Time to pull the plug on gender prejudice in business growth in Guyana

Aspiring Guyanese businesswomen seeking to enter into the world of entrepreneurship, particularly those at the lowest end of the spectrum, are not alone in the barriers and prejudices that they face in a global business environment in which there still exists an overwhelming perception of women as being deficient in their ability to match their male counterparts in pursuit of business success.

Back in July 2020 an article headlined Spotlight on Women Entrepreneurs in the Caribbean (GBTI, July 3, 2020) sought to address a range of issues that had to do with some of the constraints which women in the Caribbean, including Guyana, face in pursuit of success in business. The article which dealt in large measure with what it said were “the unique challenges” women face in seeking to realize business growth zeroed in, particularly, on barriers to accessing business financing.

The article relied heavily on the findings of a 2015 World Bank probe which produced “a comprehensive report” that dealt specifically with what, at the time, was “the current state of women-owned businesses and female entrepreneurship in the Caribbean. It covered a range of focus areas including general business environment, sectorial constraints, and programming lessons.”

Some of what was described as “the key takeaways” from the Report included the revelation that “when it comes to selfemployment (that is, owning and operating their own businesses). women account for less than one-third (30 percent) of selfemployed workers” in the Caribbean.” Further, it stated that only 13 percent of total female employment is accounted for by self-employment, compared to 33 percent of males.

While no subsequent comprehensive study has since come to hand on the subject, a number of less comprehensive probes have been undertaken in an effort to determine the extent to which those numbers have changed. The best that can be said at this juncture is that since 2015 the issue of gender inequality in business ownership in the Caribbean continues to be hotly debated against the backdrop of evidence that (in some territories more than others) control of the entrepreneurial space is still overwhelmingly occupied by men.

While there exists no known probes into the gender balance in (small) business ownership in Guyana the available evidence suggests that the emergence of ‘women only’ business development organizations in Guyana, particularly, in recent times, the emergence of a Women’s Chamber of Commerce, have arisen largely out of what is felt to be the need on the part of women who run businesses to occupy their own space in the entrepreneurial environment. This, one feels, has arisen, in large measure out of an attempt by women who own businesses to break the shackles of the established Business Support Organizations in Guyana - the principal ones being the Private Sector Commission, the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce & Industry - whose leadership profiles reflect an almost non-existent track record in the area of advocacy for women’s businesses to say nothing about their historic and largely unchanging gender imbalance in their leadership lineups.

Here it is important to note that one of the key lobbying weaknesses for womenrun businesses is the fact that, particularly in the instances of micro and small businesses, these are, by and large, ‘onewoman’ shows. Setting that aside womenowned businesses in Guyana operate primarily in what can be described as largely (though, admittedly, not exclusively) “service-oriented, relatively low technologyand knowledge-intensive sectors.” Just under 50% of female-owned businesses” are to be found in the retail trade and in the parts of the services sector. The

perception here is that these sectors have strictly limited potential for growth and innovation, “particularly given their largely domestic focus and high levels of market saturation.

Though we in the Caribbean are often loathe to admit it, women-run businesses are often stigmatized through inbuilt social and cultural factors that have to do with “traditional gender roles” that still prevail in the region. The narrowing of the education disparity gap between men and women in the region has still not altered a cultural outlook that dictates, to a considerable extent, that women are still expected to focus their energies on ‘the family’ and the home rather than on the labour market. This, one feels, still remains a significant part of the reason why a number of women-run businesses still operate from the home.

While the aforementioned 2015 World Bank Report asserts that there are adequate opportunities for “gov-* ernments, donors, and other entities to offer targeted support to women entrepreneurs throughout the Caribbean,” it appears to overlook the fact that here in the Caribbean there are strong socio-cultural dimensions to the issue of “working women,” particularly what are still high levels of “psychological blockage” driven by concerns that working wives can result in dysfunctional homes.

Here in Guyana, all of this has not been helped by a tsunami of verifiable reports of seeming prejudice at the level of key support agencies, including lending institutions and the failure of governments, over the years, to set their faces against such prejudices through robust measures, including legislative ones. What, one feels, are particularly needed are programmes that “have the aim of expanding women’s involvement in technologyand knowledge-intensive sectors (rather than have them permanently confined almost exclusively to the retail trade and culinary and creative pursuits) as well as to provide a far greater measure of support for women through enhanced access to resources, “including financial, human, physical, capital, and social capital resources.”

The World Bank, through its World Economic Forum has dealt on occasion, with the issue of improving women’s access to finance for sound and verifiable business pursuits including the cessation of collateral criteria. While, however, it has acknowledged that a lack of access to finance is one of the major barriers facing women entrepreneurs in marginalised communities across the world, it has, up until now, not infused into its conditionalities for providing ‘country ratings’ criteria that include the dispositions of countries to creating a suitable enabling environment in which businesses, particularly micro and small businesses can operate. Such potentially transformative initiatives are sufficiently vital and sufficiently urgent – in a Covid-19 environment that has resulted in enormous numbers of job losses - to merit immediate attention.