Can Women Entrepreneurs Have It All? Conclusions from Our First W4Women Rountable
Can women entrepreneurs in the Arab world really have it all?
This was the question we asked some of Egypt’s most outspoken
female founders at our very first
Wamda for Women Entrepreneurs (W4WE) roundtable this past
Saturday in Cairo.
After Wamda’s Mix n’ Mentor event, 30 women gathered for a debate
that continued for two hours, despite a power outage.
Yet we didn’t need electricity to spark heated debates. As we
shared stereotypes, role models, experiences finding finance, and
balancing work with life in the pitch dark, we came to 8 basic
conclusions (below).
These conclusions build upon the discussion that has been raging
globally, reignited by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s recent book
Lean In, which examines the reasons women are being held back in
the workplace.
Female pundits have called Sandberg’s book
elitist,
superficial, and
confusing, while others have fiercely defended her
advice. Yet the most important element of the debate about what
represents us is that it’s happening.
After all, as Mitra Kalita of Quartz
put it, “the one thing worse than women who can’t have it all
are those who have nothing.” In the U.S., for one,
that pool is growing.
In the Arab world as well, women’s unemployment is a big challenge.
It’s perhaps not quite as dire as portrayed; the statistic that
only 32% of women are employed across Middle East and North
Africa belies the fact that the informal sector may account for
40% of women’s employment.
In Egypt, increasing women’s unemployment stands to
boost GDP by 34-56%. Yet all too often in this part of the
world, the discussion of what women want in the workplace starts
and ends here, with a focus on women’s impact on GDP.
Especially in Egypt, where the current regime has rejected the U.N.’s attempt to quell violence against women, do we really need to hear another definition of success based on GDP? Or recommendations for empowering women by transforming government policies or societal norms? Let’s not hold our breath.
The goal of our Wamda for Women Entrepreneurs roundtables is to refocus the conversation on what women can do right now to empower each other.
After all, as Wamda contributor Gulay Ozkan
asserts, maybe starting a business is one of the best
ways to have it all. And women are perhaps better positioned than
they’ve ever been to take the lead in the Middle East.
Female college graduates
outnumber men in most Middle East countries. Most women who own
businesses are finding ways to balance their lives: 83% of women
entrepreneurs in the Arab world work over
40 hours a week, although the majority (64%) are married.
(Unlike in the West, many manage with the help of close-knit
families.)
Lest you assume most of them are running small-scale catering
businesses, 80% of women-led businesses
plan to scale, 30% are
large scale, and, one study found, women-led firms that are
more tech-savvy than those led by men.
As we shared stories with each other and took an honest look at the
challenges women in Egypt face, we came up with a few preliminary
conclusions:
- Women need to be assertive in the workplace despite negative
stereotypes.
- We need to encourage each other to talk about our
accomplishments, sometimes working together to pitch each other’s
companies at investor events.
- Women need to have an accurate sense of their duties and not
feel overly responsible for others on their teams, or as though
they need to mother the office.
- We need to speak out when banks are asking biased questions
about whether they will get married or have children when applying
for bank loans. (Although none of the women on the table were
rejected for funding).
- Most women on the tables cited their mother as their role
model. Women should teach their daughters to aspire to work
and raise their children to ascribe less to gender stereotypes.
- We should mentor each other in groups, online.
- We can leverage technology to balance our lives and stay united
with our families.
- Every woman should feel a responsibility towards being an active role model and helping other women.
Do you agree?
To build on these conclusions, Wamda for Women Entrepreneurs will
be covering the stories of the region’s female role models, opening
avenues for mentorship, and brainstorming technologies for
work/life balance on our Facebook
Group, Google+
community, and LinkedIn
group.
We'll also be bringing this discussion to every major city in the
Arab world, coming next to Doha in late April. Join
us.