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Wilson Center event: World Bank senior advisor discusses women’s entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa
2-11-08
By Matthew Plocher
The Wilson Center on Monday held an event entitled, “Myth and Reality of Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa Region.” The featured speaker was Nadereh Chamlou, a World Bank senior adviser. Her presentation focused on her recently-finished paper, which uses the findings of a new World Bank study on the Environment of Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa Region to better explain the nature of female entrepreneurship in there, as well as the misconceptions and barriers that prevent it from reaching its potential.
The information used by Chamlou was the product of almost three years of study and surveying. In order to identify the gender-based barriers and biases in the industry, as opposed to regional industry difficulties, the project surveyed both female and male entrepreneurs. The findings showed that while all of the North African and Middle Eastern countries examined had some of the lowest levels of female entrepreneurship in the world, proportionally speaking, the women entrepreneurs there perform just as well as their male counterparts.
In addition to explaining the data and proposing solutions to counter the disparity in scale between male and female entrepreneurship in the region, Chamlou sought to dispel several misconceptions about women-owned businesses. First, the argument that these businesses must be small, has proved itself to be quite incorrect, Chamlou argued. In fact, she said, a higher percentage of women-owned businesses were found in the medium to large category than male-owned ones – of which the majority fell below the medium category. Second, the claim that women-run firms and businesses are typically restricted to only the service or light industries is false, Chamlou said, arguing that the diversity of types of business in just as pronounced in the women-owned sector as it is in the male one. She added that the conception of microfinance as a cure-all for encouraging female entrepreneurship is also a myth. Chamlou believes that microfinance loans are beneficial for desperately poor women, but generally useless for upwardly mobile lower and middle-class women seeking to establish a real business. Placing too much attention on microfinance takes away from assistance that might be better applied to establishing middle-class female entrepreneurs, she said.
The last misconception addressed concerned the nature of the investment climate. Contrary to popular belief, the investment climate, both domestically and internationally, is one of gender neutrality. In comparison to their male counterparts, Chamlou said women perform just as well in securing investments, are just as technologically savvy (if not more), and encounter little gender bias in business transactions or business law. She added that no particular aspect of business seems to inherently cause women more trouble than any other, noting that concerns such as access to electricity in Egypt and access to land in Gaza are compounded by local problems more and not gender bias inherent to the regional industries in question. In fact, Chamlou said, gender bias is most often reflected in other laws concerning religious or societal rules. These tend to have a significant effect on female entrepreneurship, she argued, as they often affect the implementation of a business deal, thus undermining the neutrality of business laws.
Chamlou concluded her presentation by summarizing some positive attributes found to be common in most women-run firms and businesses: they create more jobs than they close, they tended to add to industrial diversity, they employ more skilled and educated workers, and they employ more women – and specifically, more well educated women – than their male-run counterparts. According to Chamlou, the task at hand now is garnering press for female entrepreneurs, assisting them in establishing contacts with male networks to integrate the sides, and placing more emphasis on aiding businesswomen through medium to large loans instead of microfinance loans. Chamlou was confident that the gradual relaxation of religious laws – due to international pressure – and the dedicated entrepreneurial spirit of Middle Eastern and North African women would take care of the rest. |
