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Female entrepreneurs (women entrepreneurs) encompass approximately 1/3 of all entrepreneurs worldwide.

Introduction
Today, more women are breaking free from the traditional, gender-specific roles and venturing into the business world. Not only are they holding high corporate positions but they are also successful women entrepreneurs who own almost half of all businesses in the United States.

Demographic characteristics
Studies have shown that successful Women entrepreneurs start their businesses as a second or third profession. Because of their previous careers, women entrepreneurs enter the business world later on in life, around 40-60 years old. As women are now overtaking their male peers when it comes to education, having higher education degrees is one of significant characteristics that many successful female entrepreneurs have in common.

International implications
A recent international study found that women from low to middle income countries (such as Russia and the Philippines) were more likely to enter early stage entrepreneurship when compared to those of higher income countries (such as Belgium and Sweden). A significant factor that may play a role in this disparity can be contributed to the fact that women from low income countries often seek an additional means of income to support themselves and their families. Overall, 40 to 50 per cent of all small businesses are owned by women in developing countries.

Statistics

 * 1 out of every 11 adult women is an entrepreneur in the United States.
 * Women business owners contribute to the overall employment of 18 million workers and generate anywhere from $2 to $3 trillion in U.S. economy revenues.
 * Women owned businesses will create 5.5 million new jobs by 2018 in U.S.
 * Over 9 million women own their own businesses in the U.S.
 * Of all U.S. enterprises that exist, over 40% comprise of women-owned businesses.
 * By the year 2025, the percentage of women entrepreneurship will increase to over 55%.
 * In Korea, 400,000 businesses are owned by women.

Many women feel a great deal of empowerment by the opportunity to own their own company and may now be motivated by such high statistics.

Present challenges
Even though female entrepreneurship and the formation of women business networks is steadily rising, there are a number of challenges and obstacles that female entrepreneurs face. One major challenge that many women entrepreneurs may face is the traditional gender-roles society may still have on women. Entrepreneurship is still considered as a male-dominated field, and it may be difficult to surpass these conventional views. Other than dealing with the dominant stereotype, women entrepreneurs are facing several obstacles related to their businesses.

External finance and sex discrimination.
In general, women have lower personal financial assets than men. This means that for a given opportunity and equally capable individual, women must secure additional resources compared to men in order to exploit the opportunity because they control less capital. A question that has developed into its own sub-field in the women’s entrepreneurship literature is if women have a harder time getting finance than men for the same business opportunity.

A specific solution for solving women’s difficulties for obtaining financing has been microfinancing. Microfinance is a financial institution that has become exceptionally popular especially in developing economies.

Obstacles specific to managing a small firm
Studies on women entrepreneurs show that women have to cope with stereotypic attitudes towards women on a daily basis. Business relations as customers, suppliers, banks, etc. constantly remind the entrepreneur that she is different, sometimes in a positive way such as by praising her for being a successful entrepreneur even though being a woman. Employees tend to mix the perceptions of the manager with their images of female role models leading to mixed expectations on the woman manager to be a manager as well as a “mother”. The workload associated with being a small business manager is also not easily combined with taking care of children and a family. However, even if the revenues are somewhat smaller, women entrepreneurs feel more in control and happier with their situation than if they worked as an employee.

Obstacles specific to growing firms
A specific problem of women entrepreneurs seems to be their inability to achieve growth especially sales growth. Another previously addressed issue is finance and as stated previously, the entrepreneurial process is somewhat dependent on initial conditions. In other words, as women often have a difficult time to assemble external resources, they start less ambitious firms that can be financed to a greater degree by their own available resources. This also has consequences for the future growth of the firm. Basically, firms with more resources at start-up have a higher probability to grow than firms with fewer resources. By resources is meant here societal position, human resources and financial resources. This initial endowment in the firm is therefore of great importance for firm survival and especially for firm growth. Despite that many women entrepreneurs face growth barriers, they are still able to achieve substantial firm growth. There are examples of that both in a number of developing economies (Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia) surveyed by the ILO, as well as in more developed economies such as the United States.

Future prospects
There are many promising predictions for women entrepreneurs in the near future. More coalitions will be formed among female associates, enabling the establishment of female business networks to flourish in the business world. In addition, the U.S. Census envisions that women entrepreneurs and female business networks will both remain dominant, comprising of over 50% of all business in the United States in the next several years. Many women entrepreneurs with home-based and service-related businesses will eventually shift to the information technology industry, making this once male-dominated commerce to be one of equal gender appeal. Not only because of the growing number of female entrepreneurs, but also because of the dramatical increase of influence of women workers in business world, enterprises will also focus more on women-related issues and principles. A growing number of companies provide flexi-time so that women can work from home. Ernst & Young holds family days to show parents what their daughters have achieved. It also offers medical cover for parents. Many companies provide their female staff with late-night shuttle buses—and female-only taxi companies are springing up in India, the UAE and Brazil. Women’s entrepreneurship depends on both the situation of women in society and the role of entrepreneurship in that same society.

Conclusion
Women entrepreneurs have become a strong driving force in today’s corporate world. Women entrepreneurs also have more access to business capital and seed funding than ever before. Yet despite the many opportunities, many prospective women entrepreneurs are intimidated to move forward. Overall, there are many promising positive expectations for women business owners. They will continue to form female business networks, transition towards information technology, and rely strongly on e-commerce as their form of trade.