In the past decade, the business landscape has evolved dramatically. While the covid-19 pandemic may only have accelerated the evolution, even before that, the attitudes and “traditional” ways of conducting “business as usual” have been challenged.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, it’s worthy to recall the history of women in business and how courageous women are changing the business landscape for the future!
History of Women in Business
It may come as a shock to many, but the history of women entrepreneurs goes a long way back into the past. Just to give the slightest glimpse of the time period we are talking about, the earliest document of a woman entrepreneur can be traced back to 1870 BC in modern-day Iraq. This was the time of Assyrian, where women frequently contributed to the flourishing trading network in the region, establishing women’s aptitude in the business.
Margaret Hardenbroeck is another shining example of a relative past, trading between Holland and colonies in 1695 and becoming the wealthiest woman in New York.
These stories may be unheard; however, these certainly aren’t uncommon to historians. Throughout the 18th century, women entrepreneurs traded extensively across the major global cities. Just to put some names to the facts, Mary Katherine (1776) was the first woman publisher in the USA; Coco Chanel established her billion-dollar business back in 1913, and Madam C.J. Walker (1890s) owned a million-dollar haircare empire.
Tracing history, we see a major shift in the role of women in the mid-19th century, where women primarily assumed the role of homemakers, whereas men assumed the primary wage earners. Such “traditional” gender roles have unfortunately persisted ever since.
To highlight the sorry state of gender segregation in the business landscape, Katharine Graham was the sole female CEO of a Fortune 500 company back in 1973. It was a time when women made up less than 40% of the workforce in the US. Today, this number has risen to over 46%, with 37 women leading the Fortune 500 companies.
The challenges for women in business
While things have changed for the better, there are still a lot of challenges that women face in the business landscape. Below is a non-exhaustive list of barriers that have been impeding the role of women in business.
– Lack of funding for female entrepreneurs
In this day and age, we may not expect such massive discrimination, but unfortunately, women entrepreneurs lack significant due to lack of funding opportunities. To put it into perspective, less than 1% of all the venture funding raised in the UK goes to all-female teams, whereas mixed-gender teams are able to secure not more than 10% of all the venture funding raised in the UK.
– Underrepresentation in senior roles
Another major barrier that women face today in the business landscape is severe underrepresentation in roles of authority. To put in a number, globally, women numbers in senior positions is still less than 30%, which may be the highest ever till date, is still far from equal.
If we dive a little deeper, we will see even more gender disparity in roles assigned. Women are primarily assigned to administration and support functions (where they are over-represented), whereas men take up more technical and senior leadership roles.
– A confidence gap
One major obstacle that has kept women from excelling in business or taking up their due space in male-dominated roles is the lack of confidence and self-belief.
As someone who has worked extensively in HR, it’s rare to see women self-advocating or self-promoting themselves at work. This is primarily due to the fear of a negative response. There have even been studies concerning the lack of confidence amongst women employees, even where there is no capacity gap between the two genders.
How women are shaping the future of business?
Even with all the odds stacked against them, women have challenged the status quo and made their way into the business landscape. Even more, women aren’t just challenging the status quo; they are bringing positive changes to the business landscape. There are plenty of amazing stories where women pull out an inspirational business success with their strong business acumen.
Here are some ways women are transforming the business landscape for the future generation:
– Driving Innovation
As women take up more leadership roles in businesses, they bring an entirely fresh perspective to the business acumen. Women entrepreneurs have primarily taken up the responsibility to bring societal change by bringing innovative ideas to address real-world problems. Even in traditional industries, women are creating new products and services, not just aimed to propel organizational growth but to add value for consumers.
In fact, studies have shown that companies with one in three women executives are more profitable than companies with little or no women executives.
– A fresh approach to leadership
Women’s role in leadership has increased significantly in recent years. Again, women have enacted change using their unique skills and competencies in leadership positions.
In fact, according to one 2016 study, women outplay men in nearly all emotional intelligence competencies, which are crucial for c-suite and executive roles. Qualities like adaptability, conflict management, and teamwork are some critical leadership attributes that women are redefining in the business world that traditionally has been dominated by men.
– Promoting Diversity and inclusion
As more women take up leadership roles, they aren’t just changing the business landscape; instead, they are triggering a more significant social norm by inspiring a new generation of women.
Today, women leaders are increasingly playing their role to encourage and mentor other women, assisting them to enter and succeed in the business world, thus driving the change they once aspired to.
