Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Topic: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Course Title: Entrepreneurship Development

PREPARED FOR:
Dr. A.K.M. Helal Uz Zaman
Associate Professor Department Of Business ASA University of Bangladesh

PREPARED BY:
Saochi Aunto Aliza Chapal Kanti Mazumder
ID No # 091-12-0155 ID No # 091-12-0283

SUBMITTED DATE: 07-08-2011

Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Letter Of Transmittal

August 07 To
Dr. A.K.M. Helal Uz Zaman

Associate Professor Department Of Business ASA University of Bangladesh Subject: Presentation Paper on Women Entrepreneur in Bangladesh. Dear Sir, We are pleased to submit this Assignment paper on Women Entrepreneur In
Bangladesh.

For preparing the tram paper, we collected information from various data sources. We appreciate this opportunity to study Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh. Writing this paper is a great opportunity and an interesting experience for me. We would like to thank you for providing me with such an opportunity. Sincerely yours,

Saochi Aunto Aliza Chapal Kanti Mazumder

Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Preface

We are very pleased to present this assignment paper on Social activities. This is an opportunity to enlighten our knowledge sphere and prove ourselves to the future student of this level. First of all we are so thankful, that we can prepare this by the grace of the almighty God.

We gratefully acknowledge the inspiration, encouragement and valuable suggestion received from the well-wishers during the preparation of this paper.

Finally, we would like to thank our honorable teachers, classmates, and friends for helping us by providing information, positive inspiration, and motivation and so on.

We have tried our best to make this paper free from errors and we really think that it will help a lot to new comers.

Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Acknowledgement
Preparing this presentation paper on Women Entrepreneur in Bangladesh. was a wonderful experience to us.

At first we like to thank our course teacher Dr. A.K.M. Helal Uz Zaman for giving this opportunity as well as for this guidance.

We also acknowledge and thanks to our group members for providing us with the required information and in clearing all the queries.

Finally we like to thanks our family, friends and Almighty Allah for supporting us and giving us the courage to carry on our work.

Thank you. Sincerely Yours, Saochi Aunto Aliza (091-12-0155) Chapal Kanti Mazumder (091-12-0283) ASAUB

Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Table of Content
SL No 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Topic Page no 01 02 02 04 06 07 08 08 09 10 13 14 16 17 17 20 22

Who IS an ENTREPRENEUR: Women entrepreneur:

Women in Bangladesh

Women employment status A complete scenario of Women Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh

The Emerging Women Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh Reason of Becoming Woman Entrepreneur Women Entrepreneurship In last two decades

Recent realization on Women Entrepreneurship

Women Entrepreneurship in rural areas Reflection of success of Women Entrepreneur

Successful woman entrepreneur

Key to success of Women Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh

Challenges of Women Entrepreneurship

Findings of the survey How can the problem be overcome?

Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

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Conclusion

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Who IS an ENTREPRENEUR?

An entrepreneur is a person who innovates, organizes & takes the risk of running an enterprise. He arranges everything required to get up an enterprise, that is, funds, land, people, material & machinery. An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and is accountable for the inherent risks and the outcome of a product. The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to help launch a new venture or enterprise and accept full responsibility for the outcome. Jean-Baptiste Say, a French economist, is believed to have coined the word "entrepreneur" in the 19th century - he defined an entrepreneur as "one who undertakes an enterprise, especially a contractor, acting as intermediatory between capital and labour".The entrepreneur leads the firm or organization and also demonstrates leadership qualities by selecting managerial staff. Management skill and strong team building abilities are essential leadership attributes for successful entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur is an individual who accepts financial risks and undertakes new financial ventures. The word derives from the French "entre" (to enter) and "prendre" (to take), and in a general sense applies to any person starting a new project or trying a new opportunity. Characteristics of an entrepreneur include spontaneous creativity, the ability and willingness to make decisions in the absence of solid data, and a generally risk-taking personality. An entrepreneur may be driven by a need to create something new or build something tangible. In the Austrian school of Economics, entrepreneurs are described as being engaged in the creative destruction of existing products and services. As new enterprises have low success rates, an entrepreneur must also have considerable persistence. Entrepreneurs are generally highly independent, which can cause problems when their ventures succeed. In a small company the entrepreneur is able to personally manage most aspects of the business, but this is not possible once the company has grown beyond a certain size. Management conflicts often arise when the entrepreneur does not recognize that running a large stable company is different from running a small growing company. The problem is often resolved by the entrepreneur either leaving to start a new venture, or being forced out by shareholders. At Apple Computer, for example, one founder, Steve Wozniak, left to pursue other interests, while the other, Steve Jobs was ultimately fired and replaced with a CEO from a much larger company. Note that many years later, Jobs returned to the helm.

Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Women Entrepreneur:
"Women entrepreneur" is any women who organizes and manages any enterprise,business, usually with considerable initiative and risk. An enterprise owned and controlled by one or more women having a minimum financial holding of 51% or more, giving 51% or more employment to women.
Despite all their family and social problems, women have struggled hard to achieve their own identity. Women from all classes of Bangladesh want to stand up before everyone in their own right and not as someone's daughter or wife. Women can be a very caring homemaker, but at the same time she can prove to be a highly skilled Entrepreneur, an efficient employee, an administrator if they choose to be. Realizing that the advancement of women can not be prevented patriarchal society is changing its attitude toward women. There has been a gradual change in how people behave with working women. In the work place and at home people are now welcoming women.

Women in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a resource limited and overpopulated country where society is highly stratified, services and opportunities are determined by gender, class and location. However, women make nearly half of the population (Table -1), which means huge potential to be utilized for socioeconomic development of the country. Table-1: Population Status of Bangladesh Census From 1999 Census From 1998 Total Male Female Total Male Female 106315000 54729000 51587000 126200000 64819000 61381000 Share at Total Population (%) Share at Total Population (%) 51.48% 49.52% 51.36% 48.64% Source: Statistical Pocketbook, Bangladesh 99, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka 1999 (Page 85).

Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Sex and Age based Structure of the Population (Table 2) shows that like the male population of the country, women represent a vast resource for the country. They must be provided equal opportunity in education, employment and economic activities, then only this resource could be utilized properly.

Table-2: Sex and Age based Structure of the Population 1996 Age-base Group Total Population (%) Male Population (%) Female Population (%) 10-14 Years 12.6 12.52 11.58 15-19 Years 8.52 8.41 8.65 20-24 Years 8.40 7.60 9.25 25-29 Years 6.10 7.92 9.11 30-34 Years 4.25 6.10 6.10 35-39 Years 3.25 5.87 5.14 40-44 Years 2.89 4.40 4.09 Source: Statistical Pocketbook, Bangladesh 99, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka 1999 (Page 124). The educational status of women in Bangladesh shows that they are being increasingly educated. Though, the literacy rate of the women remains in average nearly 10 percent points behind their male citizen, as a least development country it must be rated as encouraging (Table 3). The country should provide this growing educated women folk with job and other productive economic activities.

Table-3: Status of Literacy 1997 Total (%) Male (%) Female (%) National Urban Rural National Urban Rural National Urban Rural 47.3% 59.9% 41.0% 50.6% 63.0% 44.5% 41.5% 53.7% 35.3% Source: Statistical Pocketbook, Bangladesh 99, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka 1999 (Page 348).

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Women Employment Status

Women in the rural informal sector are either self-employed or employed in family based enterprises that includes both agricultural and non-agricultural sector. These activities which include homestead agriculture, livestock and poultry rearing, fish farming, nursery and tree plantation, tool making, kantha sewing, fish net making, food processing, tailoring, rice processing etc. have been regular and invisible sources to family income supplementation. A sector- wise distribution of employed persons in rural areas shows that agriculture is the predominant source of female employment, followed by the manufacturing sector.

Table-4: Sex based Distribution of Employment Occupation National occupation al Share of Male employment employment (%) at total employment (%) 3.3% 0.4% 2.2 11.3 3.5 63.8 15.5 100 3.5 0.6 3.2 16.8 2.4 54.6 18.9 100 Share of Female employment at total employment (%) 3.0 00 0.6 2.2 5.4 78.8 10.0 100

Technical Administrative Clerical Sales Services Agriculture Production Total

Source: Statistical Pocketbook, Bangladesh 99, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka 1999 (Page 144). Women in Bangladesh are employed in low category of jobs. Most of them are employed in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery sector, where the share of the women employees is 78.8% (Table 4). Even in clerical job women are poorly represented. In administrative function, there is little woman participation, which clearly shows the frustrating job situation for the women in Bangladesh. Due to the grace of the emerge and growth of the Ready Made Garments sector, the share of women in production has increased; the share of women in production sector is 10%. Only in "sale" sector, the job share of women is more than their male colleagues, the share of women in this sector is 5.4.% whereas the male only 2.4% of the jobs of this category (Table4).

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

The entrepreneurship status of the population shows that out of 46.8% self-employed citizen, women make only 8.3%. The situation is, however, in urban Bangladesh a little better. In urban area nearly 15.4% of the 36.7% self-employed people are women. In rural area, it is only 7.4% of 47.6% (Table 5 & Graphic - 1). Most of the women are unpaid family helper, 83.2% in rural area and 42.9% in urban area. A part of the poor women works also as day labourer. On national level it is 5.7%, in urban area 6.2% and in rural area 5.6% (Table 6& Graphic - 1). This shows that industrial development in Bangladesh is unable to absorb even the cheapest part of the labour force the women labour. Previously, womens enterprises were confined in sectors that were dominated by traditional gender role, such as food and beverage, beauty parlour, health, education, webbing, tailoring and wholesale and retail apparel trade. But the situation is improving slowly; today women are also in occupations, which were solely controlled by the male before. Now, some of them possess top management post in private and public sector enterprises, sit in the most important policy making bodies of the country, are entrepreneurs and own enterprises. Women are now seen also as owners and managers of cold storage, shipping lines, advertising firms, travel agencies, interior decoration, engineering workshops and even garment industries, etc.

Table-5: Employed Persons 15 Years and Over by Status of Employment, Gender and Locality Employment Status Bangladesh (%) Both Sex Self-employed Employer Employee Unpaid Family Helper Day Labourer 32.2 0.3 11.9 37.7 17.9 Male 46.8 0.4 14.6 12.7 25.5 Urban (%) Both Sex 31.2 0.2 7.0 42.5 19.1 Rural (%) Male Female 47.6 0.2 9.2 14.4 28.4 7.4 0.1 3.7 83.2 5.6

Female Both Sex Male Female 8.3 0.1 7.6 78.3 5.7 36.7 0.8 34.6 15.4 12.5 42.2 1.0 34.3 5.8 14.7 15.4 0.1 35.4 42.9 6.2

Source: Labour Force Survey 1995-1996 (P-48)

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Graphic 1: Employed Persons 15 Years and Over by Status of Employment, Gender and Locality

Source: Table 5
A complete scenario of Women Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh

Women entrepreneurs constitute less than 10% of the total business entrepreneurs in Bangladesh whereas women in advanced market economies own more than 25% of all businesses. It is heartening to note that despite many barriers, a new women's entrepreneur class has arisen in the country taking on the challenge to work in a male-dominated, competitive and complex economic and business environment. Not only have their entrepreneurship improved their living conditions and earned more respect in the family and the society, but they are also contributing to business and export growth, supplies, employment generation, productivity and skills development of the country. A recent United Nations report concluded that economic development is closely related to the advancement of women. "In countries where women have advanced, the economy has usually been steady. By contrast, in countries where women have been restricted, the economy has been stagnant." Women's entrepreneurship is not an easy task. "Becoming an entrepreneur is an evolution of encountering, assessing, and reacting to a series of experiences, situations, and events produced by political, economic, social and cultural changes." Given the complexities in the social environment and administrative structure, women's entrepreneurship in Bangladesh is more challenging. Many social and operational constraints continue to restrict women from starting and running economic enterprises. Apart from the family and social barriers against the mobility of women, the operational barriers such as lack of access to capital, lack of training facilities for skills development, lack of business services, lack of business data, complex banking procedures and collateral requirements, etc. continue to critically limit their progress. Entrepreneurship is the driving force to bring about excellence in production, market innovation, human resources and skills development, social mobility, and changes in the attitude of people. Development of women's entrepreneurship offers excellent opportunities for development of one half of the population and for overall socio-economic progress of the country. Women's entrepreneurship indeed can bolster economic autonomy of women, promote gender balance and ultimately can lead to participation of women in broader decision making processes of the country.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

The Emerging Women Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh

In recent years, the developing countries of the world including Bangladesh have been focusing attention on the most disadvantaged group in the society - the women. Realization has gradually dawned on all concerned that a society cannot afford to waste half of its human resources by discrimination on grounds of sex. This increasing awareness on the part of the government has led to the adoption of national policies to facilitate a development process involving women in all spheres particularly in economic activities focusing especially on entrepreneurship development. The overwhelming majority of women in Bangladesh are not only poor, but also caught between two vastly different worlds --- the world determined by culture and tradition that confines their activities inside family homesteads, where they are regarded more as a commodity necessary only for bearing and rearing children and the world shaped by increasing landlessness and poverty that focus them outside into various economic activities for survival. Thus the female members, constituting half the country's population, are lagging far behind their male counterparts in all spheres of life. In Bangladesh, though the majority of the working women still have not been able to impose a controlling authority in mainstream production, there has arisen a new class - the women entrepreneurs, who have accepted the challenges of life and have emerged as leaders in the socio-economic development - earning for themselves and for their families or contributing towards the socio-political upliftment of the women. Not only have their greater participation in remunerative work improved their living conditions and provided bargaining positions in the households and wider community, but they are also creating opportunities for the general womenfolk leading to their economic progress and paving the way for a dignified survival through sustainable development.

Women have now become aware of their socio-economic rights and have ventured to avail the opportunities initiated for them. Rural Bangladesh is now a changed scenario for the women who have gathered courage to break barriers and enter the off-house working force as entrepreneurs and workers - a situation not accepted by the society in the past.

The urban areas have greater opportunities for business development but the areas where women lack assistance is in the access to credit, provision of skill training, and market facilities.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Reason of Becoming Woman Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship today has become an important profession among the women of Bangladesh at various levels of the society, both in the urban and the rural areas. The reason for the interest varies according to the different classes of the society. Where women of the poorer sections of the society, especially of the rural areas, due to poverty, have been forced into off-house income through entrepreneurship for economic solvency, the women of the middle class families, who have always lived restricted lives, have today, ventured into this profession as a challenge and an adventure into a new world of economic activity. On the other hand, many women have taken up entrepreneurship and become businesswomen not necessarily to earn and survive and raise the living standards, but to form their careers and become professionals in order to establish their rights through the development of a sector and thereby contribute towards the progress of the society and the nation.

Women Entrepreneurship In last two decades

Over the past two decades, norms segregating and protecting women have been breaking down. However, it is also apparent that female economic participation has in fact, marginalized women mainly because the activities involved in many areas does not provide women complete control over production, in land ownership or in income earned.

In regular cases, the initiatives in this regard have transferred women from the core production activities to marginal ones, such as handicraft, handloom, or home-based industries than the more sophisticated productions involving modern technology, which are usually controlled by the male entrepreneurs. Women are not being able to play a controlling role in the mainstream production where the male power has remained intact. No dent is easily created in patriarchy and the patriarchal value system of the society where women have been forced to enter and is involved marginally, being pushed increasingly into problematic situations. Their work load has increased manifold as they have to do both the domestic work and the income earning ones also. The changing role of women shows that over the last two decades, there has been a steady upward trend in the participation of women in economic activities in developing countries as Bangladesh.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Recent realization on Women Entrepreneurship

Despite the problem of serious under-enumeration of women's involvement in economic activities in a sex segregated society as ours, the potential of women's economic contribution is now well recognized. Greater participation of women in remunerative work is improving their living conditions and bargaining positions in the households and wider community. It is often the case that most of women's labor in economic activities basically saves expenditure for the household, but women are not considered income earners, as the output of their labor is not always marketed by themselves.

The distinct groups of women participation in economic activities outside the homestead are:

(a)Women in rich and moderate male-headed households.

(b)Women in middle and low-income male headed households, and

c) Women in households headed by females . The importance of women's entrepreneurship development focuses on women's development in general and their participation in income generating activities in particular, while it deserves a special consideration in rational development planning on two counts. First, leaving the women, who comprise about half the total population, outside the purview of development, no nation, can achieve any significant degree of success. It would be like working half strength compared to nations where women make full participation. Secondly, women's participation in gainful labor is expected to reduce fertility, a common development goal of most developing countries, particularly so for ours.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Women Entrepreneurship in rural areas

Women entrepreneurship in the rural industries is a new arena for investigation in the socioeconomic environment of Bangladesh. In view of the need to bring the rural womenfolk in the development stream of the country, the Government, the NGOs and other related agencies have provided ample opportunities to promote entrepreneurial skill among women. Incomegenerating activities, credit facilities, skill training, market opportunities have all combined to pave the way for the emergence of entrepreneurial development among women in rural Bangladesh. Women Entrepreneur most likely participating in the following entrepreneurial activities The women have been found to participate in the following: (1) Self-Employed: These women have acquired on their own, especially from parents, relatives or friends, the skills and capacities to operate enterprises. Some have under-gone training and apprenticeship or worked as skilled laborers and obtained enough knowledge to start their own business. Self-employed women are lesser in urban areas in comparison to rural areas where greater opportunities lie with the income generating activities of NGOs, which provide credit.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

(2) Enterprise Ownership: These women, are the Owner/operators of existing micro-enterprises, and have proven management and technical skill in self-employment. They often wish to expand, upgrade or diversify their business through employment of family members as apprenticeship especially in the rural areas or engage and hire workers for the production when the business progresses in the urban areas. This is the popular structure in the urban areas, where market availability helps the women to develop their trade. Many women working as skilled laborers have ventured to start their own business. (3) Manufacturing: Women's traditional skill enable them to take up manufacturing in areas where raw material for the products is easily available. Women in these activities employ workers as skilled, non-skilled, permanent or as seasonal workers. With the expansion of business and the development of quality products, training in skill, technology, management and marketing becomes essential. (4) Family Trade: Many women are involved in the family trades, hereditarily performed through generations and the skill is traditionally kept within the family. Women in such activities have their enterprises or employment based at homesteads. Manufacturing handicrafts or pottery, involved in food preparation, operating individual units of embroidery, tailoring printing, dyeing, weaving, spinning, net making, etc are some of the activities in this structure. These women are helped by family members including males. (5) Agricultural Activities: The rural women participate more in the agricultural sector, especially in operating vegetable gardens, horticulture production, nursery or even rice husking, and preparation of varied rice products. (6) Sub-Contracting: This new system of generating income in the non-formal sector is providing opportunities for women through a negotiable procedure obtaining orders for products from either, exporters, producers, whole sellers, and middlemen. Women even get orders from enterprise owners, who produce their supplementary goods through these women during peak market demands and these continuous orders provide the women with a stable income. Though the income is not very high, there exits less risks regarding payment. (7) Partners in Business/ Share holders/ Directors in Family Business Enterprises: Many of the women have become partners or share holders in larger business firms and industrial units. Some have entered the family industrial or business operations. (8) Traders, Contractors, Order Suppliers, Business Executives: These new occupations have been mastered by the women even though they have to compete with the men. Though the women have to face tough competitions in these areas, it is remarkable to observe that they have proved themselves efficient in their dealings along with men and have succeeded in their endeavors. (9) Medium and large Industry Owners: Women have become owners of medium and large industrial units either through inheritance or through private initiative. Many educated women

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

(10) Women as exporters have ventured into exports directly by themselves or through other exporters: Export fairs, international trade fairs, single country fairs and initiative by importers have helped the women to produce quality products for exports. Types of Production Units and Trades include the common small scale production units such as Handicrafts with various types of raw materials, Handloom Weaving & Spinning, Basketry, Mat making, Manufacture of Coir products. Fishing Net making, Paddy husking by Dheki, Oil production by Ghani, Jute production and sale, Jute goods production. Pottery, Cane and bamboo products, Seri culture, Silk weaving, Honey Making, Screen print & Batik, Embroidery, Dressmaking. Tailoring, Puffed Rice Making, Food production (packed or retail sale of dry food), Food Processing, Wood craft & Furniture, Molasses making, Biri (indigenous cigarette made with special leaves) production, Milk production units, dairy and milk products, Dyeing and printing, Book Binding, Confectionery, Urea Molasses Block (cattle feed) etc., Nursery and Horticulture production. Besides these have grown the Agro - based industries and occupations in the rural areas such as: Paddy husking by "dheki, oil production by "ghani" (indigenous oil processor), jute processing, pisci-culture, fishing, fish drying, fish processing which are continued with old techniques. Kitchen gardening, poultry rearing (sale of eggs, poultry, chicks), goat and sheep rearing, cattle fattening are common agro-based occupations. Biri (indigenous cigarette made with special leaves) production, bookbinding, production of urea Molasses Block (cattle feed) etc, nursery and horticulture production are being taken up now due to good profits. Service industries and occupations: Restaurants, (production of snacks, meals, tea, and confectionery) and Tailoring are now familiar professions both in the urban and the rural areas. Home-based shop-keeping is familiar in the rural areas. (11) Non-Farm Activities: Cane product and jute carpet making, pigeon rearing for sale, petty trade especially with home-based shops, pond lease for fish cultivation and marketing, flower growing for sale to flower shops in the urban areas, fan and cap making. Small shop keeping, photocopy services, boutique shops, home-based garments making, painting and making of greeting cards, paper-bag making & selling, selling of old tyres, fish and vegetable vending, soap vending, rice cake (pitha) making, road-side food selling shops are some of the urban nonfarm activities observed. Innovative Products and New Areas: With the introduction of new technology, development of innovative ideas or even demand for new products, a variety of new areas have developed for women's entrepreneurship growth. These include, artificial flower making, production of straw caps and hats for export, printing of stationery and cards, vegetable dye products for dyeing and printing, patch-work quilt making, cotton spinning from waste garments, stuffed toys, decorative costume jewellery, manufacture of imitation jewellery. Women have also ventured for artificial pond preparation for shrimp culture, women's pisci-culture project for both domestic and export marketing.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Reflection of success of Women Entrepreneur

The success of the women entrepreneurs have been reflected in their socio-economic developments. The economic solvency and changes in the homestead and the enterprise, speak of their untiring efforts and the urge for a better life. Similar are the social and socio-psychological changes where even the gain in the courage to talk with people regarding business or any trade and the knowledge to distinguish between good and bad investments and transactions, are great achievements. The nature of changes due to success in business have been observed economically both at the homestead and also within the enterprises or the workplaces. Socially and psychologically, the individual qualitative changes are the most effective for it helps the individual to develop herself through her own initiative and perseverance. Participation in decision making in family matters and also matters of social importance, removal of social seclusion or the religious sanctions against working women and also decrease in social discrimination against these working women are some of the fruitful achievements. Her increase in income is also an increase in the family income, and it provides the family members to have access to a better life-style, including education and better health for the children. Modernization of the work-place, introduction of new technology for increased production, increase of workers, along with the increase in the purchasing power upgrades her status both socially and economically. Increased self-confidence through participation in trade and generation of income had blessed most of these women with a home and a prosperous future.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Successful Woman Entrepreneur

Ms. Tahsina Shahin

SADA-KALO
Ms. Tahsina Shaheen, Managing Partner of Sada-Kalo, a creative fashion designer and a successful Woman Entrepreneur in Bangladesh. Among numerous colors, she has chosen only two colors i.e. White & Black as her main color for designing dress. And this two color concept has brought a revolution in the fashion industry of Bangladesh. Fashion has become a part of our daily life. It is basically the expression of a personality. Ms. Tahsina Shaheen has understood this fact and with this understanding she has chosen only Black & White colors for expressing personality of all the ages of people with fashion.

SadaKalo - A Revolution In Fashion

On October 04, 2002, SadaKalo was officially launched in Rifles Square. Within a short time SadaKalo has been able to touch the mind of huge people of all ages. With their love and care it was moved to open its second branch at Banani on July 19, 2003, even before the ending of one year of the first branch. SadaKalo moved for its third branch on June 03, 2005, at the theatrical region of Baily Road.

SadaKalo - Unveiled the Unexpressed Desire

SadaKalo emphasizes on meeting individuals' choice and thoughts all together. Ms. Tahsina Shaheen has bridged Bengalis thirteen types of festivals within twelve months with fashion. The most important festival in Bangladesh is Eid; however, there is also Durgapuja, Christmas, New Year, Martyr's Day, Victory Day, Independence Day, Birth Day and Wedding Anniversaries. SadaKalo designs its dresses as well as gift items on the theme of each different occasion.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Sadakalo specializes on tradition and authentic apparel accessories in solely two colors- black and white. The mens wear section includes futuas, panjabis, shawls and more. On the other hand, for women, the shop offers saris, salwar kurtas, fatuas, shoes and bags in variety of designs. The shop also includes some uniquely designed ornaments for the women. "That is what I wanted"- this way SadaKalo ensures its customer satisfaction.

Challenges she faced

Less capital at the initial stage of the venture. Bank loan was needed but could not manage to have because of some bureaucratic problems. Government burden was not that much at the initial stage but right now VAT and Income Tax policy are not systematic. As a SME Idea based business government policy is not favorable for the protection of the ideas. Low capacity of production is also regarded as one of the challenges.Lack of recognition from the society before success.

Key factor of her success

Ambition made her step into the entrepreneurship move. She has greatly been supported by her parental family from the very beginning. However the support from her in laws has also been regarded as incredible. Integrity and hardworking mentality brought success to her. She was courageous enough to start a fashion house with only two colors. Generating new ideas and making it reality are also a key factor of her success.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Key to success of Women Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh (1) Everything in the beginning does not go in favor of any Entrepreneur. So every Women Entrepreneur should have enough patience to carry on. (2) Every Women Entrepreneur should posses a long term vision to success. (3) Ambition is regarded as an inspiring fact to be a successful Women Entrepreneur. (4) Honesty and integrity smooth the way to success. (5) Hardworking ability boosts the confidence of Women Entrepreneur. (6) Family inspiration never let them down. (7) Engaging in production or rural industrial activities seems to be the most viable avenue for which the women should be assisted to take up. (8) Non-government organizations have equally joined hands with the government efforts for economic salvation and provided various forms of opportunities for women to help them earn their living, paving the way for greater entrepreneurship development. (9) The urban areas have greater opportunities for business development but the areas where women lack assistance is in the access to credit, provision of skill training, and market facilities. (10) Development of Banks with separate advisory service cell for women. (11) Separate counters in counters in commercial banks for women. (12) Arrangement of exclusive fairs to promote products manufactured by small & cottage based units. (13) Fixed quota of stalls for women entrepreneurs at export fairs. (14) Special market facilities both in the domestic and the international arena.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh

FBCCI has a strong Standing Committee, for Women Entrepreneurship Development. The activities of the Committee include: (1) Setting up of a Women Entrepreneurship Development Cell; (2) Identification of women entrepreneurs of Bangladesh; (3) Publication of a directory of women entrepreneurs with their addresses, forms of business, products manufactured etc.; (4) Organizing entrepreneurship development training; (5) Organizing convention of women entrepreneurs, discussion meetings on the problems and prospects of women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh; (6) Presenting awards for successful women entrepreneurs etc.; (7) Arranging market opportunities.

Challenges of Women Entrepreneurship

Since women are new in certain aspects of entrepreneurship, they face constraints in many ways, causing hindrances to their regular activities. 1. Male middlemen suppliers, contractors and exporters dominate the industry and take advantage of women's isolation in the home and lack of access to credit, supplies and knowledge about the economy of their work. 2. Women are handicapped in the current centralized wholesale market set-up controlled by men. 3. Women, due to their physical stature often encounter "mastans"(hood looms) rowdy males, whom they find hard to tackle and are stressed to pay money on demand. 4. Women entrepreneurs are often cheated by their male partners in trade through unscrupulous means which may turn hazardous when apt to encounter. 5. Home-based workers lack access to inputs and services like credit, input supplies, markets and new technology that could increase their productivity.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

6. Women observing "purdah"(seclusion) often find it hard to visit banks, purchase their inputs or raw materials or market their product in public settings where they would have to deal with men. 7. Rural women do not generally own physical assets that can be used as collateral for loans, as assets are usually in the names of their male relatives. 8. They are generally poor and lacking in both education and self-confidence. 9. They are perpetually in debt to money-lenders or to wholesale suppliers who create serious problems, thus losing much of their meager earning in paying exorbitant weekly interest charges. 10. They often suffer the indignities of sexual harassment, being jostled away from prime selling spots. Sometimes their movements are restricted due to security reasons. 11. Women have no legal knowledge or help in protecting their industries and often fall victims to illegal threats or criminal offences. 12. Problems in business are various. Inadequacy of capital is still the main problem and where available the high interest rates discourage investment. 13. Non-availability of efficient or skilled labor, absence of marketing facilities for women and the absence of proper sales centre are some of the major obstacles to smooth transactions in business. 14. Products are sometimes put up for sale on credit basis creating problems in the collection of the sale money. 15. Due to lack of storing facilities and space, the women entrepreneurs suffer serious problems through damage or theft of the products. 16. The prices of products are often kept low because of competition. Other problems arise when the buyer does not provide the actual price or the whole-seller takes goods on credit. 17. Middlemen create problems with regard to low payment. 18. Lack of improved implements and machinery, existing competition faced due to expansion of production, difficulty in the procurement of raw materials, problems of sales collection, problems increased by middlemen, constraints in transportation and marketing are existing problems for business.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

19. Lack of management and production skill, lack of healthy workplace environment and especially lack of training facilities are some of the major constraints which should be overcome for steady functioning of the business. 20. Due to lack of market facilities women do not get the proper prices for their products, which are under priced by the customers or wholesalers who order their products. 21. Government fiscal policy and the income tax policy (VAT & Tax) are not favorable to a Woman Entrepreneur. 22. Bank loan procedures are not that easy because of some bureaucratic problems. 23. Women Entrepreneurs basically starts their entrepreneurship on SME idea based. For SME Idea based business government policy is not favorable for the protection of the ideas. 24. Lack of recognition from the society before success makes the Women Entrepreneur to loss their motivation. 25. Commitment based problems is yet another challenge that Women Entrepreneurs are facing. 26. Absence of advisory help and lack of patience are also another challenges of Women Entrepreneurship. Some more challenges - Low Investment; - Low Profit Activities; - Slower Growth Rates of Women Owned Enterprise; - Institutionalized Inequality at the Macro-level and Household levels; - Women's Restricted Access to Property, Income and Credit; - Institutionalized Discrimination in Legal Systems; - Access to and Control over Resources; - Gender based Social Impediments; - Unfavorable Infrastructure and Support Systems

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Findings of the survey

A survey was conducted to find out the actual facts of Challenges of Women Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. 150 survey reports have been taken as the standard population for analyzing. And the interesting findings of the analysis of the survey reports are given below:

Marital status of Women Entrepreneur Married 64% Single 36%

Challenges Women Entrepreneur faces Social 16% Financial 51% Family 27% Govt. & Political 13%

Most inspirational fact to be a Woman Entrepreneur

Money 33%

Others 11%

Independence 68%

Family Heredity 5%

Cultural favorableness of Women Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh High Moderate Low

15%

49%

36%

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Preferred types of Business at the initial stage

Boutique 42%

Poultry 6%

Tailoring 13%

Merchandising 13% Others 28%

Feelings of insecurity in the starting of a new business

Yes 73%

No 27%

Support of the peer group

High 25%

Moderate 60%

Low 15%

The extent of future threat

Culture 18%

Technology 30%

Communication 14%

Free Mobility 36%

Others 21%

Entrepreneurship changes the status of women

Yes 94%

No 6%

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

How can the problem be overcome?

Women have to go through the same stages of setting up an enterprise as do men They face similar challenges, irrespective of gender based social impediments like social stigma, unfavorable infrastructure, support systems, etc. which block their entry and reduce their pace of growth The need today is to help women overcome these blocks and draw maximum participation from them to set up enterprises, which will help them Educate/train the women entrepreneurs Make easy finance available Develop special schemes for women entrepreneurs Achieve self reliance and place women entrepreneurs at par with their male counterparts Develop gender sensitivity Examine the processes of gender inequality Acquire skills of identification of potential women entrepreneurs Empowerment is not only an external process, but a process that has to bring about intrinsic changes in women as well as in men When women get organized and raise their consciousness about their disempowerment and use their critical understanding to organize themselves and struggle for greater access to resources, there are very few problems they could face

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

Conclusion :
Women have now become aware of their socio-economic rights and have ventured to avail the opportunities initiated for them. Rural Bangladesh is now a changed scenario for the women who have gathered courage to break barriers and enter the off-house working force as entrepreneurs and workers - a situation not appropriate for women or accepted by the society in the past. Working as labor may give them temporary employment but it does not improve their conditions or promote their advancement. Scope of trading activities especially in the rural areas, in view of extensive poverty and the large number of people who need to engage in income earning activities, is limited.

Though it is a sample survey, it has been tried to include a considerable part of the organised women entrepreneurs from Dhaka City in the study. In this respect, the idea of organising workshops in co-operation with the mentioned organisations provides a unique and surprisingly successful concept. In this way valuable data and information could be collected, which help understand real problems of the women entrepreneurs of the country. Besides, time, work and resources could be rationally used, which were very scarce for such a study like this.

It was the experience that none of the studied institutions, organisations or agencies has actually any serious activity to promote women entrepreneurship. Besides, the documentation of activities is very unorganised and poor. So, no serious discussion about their activities in this respect could be presented.

There are some donor supported high budget studies in this line. But probably because of failing data and sufficient field survey and planning, the results of these studies remain unsatisfactory. That means, the data available from secondary resources remain behind the expectation.

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Assignment On: Women Entrepreneur In Bangladesh

THANK YOU

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