whereas literate women are less agreeing to this statement, this is mainly due to literate women usually don’t seek for government support.

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

Another question asked was do you think being a woman limits your exposure to the market and affects your efficiency with respect to education. And the responses were significant because education plays a vital role in exposing and making individual’s mind efficient.

Project Management: TASK Article Readings & developing Literature review Defining Research Question and Objectives Developing Questionnaire Data Collection SPSS Data Entry Data Evaluation Findings & Recommendations

Time/Duration 1st November – 10 November 11 November 13th November 17th 18th and 19th November 21stNovember 22nd November – 26th November

Four articles are divided in each group member and he is supposed to read every article thoroughly and write a review about his articles. After analysing previous researches we are able to develop our research objectives and questions. Then data collection was very costly and time consuming in this nature of research, we visit various boutiques in Lahore and visit Fanni Taleemi Idara run by Govt. of Pakistan in township Lahore, and Aurat foundation, these institutes basically help us in capturing illiterate women entrepreneurs.

Recommendations There have been mixed results on whether the culture is supportive towards women in starting up their own businesses and whether it is difficult for women to start their business in this society. 33.3% of the illiterate entrepreneurs have strongly agreed on the fact that this culture is not supportive at all whereas 30.8% of the literate entrepreneurs have strongly disagreed to the very same question showing that both segments view the same culture through a different perspective. The main reason behind this is the difference of being brought up as a child and the level of education that they have gone through. The literate entrepreneurs have had far more exposure to the outside world than their counterpart which results in difference of opinion. Both parties to some extent (33.3% & 34.6%) disagree that it is difficult for women to start a business on her own in this society. The literate entrepreneurs despite keeping the thoughts of a supportive culture have shown discontent, 38.5% strongly agreed that it is difficult to start up a business. It is difficult for them to start up their businesses as they have broader ideas that require more contacts and finances than are required by the illiterate entrepreneurs. The illiterate entrepreneurs believe that the cultural taboos do not prove to be a problem once they are up and running with their business (53.3%) whereas the literate entrepreneurs have a neutral (42.3%) perspective towards this point.

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

Family is the most important part of anyone’s life and their support is much needed. When asked whether they faced any sort of opposition from their families while starting up their business, both parties mutually disagreed to this point (40% - illiterate and 34.6% literate). Both of them also do not have any sort of family pressure on them to close their currently operating business (53.3% - illiterate and 42.3% - literate). The reason for these particular results is natural as families do tend to support your in most cases unless there has been an extreme case where illiteracy has led to the family in choosing to leave their daughter all on herself. The government plays an important role in the development of an economy as its job is to regulate and create policies that motivate and give investors and incentive to start up their businesses through investment and create employment for others in the process. The government should be at the forefront of all the action and they should be providing entrepreneurial women with workshops to improve their skills in the domains they are working in. The illiterate entrepreneurs both strongly agreed and strongly disagreed equally, 26.7% and 26.7% respectively, to the question whether the government institutions are offering any sort of support to strengthen their skills. The entrepreneurs who agreed were possibly in the reach of those workshops whereas the disagreeing ones were unaware of the government programs put forward by the Government of the Punjab. However, 30.8% of the literate entrepreneurs disagreed, the major reason behind this answer was the very fact that literate entrepreneurs go for broader businesses for which they themselves have enough knowledge of as they most probably have also done a degree or course in it. Designers opening up boutiques have obviously mastered their skills through a fashion designing course. This leaves less space for the government to act as they concentrate mostly towards providing their already scarce resources to those who are really needy, the poor and illiterate. Moreover, both parties have shown neutral views towards the work of NGOs in this sector. Coming towards one of the most important part of this research which is directly related to women entrepreneurs; gender based discrimination. The difference of background and upbringing is very clearly portrayed through the results of the question whether the women entrepreneurs have felt hesitant in opening up their business in this male dominant society. The illiterate entrepreneurs have strongly agreed with a 33.3% whereas their counterparts have strongly disagreed with a 34.6% vote. Literate women have the mind-set of equality in gender which terminates the fear of a male dominant society whereas illiterate women do have the tendency of feeling themselves under men in this society. Furthermore, when asked whether the middle man exploits them while providing them services both parties had a neutral view of 53.3% - illiterate and 42.3% - literate. The illiterate entrepreneurs have a neutral perspective (53.3%) that being a woman doesn’t necessarily limits their exposure to the market. As expected the result for the literate entrepreneurs was that they strongly disagreed (46.2) to the above mentioned question. This shows that having a strong belief of equality can realistically make

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

women diminish the problems they could possibly face in communication and coordination in the market due to their gender. Finally, the most important aspect which has to be considered by an entrepreneur in this age is the finance. When asked by the illiterate entrepreneurs, 80% of them agreed that they were forced to open up their own business due to financial constraints whereas 38.5% of the literate entrepreneurs agreed to the same question. The reason most illiterate women force themselves to work is a high poverty level and they not being able to even fulfil their basic necessities. A large family to feed with a low income is very difficult in the 21 st century where inflation rates are increasing on a daily basis. The women are left with no choice but to start up their own business and feed their children. The situation gets worse when the women are divorced as then there is absolutely no one left and they are left to cater for themselves. The literate entrepreneurs however have shown agreement as well because their lifestyle shows independency which clearly states that despite having a wealthy family background they tend to stand up on their own feet for themselves. Both parties however have agreed that it was difficult rising up the initial start-up cost for the business and they both have simultaneously also strongly agreed that it has been difficult in raising up finances after the start of the business as well, 33.3% - illiterate and 30.8% - literate. This is evident as it is never easy for anyone to start up their business; it requires a lot of capital investment with finances in the backup as well. When asked whether finance has been the major barrier to entry in the industry for them, the illiterate entrepreneurs had a neutral perspective, 40%, whereas 26.9% have strongly disagreed from the literate entrepreneurs whereas another 26.9% has also strongly agreed to this question showing a mix of opinion. For literate entrepreneurs this mix of opinion can be judged by the family background of the entrepreneur as obviously if the lady comes from a rich background then money wouldn’t be considered as a barrier whereas for an educated woman coming from the middle class would have to think twice before starting up her business just because of the pressure of gathering the finance costs. The illiterate women entrepreneurs have agreed to the fact that they face problems in maintaining a work/life balance whereas the literate women entrepreneurs strongly disagreed. This clearly states that literate entrepreneurs know how to balance life with work while keeping priorities. Comparatively analysing both illiterate and literate entrepreneurs it can be concluded that both do face problems from starting up their business to keeping it running efficiently and effectively. The literate women entrepreneurs however do get an edge over the illiterate entrepreneurs due to their exposure and level of educational background. They also believe that the culture is supportive towards them which provide them a moral boost up. They are also highly motivated while opening up their business as they don’t consider this male dominant society as a threat

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Problems Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Lahore

which is essential for a woman if she wants to succeed. The literate entrepreneurs tend to open up their own businesses as a trend and because they like working rather than opening it up merely because it would generate a living for them, which shows that there is enthusiasm and any work with such divine passion is no doubt going to pay off sooner or later. It is important to motivate the entrepreneurs of a country as they lead to innovative ideas and prove to be a great source of revenue for both themselves and the economy!

Conclusion Problems are bound to come along a path to success. The same is the story for women entrepreneurs in Lahore, Pakistan. The questionnaire that had been developed to fulfil the objectives of this particular research has shown the fact that woman entrepreneurs do find it difficult in starting up and continuing their own business. We have also provided ample recommendations which might be helpful in overcoming these problems. One cannot ignore the power and potential of women doing businesses in Pakistan. We have discussed in detail that how important it is for females to work in an economy if it wants to grow. We need to more supportive as a society. Allow women the equal opportunity we provide to men so that they can perform according to their potential and help grow this nation.

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