Women Entrepreneurs: a Critical Review of the Literature

When interviewing a leader in an organization in order to discover their leadership style one must ask critical questions. I had the opportunity to interview Casey Aguirre who is a Team Manager at the Salem Call Center for T-Mobile. Casey has been with T-Mobile for over 11 years. In this interview we discussed her leadership style, the steps she took to become a leader, her biggest challenges, and her greatest achievements among other things. While interviewing Casey I kept in mind the connection between women in leadership and the cultural disadvantages and advantages that women in leadership

These women, although they lived in a third world country, have the skill and gumption to go into business for themselves, and “be their own boss”. In the United States, more women have the ability

Leadership - The perception of excellence in business leadership needs to be re-examined. This requires challenging the norms that determine leadership eligibility. Are there drivers that perpetuate a leadership incumbency that excludes females? What is the basis for these drivers?

They are five types of approaches to select within qualitative research: case study, ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, and narrative research. Each research method is distinct in its approach towards inquiry within the qualitative paradigm in terms of appearance, conditions, focus, and theories (Creswell, 1998). There are also similarities in these approaches such as characteristics and assumptions concerning the context of the study. This research evaluates each approach and determines that the phenomenology method is best suited for the study of women in leadership and the challenges they face climbing the

Women make up half of the United states population according to the US census bureau, however women have been historically underrepresented in the business environment (7. US census). If women could overcome the challenges that seem to affect them in business they could become an integral part of the future workforce as it grows in many women based industries. What challenges could be holding women back from their full potential in the business world? The first part of my research question to be addressed that would allow an adequate understanding of the subject would be to find the challenges that specifically women as a gender group may face in business, I believe this will help to understand what effects they have on the challenges that African American Women(AAW) face. Although women owned business have been steadily increasing rapidly in growth in the US economy there are certain challenges that specifically African American women have been found to have to face that may hinder them from reaching the same potential afforded their male counterparts. In a journal writing written by the international labor organization(ILO) they focused on these challenges that women business owners face and some of these specific questions were addressed. (8 I.L.O)

Entrepreneurs are an essential part of stimulating the economy while creating new businesses as a key driver in any economy. With entrepreneurship comes struggle and a host of barriers that interfere with achieving a successful career path. Two prominent female entrepreneurs encountered similar struggles throughout their careers that dealt with family issues, public and media criticism as well as negative encounters with the law. With a variety of business approaches and personalities, Martha Stewart, a highly successful businesswoman, turned everyday household activities into a multi-million dollar empire and Martha Billes, also a richly successful businesswoman, fought hard to take ownership of Canadian Tire at the age of 61. Both entrepreneurs faced the adversities of being women growing up in the 1940’s, where society held negative views against them because they were expected to be domestic stay at home mothers and wives rather than businesswomen, and also based on the many similar flaws in their career paths such as their numerous times in court, ugly divorces and being targeted for their stern personalities. However their passion, stern attitudes, and alternate mindsets inspired and drove them to do whatever it took to succeed, regardless of what critics said. It was because of their lack of family support, public disapproval, and experiences with the court of law that developed their similar stern and ambitious personalities that allowed them to become great

In the business world, being a woman in a male dominated world is not easy. A woman should move away from the virtues that was instilled to them as a young girl. Working in a male-dominated field, especially for a new up and coming female executive, a woman must always have

Although much research has been launched into women entrepreneurship and immigrant and minority entrepreneurship as separate topics, there does not seem to be much focus on entrepreneurs who fit into both categories, the ethnic female entrepreneur. This profile covers a woman of ethnic background who launches an organization to create innovative solutions for profit. Owing to the fact that they belong to two categories that face the most challenges in entrepreneurial pursuits, it is necessary to find out how their special circumstance acts as a barrier to their

The free books, distributed through boutiques, doctors’ offices, antique shops, art galleries, and realtors, are updated every year. Each city’s guide is different, of course, but a typical example would include special restaurants, clothing boutiques, kitchen renovators, interior designers, realtors, artists, salons, home builders, wealth managers, doctors, garden designers, photographers, caterers, and maybe a private school or preschool. So many small businesses are owned by women—the latest figures show that women own 30 percent of all enterprises, a number that is increasing at a rate 1 ½ times the national average—that it is no surprise to find many of the businesses featured are female-owned.

In Haimerl’s Fortune article she focusses on the rise of African American women business owners. Since 1997 there has been a dramatic increase in the number of businesses owned by

As the author points out, the figures on women in leadership is staggering in disparity. The article takes time to focus on identifying and highlighting reasons what makes a successful leader. Having an opportunity to attend a leadership meeting, in which we discussed improving inclusion at my company, this article presented many of the same reasons that as a company we tried to understand, “Why do we not have more women in leadership?” This article really underscores that in order for a business to survive and grow or for that matter, any organization to flourish you need to find individuals that embody the above-mentioned leadership traits not just seniority.

More and more women are rising to the leadership challenge, even in some of the most male-dominated industries. The increase in the number of women attending college, the increasing number of women in the workplace or starting their own business has demonstrated to men who own businesses that women can be both managers and mothers, thus showing their male counterpart that women can in fact "do it all".

Gender and leadership? Leadership and gender? A journey through the landscape of theories start off by giving a statistical summary of percentages of women in higher echelon position in the workforce. With this information in the intro, the article quickly highlights the limited representation of women in exclusive positions in Fortune 500 companies. Next, the paper examines multiple theories why this problem exists in the workforce. The four theories examined are biology and sex; gender role; causal factors; and attitudinal drivers (Appelbaum et al, 2003, p. 44).

To cite this document: Dorothy Perrin Moore, Jamie L. Moore, Jamie W. Moore, (2011),"How women entrepreneurs lead and why they manage that way", Gender in Management: An International Journal, Vol. 26 Iss: 3 pp. 220 - 233 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17542411111130981 Downloaded on: 12-02-2013 References: This document contains references to 86 other documents Citations: This document has been cited by 3 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com This document has been downloaded 1526

The most successful women entrepreneurs are those who "dream big"-they see themselves succeeding financially, managing large staffs and running businesses that have