According to the three dynamic speakers featured in “Women’s Leadership in SMEs,” this question is as pertinent today as it was several decades ago, despite the advances made in integrating women into the labor force. Liz, EWI’s new Program Manager intern, attended the seminar on June 8th and learned that women continue to represent a minority of small business owners. Moreover, this weak rate of participation only shrinks as the size of the businesses studied gets bigger. The panel, featuring professionals from the World Bank, USAID and ITC, discussed possible explanations for this phenomenon, including a theory that women are more risk-adverse and therefore less likely to open their own small business. While the seminar had a broad, global focus, it raised several issues that remain closely related to the work done by EWI on a smaller scale in the DC area. If you find the subject of female entrepreneurship as interesting as we do, make sure to sign up for the rest of the seminars in the “Growing Economies Through Women’s Entrepreneurship” series, presented by USAID! Learn more here: http://kdid.org/wlsme
-Liz
