(Posted by a talented colleague, Mr Per Silverbeat):
A quick look at the figures will tell you
that the real entrepreneurial growth in the world is coming from women, with
the number of women-owned businesses in the US growing at twice the rate of all
firms.
In part due to an affirmative action legislation bill, 30% of US firms
are majority-owned by women.
That percentage falls by half in the UK [Ros: Come on, UK!!], though
there are other interesting figures that point to a shift in attitudes in the
world of commerce.
In emerging
economies, female entrepreneurial activity is as high as 45%, but there remains
huge disparity in the business world between women and men.
In the UK, men in
full time work still take home on average 10% more than women. Could this have
something to do with the rise of female-owned businesses?
Legislation may be doing much to ensure
that woman are increasingly finding themselves in more executive positions,
with the government going as far as telling FTSE 100 companies to have a
minimum of 25% of female directors by 2015 or else face possible measures, but
how far will that go towards fixing the subconscious psychological behaviour of
the workplace?
Roslyn shared with me an interesting insight
the other day about how the behaviour of a business trickles down to its
employees from the top. So if upper management is stressed out, then this will
be reflected in the behaviour of everyone further down in the chain of command.
So if the majority of businesses are run by that outdated patriarchal figure of
the grey haired, aggressive alpha male who has clawed his way to the top, then
this behaviour will only be reinforced by all those who serve under him. This
begs the question: how long will this same model continue? Certainly the rules
of nature once stated survival of the fittest, but haven’t we largely placed
our primordial, animalistic tendencies to one side and as individuals learned
to feel some degree of compassion towards our fellow humans? With the not-so
gradual increase in businesswomen starting their own companies, it looks like
this model is finally going to change.
(Image kindly borrowed from Dylan Jones-Evans' blog.)
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