We live in the world filled with gender bias. The pay gap in the biggest corporate enterprises is still huge, but many people have very high hopes when it comes to entrepreneurship. The fast advancement of digital technologies allows almost everyone to start their business with minimal resources and any formal education. This trend has also empowered many brave women around the world to leave overly-sexist corporate environments and search for their luck on the open market.
There are thousands of successful female entrepreneurs in all parts of the world. They have proven that all previously set gender roles and stereotypes don’t work in the business world (or anywhere else for that matter) and that if fifty or hundred years ago, women had had the same rights like they have today, at least 50% of the Fortune 100 list would be dominated by female names.
The fast development of companies owned by women also proves that female entrepreneurs are more successful in some industries and fields. In addition to that, many experts claim that some unique female characteristics help them to grow their businesses and earn much higher investment returns.
Are women better equipped for doing business in the new age?
Andrew Griffith, a popular entrepreneur and an author, who writes for the Inc.com has recently written an article, in which he discusses how uniquely female characteristics can be helpful for running businesses in the digital age. He has found that most female entrepreneurs have six unique characteristics, which make them more successful in running their enterprises. These include:
- Honesty – Unlike men, women regularly open up and share their fears. This way, they create a stronger relationship with their business partners.
- Awareness and emotional intelligence – Business and social lives are often colliding, and since women are usually more emotionally intelligent than men, they can connect with their customers and business partners on many different levels.
- Negotiation skills – Instead of focusing on winning the negotiation or the argument, business women often look for a win-win situation that will satisfy both parties.
- Being more direct – When attending meetings, conferences, and workshops, women tend to be more direct than men. They don’t waste their time talking about sports or politics. Instead, they often cut the chase and go straight to the point, which is very appreciated in business circles, where people don’t have time to spare.
- Appreciation of creativity – Women are statistically more open-minded than men, which also makes them more in touch with their creative side.
- Relationship orientation – Women always put the relationship between people first, which makes them more realistic and less desperate in the eyes of customers and business partners.
Leadership stats are changing
Today this sounds odd, but a Gallup study conducted more than 60 years ago concluded that more than 66% of employees would prefer a male boss. These were the conservative fifties when a Mad Men type of behavior was widely accepted in the business world.
Similar Gallup research conducted in 2012 discovered that employees who work for female bosses are 6% more engaged. The same survey has also revealed that female employees and entrepreneurs are more engaged than their male colleagues.
What about the organization?
In addition to that, recent studies state that women are more organized in the workplace than their male counterparts. The recent DMYO study revealed that more than one in ten male employees have missed some deadline or received a warning for their poor organization.
Women, on the other hand, invest much more effort in organization and professional appeal. More than a half of female employees and entrepreneurs use some scheduling or planning app for organizing their daily tasks. When they cooperate with remote colleagues or business partners, most female entrepreneurs would rather use some trustworthy collaboration solution than rely on emails, phone calls, and social media. This drastically increases their productivity and helps them to see the big picture because they keep all of their business files and correspondence at one easily-reachable place.
Women’s desks and workplaces, in general, are also more organized. We were always laughing at Monica from Friends for her obsession to keep everything neat and tidy. Today, when businesspeople need to deal with a huge amount of information on a daily basis, Monica’s obsession would come in handy to many entrepreneurs. Your ability to classify your company’s data by importance and urgency is essential for your productivity, and one of the most important skills entrepreneurs have today.
Good organization and all the other factors we have listed in this article are the reasons why today we can find hundreds of highly successful female entrepreneurs. The corporate environment has been oppressing women for a long time. That is why they see entrepreneurship as their only chance to succeed and prove their abilities in the world that is unfortunately still being run by sexist stereotypes. This desire helps women to give one hundred percent of their abilities and easily compete with men on the open market. In the future, we can expect to see even more female entrepreneurs, as well as huge international conglomerates that will be run exclusively by women. Hopefully, this will ignite the change in the corporate environment, crush the pay gap and bring the equality we have all been waiting for.
My name is Alex Williams, born and raised in beautiful Sydney. I am a journalism graduate, and a rookie blogger trying to find my luck. Blogs are the perfect opportunity for presenting yourself to wider audience, getting the chance to showcase my expertise and receiving recognition. I am a regular contributor at BizzMark Blog.