This is a guest post brought to us by Jade Waddy
Over the past few years there has been a huge debate between men and women about the presence of gender within the business sector. In 2011 a whopping 75% of entrepreneurs in the UK were male, leaving only 25% to women.
Since then that number, for women, has increased and there is more promise in 2014 for those who want to get into business.
Even though it is on the rise, the amount of women in business is still fairly low, less than a third of self-employed people are female and “failure” of businesses run by women are more likely to be due to personal family matters rather than the actual downfall of the business itself.
But why are there not more of us women in the business world? What exactly is stopping us? Well in actual fact hardly anything is stopping us from becoming professional businesswomen.
Even single mothers are able to run their own small business from home, whether that be making and selling jewellery or business advice.
Being self-employed has many different benefits to women as you can be as flexible as you like, the business is all yours and you have the final say on everything and you can do it all by yourself and get 100% of the profit.
The scary part for many women is having the confidence to do it and all the paperwork that it involves.
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Ladies have already proven in several intelligence tests worldwide that we’re more driven, more organised and are great at planning.
In schools all over the UK the percentage of qualifications passed by girls remains to always be higher than the boys. So why are higher paying jobs more leant towards men? Doctors, fire fighters, policemen etc?
Even though there are laws in place to say that you cannot be discriminated or singled out for your gender, it seems that many employers still bypass this but there is no real way to prove that they are doing it. This is another good reason for women to get into entrepreneurship as it means only answering to one person, yourself.
Having your own business is also a good way to secure a future for yourself or your family. However there is a very big debate between mothers over the “stay at home mum” lifestyle.
Many mothers will nurse and go back to work, whereas other mothers will stay at home and let the father be the breadwinner. It is fair to say that for the first few years of a child’s life, the mother needs to be there.
However some parents then become “full time mothers” and never work again. The longer you stay out of work, regardless of having children, the more difficult it will be to get back into work. Especially if you need your job to be flexible, which is why I encourage you ladies to get your business mind in gear and pursue your own business.
Below is a great infographic by Merchant Money that includes lots of stats and statistics about women in business and the rise of female entrepreneurism in the UK.
(Click on the image once to open in a new page and a second time to make bigger)
AUTHOR BIO: Jade Waddy is an experienced writer with an NOCN level 3 in journalism. She writes articles on all manner of subjects but specialises in business, entrepreneurialism and finances.
