Supporting Caribbean Businesswomen

Creating an enabling environment for the region’s female business owners empowers women and delivers growth

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]emale entrepreneurs may be a minority in the Caribbean but, with the right support, the region’s businesswomen could be a powerful economic force. Women-owned businesses can play a major role in sustainable growth – reducing unemployment, encouraging innovation and raising the standard of living. Across the Caribbean, female entrepreneurs have much to offer their island economies, but often struggle to reach their full potential due to lack of institutional support, socio-cultural barriers and limited access to capital and training.

Female entrepreneurs

The typical female entrepreneur in the Caribbean is a small business owner with few, if any, employees. She is also a member of a very small group – self-employed women comprised just 8 per cent of the total Caribbean workforce in 2015, according to research from infoDev.

Women tend to run consumer-oriented businesses, such as those in the retail or hotel industries, and are generally more risk-averse than their male counterparts, shunning exports or expansion. They are less well-represented in technology-oriented ventures and those characterised by innovation, gravitating towards more traditional occupations. As a result, the majority of female-owned businesses in the Caribbean operate in low growth, low revenue and low status sectors.

According to the 2013 Women’s Entrepreneurial Venture Scope,  women are also likely to be operating outside the system with 55-91 per cent of women’s entrepreneurial activity in the Latin American and Caribbean region taking place in the informal economy. This in turn makes these female-led businesses more vulnerable to corruption and less able to explore legitimate forms of credit.

Credit and culture

Whether they have a man or a woman at the helm, Caribbean businesses have struggled to access capital ever since the global recession. However, access to finance is especially problematic for SMEs and micro-enterprises – which form the majority of female businesses. A signficant number of female entrepreneurs are underserved when it comes to securing more sophisticated financial products such as supplier credit and equity financing. The demand for collateral when applying for a loan can also be a hurdle, given that many women don’t own property or other high-value assets.

The process of getting a business from idea to reality is extremely onerous and time-consuming. Given the sheer volume of forms, applications, licenses and other documentation to wade through, prospective business owners must be informed and knowledgeable. Business support services have traditionally not been aimed at women, nor have business classes been made readily available to female students considering their future careers. While times are changing, social constraints are still felt in the Caribbean where female identity is still strongly tied to the image of homemaker and caregiver.

These cultural norms are most pervasive in the start-up stage of businesses, according to infoDev who surveyed female business owners across the region. While women felt that access to finance was the single biggest obstacle to business, male entrepreneurs rated it second after lack of skills among the workforce. Since women are more heavily involved in traditional sectors, banks are often disinclined to take their business proposals seriously, seeing them as high-risk. In addition, men have greater access to more diverse forms of financing such as angel investment networks and venture capital funds.

Support networks

In recognition of the obstacles, a number of development agencies have stepped in to help female Caribbean business owners develop and grow their companies.

Recognising that there is strength in numbers, the Women Innovators Network of the Caribbean (WINC) works to foster links between the region’s female entrepreneurs. An InfoDev intiative, the WINC recently launched its second Acceleration Programme (AP) – an 8-month peer learning course which offers mentorship, business development and technical workshops. The latest AP builds on the success of its 2016 pilot scheme which involved 108 women from 12 Caribbean countries.

While building a business is difficult, it can be even more intimidating to take it beyond borders. Caribbean Export, in collaboration with the European Union, has created an initiative to help Caribbean businesswomen build their market share and reach international customers. Women Empowered Through Export (WE-Xport) had its official launch in Barbados last month and aims to assist female business-owners who are exporting for the first time, as well as those who have already begun exporting but need help to scale up.

WE-Xport will offer workshops and technical assistance, in partnership with the Caribbean Development Bank. It will also include an intensive business coaching scheme. The programme is open to firms within the CARIFORUM countries that are at least 51 per cent owned by a woman, or women, and have been in operation for at least two years.

Caribbean Export is urging female entrepreneurs to take advantage of the programme with Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton telling attendees at WE-Xport’s launch: “We know that you have the potential to take your companies to the next level and we hope we can help take you there. This is your time, don’t lose this excellent opportunity to grow, connect with others and make your mark on our region and beyond.

“We hope that WE-Xport will be a safe space where women in business can learn, be challenged, make mistakes and grow, and celebrate their successes,” she added. “We hope that participants will create a new story for themselves, their businesses, their children and their wider communities.”

Work to be done

Women in the Caribbean have come a long way. The region has one of the highest rates of female managers in the world, with more than 41 per cent of managerial positions filled by woman in eight Caribbean countries, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). In Saint Lucia, 52.3 per cent of managers in both the public and private sectors are women and 23.7 per cent of firms have a female top manager.

But while women may be well-represented in the boardroom, those at the bottom of the career ladder tell a different story. Women running fledgling start-ups, early-stage SMEs and budding entrepreneurial ventures are still encountering discrimination.

“For decades Caribbean women have distinguished themselves in every area of endeavour, locally and internationally. Women in the Caribbean have made much progress in terms of gender equality, however women and girls continue to face various types of discrimination in business,” says Daniela Tramacere, Head of the European Union Delegation to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean States, the OECS and CARIFORUM. “There is still much ground to cover and we will spare no effort in covering it. Women’s empowerment is a question of human rights.

“It’s also a policy that makes very good economic sense.”