Exploration of barriers faced by female graduate entrepreneurs in Bangladesh

Abstract

This study explores and examines barriers faced by female graduate entrepreneurs founding and growing SMEs in Bangladesh. It particularly seeks to address the current gap in the literature on the barriers faced specifically by female graduate entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, and is among the first of its kind. We conducted 12 semi-structured interviews including 6 graduate female entrepreneurs of SMEs and 6 scholars in entrepreneurship in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and found that educated, graduate, females faced more barriers than uneducated or non-graduate females because of their educational background. It appears from our research that those women who had graduated from university were more likely to join in a company rather than starting and continuing to develop their own business. In addition to these key findings, we also found that Bangladeshi female graduate entrepreneurs had a lack of negotiation and pitching skills, little confidence, little access to institutional training and courses on SMEs and entrepreneurship. They also faced barriers such as lengthy, biased, and expensive loan facilities, corruption, operating in a conservative culture, a lack of support from their families and partners, barriers in mobility caused by traffic congestions in Dhaka, and risks to personal security. All of our findings from the interviews are well supported by additional research in the form of scientific observations of 79 entrepreneurs and 20 private and 5 public universities. The practical implications of these barriers are discussed in the paper and recommendations offered to key stakeholders to facilitate female graduate entrepreneurs in opening and operating SMEs in Bangladesh.

Role of Bangladeshi Women in Diverse Agricultural Production: A Review

“…Rural women in agriculture production are still under this kind of socioeconomic constraint [15]. Even educated female entrepreneurs are not out of these problems in Bangladesh [16]. Despite these challenging situations, women are providing valuable contributions to national assets.…”

Unaligned connections or enlarging engagements? Tertiary education in developing countries and the implementation of the SDGs

“…For example, Kleibert (2015) reported how large foreign investors employed university graduates in low skill work in the Philippines. Islam et al (2019) reported in Bangladesh how gender relationships made it difficult for female graduate entrepreneurs to put their skills into action. These works suggest that the mismatch between graduates and employment and productivity demands are not just about what is or is not learned in TE, but rather a complex relationship associated with the strategies of firms and existing social relationships, of gender or ethnicity, which come to be reproduced in a misaligned or negative direction of change between TE, economic growth and equity.…”

Entrepreneurship as a Sustainable Solution for the Female Graduates in the SME Sector of Bangladesh

“…Economic growth in a country is positively associated with the level of female entrepreneurial activity (Raghunandan, 2018). Unfortunately, the potential for graduate female-owned SMEs to contribute to national GDP has been limited (Islam, Jantan, Hunt, Rahman, & Abdullah, 2019). Empowering women with more education may lead to achieve their goals (Weber and Ahmed, 2014), and sustainable livelihood (Ferdousi & Mahmud, 2019), which are mandatory pre-requisites for sustainable development (Rahman & Bari, 2016), and for a better future (Li, Ahmed, & Qalati, 2019).…”

“…Women entrepreneurship is vital for economic growth (Shoma, 2019) of a country. In Bangladesh, women represent more than 40% of labor-force and lead to 'private industry revolution' (Islam, Jantan, Hunt, Rahman, & Abdullah, 2019) , the gender gap prevails in ownership of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) (92.6% for males versus 7.4% for females) (Chowdhury, Mintoo, Chowdhury, & Ahmed, 2010) (Kabeer, 2012), women-owned firms (3-4% of total business enterprises) (Ahmed M. U., 2014) and among micro-merchants (94,800 out of 1.3 million) (UNCDF, 2019). The graduate females despite being 2.5 times higher than their male-counterparts, often reluctant to join the labor-force for various social, cultural and workplace-related issues (The Daily Star, 2018).…”

“…Economists advised the graduates to start entrepreneurial firms that create jobs for themselves and for other unemployed graduates (Yunus, 2017) and lead economic growth (Islam, Jantan, Hunt, Rahman, & Abdullah, 2019). In Bangladesh, SMEs being the most cost-efficient way to instigate GDP growth, suffers various barriers (Alauddin & Chowdhury, 2015).…”