Women and Men Entrepreneurs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Women and Men Entrepreneurs - Essay Example The British Government estimated that by year 2006, there will be 18 to 20 per cent of women-owned business in United Kingdom (SBS, 2005). However, there are always critics about women's performance at micro and small business entrepreneurship. Some commented that women out performance men, while some do not agree. This paper aimed to discuss about the differences between men and women's entrepreneurs from different aspects in term of personal characteristics, motivation, and ethnic and cultural background influence on the performance. Definition for an entrepreneur is someone who pursues a management opportunity regardless of currently available resources (Stevenson, 1989). Entrepreneurs concentrate on maximizing profit, growth and innovative behaviour (Carland et.al, 1984). As in the definition, one who wishes to become entrepreneur would have be courageous, risk-taking, independent and desire for a sense of achievement besides discipline in self. An example of a successful entrepreneur would be Bill Gates that started Microsoft Corporation. With the insight of the future technology development, he braves himself to start-up a business which leads the development of the computer operating system now. Another successful entrepreneur is Winfrey Oprah who started out as a host for a talk-show and finally success as a writer. Bill Gates is a male entity while Winfrey Oprah is a female entity. There is a saying where "men are from mars and women are from venus". This saying provides a lot of space of thought where men and women are so distinctively different. As both names quoted are successful in their own field. The question is - are the differences here contributing to different outcome of their success Is it tougher for a woman to be recognized as success Gender War Though god created Eve from Adam to compliment each other, their relationship turns sour lately. In the past, women have taken a softer role as a homemaker. But, today they can be breadwinner! Women compete with men to get scholarship, education, important roles in business world, earn more money and own more power. The competition created a tense between the relationships of both. Are both cooperating with each other to create more miracles in the society or are they at war Interestingly, this is a very subjective topic! It leads to the critics of role performance of both genders either at work or home. The differences between the personal characteristic, goals, desire and managerial style do provide clues for various behaviours among men and women entrepreneurs. Differences between Men and Women Entrepreneurs Like the saying "men are from Mars and women are from Venus", both genders exhibit different behaviours. Even a man is different from another man, there are a few qualities that makes the entrepreneurs. a. Personality traits Since 1980s, there have been a lot of studies carried out to identify the personal traits of entrepreneurs (Aspray and Cohoon, 2007). They are a group of people who are more than just business man. Focusing on maximizing profit, create innovations and growth, and have a need to achieve, they have certain personality traits which are more than usual white collars. They are risk takers with self-discipline; possess insights and intuition in their own fiel