N.Z. women develop entrepreneurial spirit

Press, 15 September 1988, Page 28

N.Z. women develop entrepreneurial spirit

PA Wellington New Zealand women are setting themselves up in business at an unprecedented rate, according to American author, Mary Welsh. Ms Welsh researched women business owners while in New Zealand on a Fulbright scholarship. The result of her research, the "Corporate Enigma,” has just been published by the Government Printing Office. , Between 1981 and 1986, women proprietors jumped from 4691 to 25,404 while male proprietors went from 62,231 to 83,298. Twenty-six per cent of women proprietors are based in Auckland, with 53.6 per cent of women proprietors in business in the top half of North Island.

Almost 40 per cent of women business owners interviewed believed specific legislative and corporate barriers catapulted them into business ownership.

“For instance, while legislation recognised women’s viability within the community and encouraged their independence, its weaknesses revealed how much further women had to go to achieve equal opportunities in the workforce,” Ms Welsh said. “Similarly, as women advanced up the corporate ladder, they encountered subtle discrimination and discovered their initial fast pace had slowed to a crawl. “The walls proved too high for . some, while others used the barriers as steps into the managing director’s chair.” Twenty per cent of the businesswomen interviewed believed men saw them as “moneygrubbers” because, according to one woman, "it is not socially correct for women to make profits.”

More than half the women interviewed said they had to be twice as good as their competitors because a woman’s “fail-

ure is remembered much longer than a male’s.”

One woman said that men underestimated her and called her a “stupid woman.” This egged her on to create a business which within five years became their main competitor within the market. Sixty-seven per cent of the women interviewed attended a single-sex school, and 20 per cent said that without male competitors in the classroom their schooling allowed them more freedom and independence. Several of the women believed other women would more readily succeed if they forgot some of the rules “mother” taught them. In most families, confrontational and assertive behaviour was not encouraged however “in this business you can’t be over-sensitive and you must develop a very thick skin,” one said.