Abstract
In India, society has set some unsaid rules. Some find it difficult to accept women in a work environment because of the patriarchy. Hence it becomes difficult for a woman to break the stigma and establish her own firm. The paper aims to look at the number of threats and challenges that female entrepreneurs face from both micro and macro perspectives. Covid has bought both temporary change (workplace change) and permanent change (shutting down a service/facility) in an organisation. A small new rising firm would not have the capacity to sustain during this time, and females who try to set up small businesses to run their families are mentally affected. This article is an extensive review from earlier works to understand the challenges faced by female owned entrepreneurial firms and their performance during the change brought by COVID times. This article explores the factors influencing the development of female entrepreneurs as well as measures required to enhance the scenario. This paper also aims to explore the psychosocial aspect of changes brought by female owned entrepreneurial firms.
TopIntroduction
A firm is clearly an engineering unit, that is, a unit that turns factors of production into products. Following Machlup (1967), it was about how production and cost functions interact with market demand. But the firm is also an institutional unit that deals with questions of fundamental definition, identity, internal structure, and external boundaries (Hodgson, 2002). It can also be referred to as a type of business organization that allows two or more people to do business together in the form of a joint venture. Members must contribute personal assets according to the terms of the deed of incorporation. Each member of the corporate body bears full responsibility for the future success of the business.
Women can differentiate their desire to start a business by behavioural and motivational factors, but these groupings are fluid and allow women to transition into different types of entrepreneurs. Their personal ambitions and domestic arrangements significantly affect how their business develops. The company's performance is then considered in terms of individual qualitative and quantitative success criteria. Initial success is not judged by the usual business criteria of profitability and pre-orders. No matter how old the company is, there are differences between current and future success criteria. Enterprise helps economies not only survive but also survive and thrive. They also play a role in solving global social, environmental and economic problems. It’s evident from the reports that females devote more time to their families, which has a negative impact on their physiological, mental, emotional, and social work lives (Arathi & Rajkumar, 2015), making it a primary concern for female entrepreneurs. They struggle to balance their personal and professional life, which impacts their professional growth (Kelley, Singer & Herrington, 2016). Despite the drawbacks, they have demonstrated their capacity to manage not only small firms but also to transform them into extremely profitable large industries. Hence, initiatives to address changes in societal attitudes and mindsets should be one of the priorities. It is crucial to encourage female entrepreneurship in order to enhance the financial status of women. This can be accomplished with the help of education, as education is one of the significant instruments for developing entrepreneurship qualities in people. Furthermore, efforts should be made at all levels to motivate, inspire, and assist female entrepreneurs. The gender divide has been gradually narrowing across all age brackets. However, this reduction is attributed to fewer male self-employment rather than an increase in female entrepreneurship. However, this does not explain why female entrepreneurs are less entrepreneurial than male company owners. Studies found that there is no significant difference between male and female owned firms (Li et al, 2020) although the acuteness of the challenges faced may vary.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Coping Strategies: The various behavioural and cognitive techniques used to deal with difficult situations, solve problems, crisis intervention or to manage stress are known as the coping strategies.
Societal Stigma: Social stigma or societal stigma refers to the discrimination directed to any specific person, gender, or group on the basis of certain pre-conceived notions and/ or perceived characteristics. This often leads to prejudice and biased attitude toward the person, gender or group who becomes subject to this kind of distinction.
Female Entrepreneurs: The women who establish, organise, manage, and drive an enterprise or a business, are the female entrepreneurs.
Psychosocial Aspect: Psychosocial aspect pertains to those contexts which determine the impact of the social factors upon an individual’s mind, body, and behaviour, and vice-versa. There exists an interrelation between the two variables, and hence, often the term is used in a conjoined manner to denote relational integration.
Management Strategies: The methods and techniques implemented in business ventures to plan, set, manage, and execute goals and targets are known as management strategies.