Did you know that one in three Australian businesses is owned and operated by a woman? Were you also aware that women are 50% more likely than men to start their own business?* Interesting right?
Owning a business is seen by many women as a way of achieving their financial goals whilst controlling the flexibility of how those goals are achieved, as nearly half of the 668,000 female business owners in Australia have dependent children.*
At the front line of this trend are the young; women under 20 are equally as likely as their male counterparts to start their own business, but by the time they get into their 30s or 40s, only 1 in 3 women will do so. This may sound like a good number but research shows that female entrepreneurs make up only 13% of all the women working, so there is definitely room for more women to embrace autonomy and authority.
The most likely areas for women to enter business are in caregiving and beauty. This equates to careers as beauty therapists, salon managers, counsellors, social workers, massage therapists, and the like. This tendency comes as no surprise, as the idea that women prefer to enter professions that involve care is in line with their natural inclinations and cultural expectations.
Although being a women in business has it’s downsides (on average, a female business owner earns half as much as the average employed woman), female business operators consistently report higher levels of satisfaction than their employed sisters*. This suggests that women in business need to take the ‘business’ part of their aspirations more seriously – starting with what and how they study. At AIAS, not only do our trainers try to impart the technical knowledge of an area of study, they are also very conscious that students are potential business people. That’s why we emphasise skills such as time management, communication skills, personal initiative, computer literacy and presentation.
Remember, women in business are important. We are contributing to a more civilised, socially responsible and egalitarian society in Australia.
Keep an eye out for Part 2 of this topic launching next week where we’ll look at a few examples of women in 3 different businesses, including my own.
*Source: DPMC
