SLIDE 1
Women’s Leadership for Enterprise: Differences in Productivity and Earnings
Presented By: Salma Khan
Chairperson, NGO Coalition for Beijing PFA Also Former Chairperson, UN CEDAW Committee Division Chief, Planning Commission, GOB Director General, Bangladesh Institute of Management
SLIDE 2 Dramatic Improvement in Women’s Lives During Last 25 Years
- Unprecedented gains in rights, education, health and
employment.
- Women have become agents of change in many
societies.
- More countries than ever guarantee women equal rights
to property, marriage and in other domain.
- Political participation of women have increased
SLIDE 3 Shift in Development Approach
- Ratification of CEDAW (186 countries) and adoptation of
Beijing Platform for Action (nearly by all countries) helped establishing critical link between gender equality and development.
- Demand for empowering women as economic, political
and social actors to change policy choices and make institutions more gender responsive.
SLIDE 4 Advances in Female Labor Force Participation
- Labor force participation significantly increased among young
women.
- Rate of growth of female labor participation in most countries higher
then men.
- Gender gap in labor force participation rate is declining (Global
Gender Gap Repot-2010)
- Women now makeup 40% of global labor force and 43% of farmers.
- Between 1980-2009 global rate of female labor force participation
rose to 51.8%.
- Due to tradition of unpaid female labor engaged in informal works,
male labor force participation in South Asia is comparatively low.
SLIDE 5 Role of Women-owned MSMEs in Economic Development
- MSMEs play critical role in poverty alleviation and job
creation in developing countries.
- Goldman Sach research finds that- as one woman’s
business prosper, so does her family and community.
- African women-owned/run MSMEs show great prosperity
in food security of the world.
- SMEs are recognized as engine of growth generating
employment and job opportunities both in developing and developed countries.
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Proportion of SMEs in ASEAN Economies Proportion of MSMEs in SAARC Economies
Country Proportion Indonesia 99.8% Thailand 99.7% China 99.2% Vietnam 96.8% Country Proportion India 90% Pakistan 90% Bangladesh N/A
SLIDE 7
Average Annual Growth Rate of Male/Female SMEs in Selected Countries
Source: Access to Finance for women-owned SMEs in Developing Countries 2011, IFC, World Bank Country Female Male Indonesia (2007) 8.1% 0.27% Malaysia (2008) 9.7% 7.43% Philippines (2009) 4.2% N/A Singapore (2009) 4.2% N/A Thailand (2008) 2.3% 0.31% Vietnam (2008) 42.5% 40.33%
SLIDE 8 Feminization of SMEs in Agricultural Sector
- Globally 43% farmers are women.
- Women are producing even more food.
- In agricultural sector- which is largely informal, women
face more discrimination.
- Women mostly do not own land, have little access to
agricultural credit and technology.
SLIDE 9 Enterprise Leadership, Productivity and Income Differentials on the Basis of Gender
- Women’s organizations productivity and income is
lower compared to men-run organizations.
- Leadership implies being control of one’s life and
activities- This independence is often denied to women.
- Productivity and income is a function of size and
choosing better options where role of leadership is critical.
- Women are reluctant to choose option for increasing
productivity as they have an attitude of risk aversion.
SLIDE 10 Less Presence of Women in Boardroom of Enterprises
- Though women have gained ground in the SME sector, only a few
women are in the leadership.
- Except in micro enterprises, women have limited role in leadership.
- Few women on Board of Directors or CEOs.
- Higher representation of women in
countries where women’s presence is mandatory leading to higher productivity and growth.
- In Bangladesh out of 43 Banks, 44
women on board compared to 471 male.
Country Ratio Norway 40% Required by law Sweden 21% Japan 2% Not required by law Korea 2%
SLIDE 11 Major Barriers to Women’s Leadership for Enterprise
a) Cultural Practice
- Leadership involves a process of social influence which is
- ften based on patriarchal power model.
- Typical masculine behaviour of management is expected by
workers.
- Burden of traditional gender roles- women bear the brunt of
housework, men do market work b) Access to Finance
- Women mostly do not own lands or other family assets.
- Can not offer collateral against loan.
- High risk and operational cost for Bank.
SLIDE 12 Continue….
c) Legal and Regulatory Constraints
- Women prefer to operate in a more transparent business environment.
- Ease of doing business matter more to women entrepreneur.
- Lacks information on legal and financial regulations and market
incentives. d) Lack of Market Interaction and Networking
- Lack of mobility- social and occupational segregation.
- Due to motherhood and domestic burden women are reluctant to join
trade unions and professionals bodies.
- Employees prefer engaged male workers compared to unengaged
female workers. e) Lower Education and Technical skill
- Increase in brain requirement and decrease in brawn requirement over
past two decades.
SLIDE 13
Recommendations
a) National income account system must be changed to reflect women’s unremunerated works. b) Adding value to women’s unpaid work will make women’s contribution to GDP visible, which will help to change social perception on women’s contribution in the economy and role in leadership. c) Attention should be paid to law enforcement and improve business environment and ease of doing business. d) Affirmative policy should be introduced to create more access to women to training and skill development. e) Discriminatory laws of inheritance and women’s access to land and family assets must be reformed.
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f) Special entrepreneurship programmes to transform women’s lives should be developed Examples of Latin America, through IFC developed Belcorp Project- provided loan, training and management skill to 1 million women beauty consultant to start business) Examples of Grameen Bank and BRAC ultra poor projects in Bangladesh g) More opportunities for women entrepreneur should be created in SMEs in Service sector which have the greatest potential in job creation and growth.
