Asian CHI Symposium 2019: Emerging HCI Research Collection Page 90

Bridging Female Entrepreneurs using ICT

Sadia Sharmin
Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh
sadiasharmin@cse.buet.ac.bd

ABSTRACT
Among the barriers of many developing countries, one of the major problems is that a huge portion
of women are still confined within the boundary of their home. A nation can in no way progress
without the contribution of such a huge portion of population towards the economy. In spite of
having potential, many women remain under-utilized just due to lack of necessary support, such as,
capital, partners, workers, work-space and social security. In this age of technology numerous
applications of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been introduced in homes and
workplaces, changing the way we live, how we work, and what we are able to do. As a part of
technology revolution ICT tools are becoming increasingly accessible to the rural underprivileged
people. Technology is also essential for women’s economic advancement and can help women in
developing countries to increase their productivity, create new entrepreneurial ventures and access
new income-generating pursuits. ICT is rapidly changing the global landscape and becoming a
necessary tool for running a competitive business. The range of potential benefits ICTs offer is
extensive; ensure better access to information crucial to business development, market and pricing
information, production technologies, compliance, forecasts and training. ICT can also enable
entrepreneurs to communicate better along the value chain as well as their administration more
efficient. Since information and services increasingly becoming digital in both public and private

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Asian HCI Symposium'19, May 4-9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3309700.3338444
Asian CHI Symposium 2019: Emerging HCI Research Collection Page 91

sector, entrepreneurs without using technology have an obvious disadvantage.

Therefore a bridge between these two buzzwords ‘Entrepreneurship’ and ‘Technology ’can
contribute to accelerate both the streams. Keeping pace with this motivation, we present the
gender divide and ICT usage in entrepreneurship in context of Bangladesh and propose a study and
platform which will help user to find complementary business partners, financers, information,
services even in nearest locality. Though the problem is mainly explored focusing females in
developing counties; gender based requirements of the environment, social context, customized
design approaches, will be an interesting investigation. Study of this cross country topic can bridge
the gender divide and its real-life implementation can surely contribute to raise the overall social
and economic growth of any developing country.

INTRODUCTION
Emerging literature suggests that women can play a significant role in the larger entrepreneurship
phenomenon and economic development. As a result, there is an insistent need to investigate
various dimensions of women entrepreneurship. The existing theoretical concepts need to be
expanded to better explain the uniqueness of women entrepreneurship as a subject of research
inquiry [17]. Bridging through Internet or mobile phone is increasingly making people’s life easier
through different services. Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), in particular high-
speed Internet, are changing the way companies do business, transforming public service delivery
and democratizing innovation. With 10 percent increase in high speed Internet connections,
economic growth increases by 1.3 percent [7].

Figure 1: Gender gap sub indices in Bangladesh

BANGLADESH
The vision of Government to build ’Digital Bangladesh’ within 2021 envisages a country which yields
substantial economic growth. Within age range of 15-64, which is actually the age of contributing to
Asian CHI Symposium 2019: Emerging HCI Research Collection Page 92

growth of economy of country, 47.5% [10] of our population are female and among them, only 35%
[3] contribute to total GDP. Therefore, a lot of initiatives are being taken around the country to
inspire women in entrepreneurship to increase this contribution to GDP. Figure 1 shows the gender
gap subindices [14] for men and women of different ages. From these indices it is obvious that
women in Bangladesh are far from reaching equality in almost every sector.

The importance of women entrepreneurs in the national development process has been
acknowledged by successive governments and steps initiated to realise these objectives.
Consequently, under successive Five-Year-Plans [2], women’s development initiatives have been
gradually integrated into the macro framework and multi-sectoral economy to bring women into the
mainstream of economic development and encourage potential women entrepreneurs realizing
their business plans.

ICT is the backbone of any digital initiative. ICT overlaps over the vast area of information
technology, communication technology and the telecommunication technology. With the
mentionable rise in number of Internet subscribers, various applications of ICT and services have
been launched to facilitate health, agriculture, education and administrative sector. However, the
Business sector has not received any mentionable impact of ICT yet. Since both ’entrepreneurship’
and ’ICT’ are two buzzwords of present world, our plan is to make a connecting bridge between
these two, which is expected to have major impact on life of women. Our prime target users are all
women of developing countries who has potential to contribute to a business, however, cannot do
so, due to our social barriers and lack of opportunities. Therefore, we propose a platform which will
make the entrepreneurship a less challenging and feasible plan and is unique and first of its kind in
respect of Asian countries, particularly Bangladesh.

BARRIERS: HARSH REALITY OF OUR SOCIETY

Working in a male-dominated, competitive and complex economic and business environment,
women have to fight on their own, for participation in different fields of economic activities, in
varying degrees. Women entrepreneurs in particular have to face multi-dimensional problems from
own family to the professional arena. The problems range from the attitude of the employees and
stakeholders to lack of appropriate knowledge and the bureaucratic procedures [1].

Exclusion from technology education and design: Throughout the world, technologies are often
considered to be within the control of men. Gender norms about men’s control of technology,
information, and knowledge limit women’s opportunities to learn, use, and benefit from
technologies. At home, husbands might regulate the family radio, mobile phone, or television,
controlling when and how other family members use them. At work, men may determine that
operating a plow or a computer is not something women should be allowed to learn. Even
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technology programs that target women can be co-opted by men once their utility and profitability
are established; so women who do gain access to a technology do not see the economic benefits
associated with it.

Social norms favoring men: The predominantly male middlemen, suppliers, contractors and
exporters dominate the industry and take advantage of women’s isolation at home and lack of
access to credit, supplies and market knowledge about the value of their work. This is true about the
rural entrepreneurs as well as in urban areas. Home-based self-employed entrepreneurs lack access
to inputs and services like credit, market information and new technology that could increase their
productivity. Due to lack of market facilities, they also do not get the proper prices for their
products. As a result such producers are under-priced by the customers or wholesalers who place
orders for their products.

Little free time: Across developing countries, women bear a disproportionate burden of household
and family responsibilities, such as cooking, cleaning, and fetching fuel or water, as well as child and
elder care. These tasks are time- and labor-intensive.

Lack of financial ability to purchase established and new technologies: In rural sector, women do
not generally own physical assets that can be used as collateral for loans; the titles to the assets do
usually belong to their male relatives. Even if capital is available, highlending rates discourage
investment. Inheritance laws and social customs in many developing countries prohibit women from
owning property, limiting their ability to take out loans that require collateral for large technology
purchases. So, would-be women entrepreneurs cannot set up their small businesses. Nor can they
buy computers or mechanical equipment that would aid in their work or allow them to train others.

Institutional constraints: Bank loan procedures are not that easy for women entrepreneurs to
comply with because of some bureaucratic problems. Since they do not do job, they do not have tax
identification numbers (TINs) and other necessary papers like bank transactions and guarantees
required for bank loans.

Lack of Experience: The lack of management experience and production skill is yet another major
constraint facing the women population. Lastly, there is lack of healthy workplace environment in
both rural and urban areas. These barriers, though formidable, can be overcome. Research shows
that technologies supporting women’s economic advancement often do so by addressing (directly
or indirectly) one or more barriers in a way that creates an enabling environment for women to
access and use technology.
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BACKGROUND AND RELATED WORK

Before diving into further development of the proposed web-based platform, we have studied and
researched on past and current situation of women desiring to build a start up, and relevant
possible solutions already available on market.

Lack of capital is the most prominent of all the problems that may arise when planning to start a
small business. A very basic solution to this problem is provided by various NGOs spread throughout
the entire south-east Asia, as for example, GrameenBank [6]. They provide small amount of loan as
capital and for this, lots of young to-be entrepreneurs reach to them via their website. However, it
does not necessarily solve our targeted problem, as they do not provide any special support for
women separately, and also, the interest rate is sometimes higher.

A perfect web-based solution to this capital problem is what KickStarter [8] tries to solve. People
with business ideas share them with the world via this website, and other people, who believe in
their ideas, respond to their pledges and donate little to large sum of money. Lots of large projects
were built with mass-help from KickStarter. It seems to help people gather capital brilliantly, but it
also carries the same problems as before. It does not provide special support for women specifically,
and it does not solve start-up problems.

The BOSS Network [5], which stands for ’Bringing Out Successful Sisters’ is, on the contrary, a
platform dedicated to women only. The BOSS Network, as a community of women, cultivates
entrepreneurial spirits and encourages successful women to develop, promote and support the next
generation of young women looking to enhance their social sphere. While this network is very much
helpful for a morale boost, this system also does not provide a good solution to our desired
problem.

PowerLink [9] is a Powerful Growth Catalyst for entrepreneur. It provides impactful programs and
connections for entrepreneurs who are serious about growing their business. Over 200 Pittsburgh
business owners have benefited from a PowerLink Advisory Board and other PowerLink programs.
For over 25 years, Powerlink has supported the growth of businesses and entrepreneurs. It runs
practical and impactful education and networking programs.

STUDIES FROM THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Over the years several studies have been embarked on women entrepreneurs [12, 13, 15]. The
studies generally refer to challenges faced by women in venturing into online business.
Significance of psychological and environmental dimensions for Malaysian Muslim women to
venture into online business has been studied in [15]. The result of the study shows that
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psychological factors are highly relevant and the role of environmental factors is also significant.
Their study concludes that “Muslim women are going to be a perusal factor in economic
advancement” especially in Malaysia. A case study empowering Women entrepreneurs of
Bangladesh through ICT have been done in [11]. In [16] ICT-based business initiatives, and e-
commerce projects in particular, have been hailed as “potential goldmines” for women
empowerment and best practices have been pointed out.

A study of women entrepreneurs, [13] examined the motivational and behavioral characteristics of
60 female business owners, utilizing both structured questionnaires and unstructured interviews.
They found that the need for independence was an important motivating factor to start a business
for the women in their sample.

The statistics of women participation in the labour force has been increasing marginally for the last
thirty years. The sectors that appeal to these women are wholesale and retail trade, hotels and
restaurants, finance, real estate and business services. This study has indicated the significant role
women plays in the economic development of the country. According to studies for the participants
who are reluctant and ignorant to the online assistance provided, this could be due to the fact that
the learning environment is too formal for them, thus does not meet their needs as most of them
are housewives or with low educational level. Thus, they would expect more informality in their
learning. It is suggested that collaborative learning spaces be created in which informal learning can
thrive. The impact of mobile phone or connecting devices has also been talked emphasized in
several studies.

SCOPE OF WORK
Mounting evidence confirms that women’s improved economic status produces many positive
economic and welfare outcomes for children, family, and societies.
The objective of our work is to explore the problems and challenges that female entrepreneurs face
and suggest possible solutions using ICT. The understanding of perceived problems and challenges
enables the research to explore the role of entrepreneurial support organizations, educational
programs, ICT and different coping strategies.

BRIDGING THE DIVIDE

Bridging the gender and technology divide and using technology for women empowerment requires
few stages:
• Focusing on sectors which can convey rapid and significant benefits to women in
developing countries and can utilize ICT as a strategic imperative [4]
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• Rethink the development and deployment of new and existing technologies Surveying and
Market research
• Training users to operate, repair, and maintain technology Supplying and distributing the
technology to ensure access
• Creating and maintaining market linkages or women’s goods and services
• Assessing and evaluating the entire process, gather feedback to overcome the drawbacks

BENEFITS
Apart from bridging the gender divide our initiative will result in several benefits. It will create
business and employment opportunities for women as owners and managers, as well as employees
of new business ventures through literacy programmes, business planning courses, ICT training,
trading information services and e-commerce initiatives. Women entrepreneurs will become
competitive at a global level through the exposure [15] Productivity will increase as well as their
confidence, skills and decision making will be boosted. Women will tend to gain control to critical
resources.

CONCLUSION
A woman being self-dependent not only helps in economy but also solves many social crisis and
raises the standard of the nation. Therefore, our prime concern is to make a platform where women
can get the opportunity to become self-dependent and confident by doing something on their own,
not by the mercy of others. Since entrepreneurship is more challenging for women, our prime target
users are the women of all Asian countries who have all potentials for business start-up but cannot
do so due to social and economic barriers. Surveys carried out and different studies indicate that the
proposed platform can increase number of start-up business to a great extent. We believe, this
project will do a great way to help many Asian women to make their cherished dream come true.
This symposium will give me the opportunity to engage with like-minded researchers who are
working on similar research interests or projects. The feedback I will receive from the audience will
be invaluable in terms making an inclusive platform which will make entrepreneurship-minded
women financially stable.

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Juha Arrasvuori