As long a woman fits into a stereotype – her interests are cooking, writing, housekeeping and such activities , she is fine. But if she is good at traditionally male dominated fields, she faces a lot of discrimination. Many people will refuse to even speak to her.
Juggling a job and family responsibilities takes a toll on both the mental and physical health of most working women. They often have to spend many hours dressing up and traveling to office. Work at home opportunities allow women to have the best of both the worlds, save their valuable time and earn money.
One of the main reasons why women cannot focus on their career are their family responsibilities. They are expected to keep the house in order , prepare all the meals, do the cleaning and then also do work.
This causes a lot of mental and physical strain, which affects their ability at the workplace and physical health.
The way a woman is treated depends a lot on the social conditioning. In many families, women are not financially independent and cannot take any decision on their own. So boys bought up in these families are likely to treat all the women they meet in the same manner.
Many company discriminate against a female business owner even if the volume of business done by her is more, she does not get the same volume discounts and usually has to pay a higher price. If she hides her gender, she gets a much better deal.
Home businesses are particular suitable for female business owners as they can combine their family duties with their business acumen. However, searching for customers can be time consuming. Using sources like www.Customleads.net , they can get qualified leads, with minimum effort.
Though the number of women business owners is increasing, even today, very few large businesses are owned by women. Though they may be competent, many customers and clients assume (often without any basis) that they are just a figurehead, with a male member of the family taking all the decisions, making it even more difficult for them to succeed.
Some of the mistakes women business owners make and are to avoided are:
1. Pricing and billing. Women generally tend to undervalue the service they provide and charge a lower price compared to other businesses. They also do not aggressively follow up with customers for payments.
2. Marketing and promotion .- it is important for potential customers to know about your business and the services provided, only then can they contact you. Advertising to the target audience is important.
3. Most women are bought up to believe that keeping every one happy is their duty. So many women business owners will go out of their way to provide services to their customers, thought it may not be economically viable. Women should take decisions more objectively and not allow their emotions rule them.
Though most companies claim to be politically correct and claim that performance is the only criteria while deciding on promotions and bonuses, the fact remains that women are discriminated against in most workplaces. Most societies are male dominated and most women face a glass ceiling at some stage in their career, when they are overlooked in favor of their less competent male colleagues.
The discrimination faced by women is even worse in Asian countries like India, where millions of baby girls are killed before the birth of a girl is not welcome. Through girls outperform boys in most school and college leaving exams, women make up less than 5% of the workforce in most large companies. Most are employed as secretaries, few attain any position of responsibility.
Part of the reason may be social conditioning, where women are expected to relocate after marriage and take care of their family. They are also not assigned challenging assignments on the assumption that the customer may not be “comfortable” working with them. The best way to overcome this discrimination is for women to start their own business.
Women, business, difficulties faced.
