Gender in Management: An International Journal

Examining successful Iranian women entrepreneurs: an exploratory study

Golshan J avadian Robert P. Singh
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To cite this document:
Golshan J avadian Robert P. Singh, (2012),"Examining successful Iranian women entrepreneurs: an
exploratory study", Gender in Management: An International J ournal, Vol. 27 Iss 3 pp. 148 - 164
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Examining successful Iranian
women entrepreneurs:
an exploratory study
Golshan Javadian and Robert P. Singh
Earl G. Graves School of Business, Morgan State University, Baltimore,
Maryland, USA
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors impacting successful Iranian women
entrepreneurs. The factors include: self-efcacy, risk taking, negative stereotypes, and societal culture
and traditions.
Design/methodology/approach The paper utilizes interviews conducted with a sample of
successful Iranian women entrepreneurs and examines the challenges they had to overcome, as well as
their success factors.
Findings Challenges caused by the negative stereotypes and traditions of Iranian society are
barriers successful Iranian women entrepreneurs had to overcome. The possession of personal internal
factors such as high levels of self-efcacy and risk taking positively impacted these womens success.
Research limitation/implications The interviews were not conducted by the authors and were
published in Farsi, so there may be interpretation and/or translation issues. However, there are few
empirical studies on Iranian women entrepreneurs, and this research is one of the rst that contributes
to a better understanding of this important group of entrepreneurs. Further empirical research is
needed to advance knowledge of Iranian women entrepreneurs.
Originality/value The paper contributes to the scarce knowledge about Iranian women
entrepreneurship, by introducing readers to this unique subgroup of entrepreneurs. It represents a
starting point to an important area of research.
Keywords Iran, Women, Entrepreneurialism, National cultures, Women entrepreneurs,
Gender stereotype, Self-efcacy, Risk taking
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report of Iran in 2008, more than a
quarter of Iranian entrepreneurs are women. However, Iran tends to have a very low
index of support for women entrepreneurs and little is known about Iranian women
entrepreneurs (Razavi et al., 2008). Despite what one might expect of women in a
conservative Muslim country, Iranian women are active in many elds of the economy
and the number of women founding newbusinesses is increasing (IRIN, 2003). However,
while this number is increasing and Iranian women outnumber men in achieving higher
education, there are still far fewer women entrepreneurs in Iran when compared to men
(Sarfaraz, 2010).
While numerous studies have examined women entrepreneurs (Aldrich, 1989;
Brindley, 2005; Bates, 2002; Brush, 1990, 1992; Brush et al., 2009; Klyver and Terjesen,
2007) most of these studies were conducted in developed and Western cultural spaces.
Even though there are some common factors that impact women entrepreneurs in both
Western and Middle Eastern countries, it is important to recognize the different
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Gender in Management: An
International Journal
Vol. 27 No. 3, 2012
pp. 148-164
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1754-2413
DOI 10.1108/17542411211221259
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countries specicities of socio-cultural and political processes and their impact on
gender systems (Metcalfe, 2008, p. 86). As Minniti (2009) mentions, dissimilarities exist
across women entrepreneurs in various countries. Therefore, in studying womens
entrepreneurship in a society we need to look at the specic factors related to that society
that impact womens entrepreneurial activities.
We choose to focus our attention in this paper on factors affecting women
entrepreneurs in Iran. This group is not well understood in this journal as much since the
research on women entrepreneurs has focused mainly on female business owners in the
Western world (Farr-Wharton and Brunetto, 2009; Fielden and Dawe, 2004; Klyver and
Terjesen, 2007; Moore et al., 2011; Winn, 2004). The purpose of this paper is to expand the
boundaries of knowledge on female entrepreneurs by discussing factors impacting
women entrepreneurs in Iran. The country has seen a rising number of businesses
founded by female entrepreneurs (IRIN, 2003) but we are not aware of any research that
has been done on this group.
There is a broader body of literature that is developing on women entrepreneurs in the
Middle East (Al Marzouqi andForster, 2011; Ahmad, 2011; Naser et al., 2009; Weeks, 2009;
Zgheib, 2009; Dechant and Al Lamky, 2005), but we cannot generalize the same ndings
for Iranian women entrepreneurs. There are signicant cultural differences between Iran
and the Arab world especially when it comes to gender issues. Internal barriers such as
lack of education or even the problems resulting from gender-segregated social relations
are not as serious in Iran as they are in many countries in the Arab world. Currently
2.8 percent of the Iranian national parliament is made up of women not a large
percentage but much higher than most other Middle Eastern countries such as
Saudi Arabia, OmanandQatar (Inter-ParliamentaryUnion, 2011). There is also a growing
number of female entrepreneurs in the country and 65 percent of university entrants are
now women (IRIN, 2003). This is uncommon across many Middle Eastern countries.
Unlike neighboring countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, where women are
barely even seen on the streets (IRIN, 2003), Iranian women are persistently involved in
public affairs. As Sameh (2009, p. 10) argues, the womens movement in Iran, which is
perhaps the most forceful movement in the region has impacted millions of women within
the country, and has created powerful agents of major changes in everyday life in Iran.
Their willingness to engage in civil resistance and to push for change over the past few
years have hada positive impact onIranianwomens self-condence (Sameh, 2009). These
all point to some of the progress that has been made by women in Iran. However, despite
this progress, Iranian womens participation in the workforce remains somewhat muted
due to gender stereotypes, discrimination, and the erosion of legal rights of professional
women in Iran as a result of the conservative Islamic ruling regime (Maleki, 2005).
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the scarce knowledge about Iranian
women entrepreneurs. We begin with an overview of the environment Iranian women
work within. Then we study a sample of successful female Iranian entrepreneurs. More
specically, we examine two internal factors (self-efcacy and risk taking), and two
external factors (gender stereotypes and societal culture and traditions) and howeach of
these factors negatively or positively impacts the entrepreneurs of the sample. We draw
on the academic literature that has mostly focused on Western female entrepreneurs and
compare the literature with our ndings. Several of our ndings diverge from ndings
about women entrepreneurs that are often found in the Western world. We conclude
with broad implications and future research directions.
Iranian women
entrepreneurs
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2. Overview of the environment Iranian women face
Just like hundreds of millions of women around the globe, Middle Eastern women are
struggling for equal rights and for the opportunity to work and improve their living
standards. The assumption that most Middle Eastern women are kept at home is not
valid anymore since more and more women are entering the workforce (Fernea, 2000).
However, women of the Middle East suffer greatly from the gender gaps both in social
and economic spheres caused by culture and traditions of their societies. For example,
women of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE are not allowed to vote and Arab women are
considerably underrepresented in senior executive positions both in business and
politics (Metcalfe, 2008). Women in the Middle East also suffer from socio-cultural and
economic barriers in their career advancement. Within the organizations, gendered
occupational structures have been limiting womens career progressions (Acker, 2005).
Moreover, womens mobility restrictions in these countries limit their access to training
and career choice options (Metcalfe, 2008).
Iranian women face many of these same issues, but the country is also more
progressive than the broader Arab world in many ways. We have already mentioned
that women make up the majority of newcollege entrants. Iranian women are allowed to
work outside the home and make up 16.1 percent of the Iranian workforce up fromjust
11.4 percent in 2001 (Mirmousavi, 2007). Mirmousavi (2007) argues that one of the
reasons for such increase is the fact that the Iranian population is a young one. Today
70 percent of the 70 million population of Iran are under the age of 30; therefore, there is
simply a need to have younger women workers to meet the workforce needs of the nation
(Mirmousavi, 2007). The result of these trends is that traditional views towards Iranian
women working are breaking (Mirmousavi, 2007).
Iranian feminists have been trying for years to combine Western approaches into
their local culture to promote womens rights. They point out the differences between
female and male characteristics and behaviors in many elds including business
practices and by using the term gender complementary instead of gender equality
(Quader and Oplatka, 2008) to highlight the differences among gender roles without
making women inferior to men.
Jamali and Nejati (2009) argue that the main barriers to Iranian womens career
progression are lack of organizational support and job restrictions related to location
and salary. Moreover, the ill-structured bureaucracies in organizations as well as
gendered occupational structures have limited womens participation in the workforce
( Javadian and Addae, 2011). These barriers have led more women to choose
self-employment as their career choice in recent years. Based on United Nation Worlds
Women Report (2010), 24.3 percent of Iranian employed women were self-employed
during the period of 2004-2007. When compared to Iranian mens self-employment rate
(40.8 percent), womens self-employment rate is lower, however, there has been a
signicant increase in womens self-employment rate from1995 (20.8 percent). Certainly
these statistics indicate the growing numbers and importance of Iranian women
entrepreneurs. Moreover, as stated in the GEM(2010) report, the motivation to start their
business for a majority of Iranian women entrepreneurs is due to necessity (Kelley et al.,
2010). That is, the majority of Iranian women entrepreneurs started a business because
they had no other option for work. Female Iranian entrepreneurs just like women all
around the world have to overcome many challenges which are unique to their culture.
Examining the factors known to impact women entrepreneurs in Western countries and
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investigating those factors for Iranian women canhelp us better understandthe status of
Iranian womens entrepreneurship.
3. Factors impacting Iranian womens entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of future goods and
services which involves the study of opportunities (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000).
Among internal factors that have been attributed to successful entrepreneurs are
self-efcacy and risk taking. Self-efcacy refers to the beliefs in ones capabilities to
organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments
(Bandura, 1997, p. 3). Self-efcacy is known to impact entrepreneurial intentions
(Sequeira et al., 2007) and entrepreneurial success (Bandura, 1992). Some studies
(Chen et al., 1998; Chowdhury and Endres, 2005; Gatewood et al., 2002; Kourilsky and
Walstad, 1998) suggest that women have lower entrepreneurial self-efcacy compared
to men and this may negatively impact their growth.
Risk taking is recognized as another internal factor attributed to successful
entrepreneurs (McClelland, 1987). Van Praag and Cramer (2001) mention that since
entrepreneurship is a risky business whether one becomes an entrepreneur depends on
their ability to take risks. As Slovic (2000) mentions, the majority of research on risk
perceptions has shown that women are more concerned about risks of starting a
business than men. Since risk taking is an important quality of successful entrepreneurs,
risk averseness of women entrepreneurs may be viewed as a barrier to their growth.
The two external factors we examine are gender stereotypes andculture and traditions
of the society. Studies (Nel et al., 2010; Winn, 2005) refer to gender stereotypes as one of the
severe barriers women entrepreneurs face. Such stereotypes not only inuence the
perceptions of women entrepreneurs by others but it also impacts womens desire to start
their own businesses (Gupta and Bhawe, 2007). Further, as Brush et al. (2009) argue, in
examining women entrepreneurs it is important to pay attention to the environmental
factors such as expectations of society and cultural norms. The culture and the traditions
of a society may limit women entrepreneurs exercise of choices (Brush et al., 2009).
In the following sections, we expand on these internal and external factors that can
inuence the success or failure of women entrepreneurs in Iran. We discuss each factor
individually and draw from the literature on Western female entrepreneurs and used
interview data from a sample of successful women entrepreneurs in Iran to further
explore how these factors impact women in Iran.
4. Description of the sample
We used interviews conducted with successful entrepreneurs that are archived in an
existing database on an Iranian managerial education web site called emodiran. The
web site contains 128 interviews of distinguished Iranian entrepreneurs from a diverse
set of industries. The respondents include 100 male and 28 female entrepreneurs and
the interviews covered a range of topics including the entrepreneurs life histories,
backgrounds and their views of what accounted for their success as entrepreneurs
( Javadian and Austin, 2011).
The interviews were conducted by different managerial newspapers and journals
and were archived on the emodiran (2011) web site. Since the format of the interviews
and the questions asked were not the same for all the entrepreneurs, we focused on the
common questions asked of 28 female entrepreneurs. These questions were related
Iranian women
entrepreneurs
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to the success factors and challenges of these entrepreneurs. Each interview was read
and translated by a native Farsi speaker the language of Iran and using content
analysis of the text data, information about the factors that positively led to their
success as well as challenges that they had to overcome was extracted.
The entrepreneurs ages rangedfrom25 to77years oldandtheywere active indifferent
industries ranging from agriculture and carpet to manufacturing and transportation. At
the time of their interviews all of the female entrepreneurs were running prosperous
businesses and were distinguished as successful business owners by associations and
events in Iran such as the Association of Iranian Women Entrepreneurs and the
Distinguished Entrepreneur Festival. These entities are run by the Iranian Ministry of
Labor and Social Affairs and are important to disseminating information about
entrepreneurship to Iranian women (Association of Iranian Women Entrepreneurs, 2011).
To start the analysis, we looked at the motivation of these women in starting a
business. Brush (1992) argues when a woman starts her own business, in her opinion she
is not creating a distinct economic entity, rather she is assimilating a new system of
business related interactions into her life. However, the majority of the entrepreneurs in
the sample stated that the reason why they started their own business was either to
become nancially independent or economically active outside the house. We reviewed
these interviews to identify the internal and external factors that positively or negatively
impacted these successful entrepreneurs. We incorporated examples of the
entrepreneurs responses in the discussion below on each factor.
5. Internal factors
5.1 Self-efcacy
Self-condence is recognized as a key contributor to success of entrepreneurs.
Fielden et al. (2003) argue that lack of condence is the greatest barrier to womens
progression in entrepreneurship. Studies have shown that men tend to have higher
levels of self-condence and are more positive about business opportunities than women
(Koellinger et al., 2008; Minniti et al., 2004).
Accordingto Kurzman(2008), while the politics andthe laws of the Islamic Republic of
Iran have generated a backlash among Iranian women, the social movements have
caused a sharpened sense of efcacy among Iranian women. Instead of becoming static,
the social and legal injustice towards Iranian women has made them take steps to push
for change in a variety of forms (Hoodfar and Sadeghi, 2009). These efforts range from
social protests such as resisting wearing full head scarfs to excelling over their male peer
students in classrooms and joining the work force (Hoodfar and Sadeghi, 2009).
Moreover, Iranian womens resistance and their social movements such as the campaign
of One Million Signatures for the Repeal of Discriminatory Laws have transformed
their identities (Hoodfar andSadeghi, 2009) and positively impacted their self-condence.
Even though traditional culture in Iran tends to view women as weak and has
contributed to the lack of self-belief among women in general (Porkiani et al., 2009),
studies done inside Iran (Golrod, 2005; Maleki, 2005) have found that internal factors
such as a lack of condence is not a challenge to women entrepreneurs. In fact, Golrod
(2005) suggested that a high level of motivation and the personal characteristics of
Iranian women entrepreneurs are keys to their success.
While faced with several challenges, the majority of the entrepreneurs in the sample
seemed to be condent in their own abilities and viewed themselves as being just
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as qualied as their male colleagues. While the majority of the entrepreneurs had prior
work experience, only about half of them had prior entrepreneurial experience.
However, the majority appeared to have high levels of entrepreneurial self-efcacy. As
one respondent mentioned:
[. . .] I had to go through so many difculties to establish my business but I was always
condent that I can do the job as well as men do [. . .] I have the same skills and qualications
as they do.
Such self-efcacy is apparent in several other entrepreneurs in the sample. Another
respondents stated:
[. . .] I only start a job when I know I can complete it in the best way [. . .] and when I start
something I will make sure that it reaches its full potential [. . .] I was pretty condent that my
business idea is worth pursuing and I stick to it until it ourished.
Still another respondent mentioned that:
[. . .] when I started the business I was ready to ght with difculties [. . .] I knew I could
defeat the obstacles of the way [. . .] when I was faced with problems I did not give up, I solved
them.
Therefore, while the majority of the entrepreneurs in the sample did not have prior
entrepreneurial experience it appears that their high level of self-efcacy made up for
such limitation and contributed to their success. The GEM (2008) report of Iran also
supports the same nding. In fact, in that report Iranian women entrepreneurs tend to
be more condent than Iranian men entrepreneurs (Razavi et al., 2008).
Therefore, the results from the sample would seem to suggest that successful
Iranian women entrepreneurs possess the necessary levels of self-efcacy to succeed
and their high levels of self-efcacy enables them to overcome the challenges they face.
5.2 Risk taking
As Brindley (2005) has argued risk taking is an inherent characteristic of the
entrepreneurial personality. Slovic (2000) found that in the majority of studies on risk
taking, women are risk averse while men are more likely to be risk takers. Based on
several studies (Koellinger et al., 2008; Minniti et al., 2004) women tend to have a higher
fear of failure. Nel et al. (2010) argue that it is this fear of failure among the major
challenges women entrepreneurs are faced with. Some have suggested that effective
career counseling can help women overcome their elevated level of fear of failure
(Macleod, 1982).
For the overwhelming majority of female Iranian entrepreneurs, career counseling is
not an option. However, at a broader level, fear of failure is a relative term. It is not the
Iranian womens only obstacle in opening up their businesses. Without a doubt Iranian
women lack numerous basic political and social rights which slow their career
progression (Kashani-Sabet, 2005). They must deal with open discrimination, so those
who do pursue entrepreneurial careers have much more serious issues to deal with than
just a fear of failure.
The social realities and the contradictions of post-revolutionary Iran have led the
Iranian women to a vibrant and diverse reform movement (Sameh, 2009). The levels of
risk that they face and their views on risk are likely to be quite different than women in
the Western world. Putting their fears behind them, everyday Iranian women
Iranian women
entrepreneurs
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are literally risking their lives in an effort to achieve equal rights in different aspects of
their lives. In courts they are ghting for divorce or custody of their children and in
politics they are setting themselves up as electoral candidates (Hoodfar and Sadeghi,
2009; Sameh, 2009). In sports they are struggling to get into football stadiums and in the
workforce they are remaining in their positions despite harsh treatment they may face at
times (Hoodfar and Sadeghi, 2009). Despite the ruling regimes open opposition to the
ideology of feminism, educated Iranian women have no fear of showing more and more
feminist related behaviors such as participation in the paid labor force (Kurzman, 2008).
Several of the entrepreneurs in the sample believed that they owe their success to
their ability to take risks. The forms of risks that these entrepreneurs referred to ranged
fromnancial risks to the risks of not being socially accepted as a qualied entrepreneur
by their customers, suppliers and investors. With respect to nancial risks, the majority
of these women had to devote all their personal savings and in some cases their personal
property to their businesses. Only a fewwere able to get the startup capital fromoutside
sources such as governmental funds or bank loans. One of the respondent mentioned:
[. . .] I took a great risk [. . .] I sold my house and even my jewelries to fund my business [. . .]
I was divorced and responsible for my children [. . .] it was a great risk [. . .] but I knew I could
succeed.
A couple of the entrepreneurs mentioned how they started over after several failures.
One of the respondents who owned an export company mentioned:
[. . .] the rst two businesses I started did not work out [. . .] I was completely bankrupt but
I did not give up [. . .] I came up with a new product to export [. . .] it was a risky decision [. . .]
with the little money I was left with, I pursued the opportunity and it worked out.
The risks some of these women faced also dealt with the risk of being rejected by
ofcials and customers. One of the respondents mentioned:
[. . .] I decided to open up a transportation business and invested all my money in it [. . .]
everybody told me that I am making a mistake since nobody wants to do business with a
women in such a male dominated industry [. . .] I was faced with rejections from customers,
investors and suppliers but I knew I was as qualied as my male colleges [. . .] I persisted and
succeeded.
As women working in a male-dominated environment and with little or no nancial
support, their ability to accept risk and not fear the unknown and potential of failure was
critical. These women not only had to deal with negative stereotypes but higher levels of
risk than most entrepreneurs face. Based on the 2008 GEM report on Iran, opening up a
business in Iran is considered challenging mainly due to governmental restrictions and
lack of support. The risk of opening and running a business is even harder for Iranian
women entrepreneurs who have less nancial support and are faced with discriminative
reactions. Therefore, it can be argued that as successful entrepreneurs, Iranian women
are not only risk averse but are risk takers to a very high extent.
6. External factors
6.1 Gender stereotypes
Gender stereotypes refer to cognitive structures that impact the way people process
informationregardingwomenandmen(Hoyt, 2005). Theyare probablythe most common
and the most discussed barriers women face in their career advancement (Nel et al., 2010).
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General stereotypes of entrepreneurs associate entrepreneurs with masculine
characteristics and women do not seem to t the typical entrepreneur (De Bruin et al.,
2006). The traits that are commonly attributed to entrepreneurs such as resolute and
strong willed are masculine terms and feminine terms such as yielding and gentle
are not often used (Ahl, 2006). Gupta et al. (2009) suggested that female entrepreneurs
tend to have masculine characteristics and the women who perceive themselves as more
similar to males have higher entrepreneurial intentions.
The gender stereotypes that Iranian female entrepreneurs must overcome have deep
roots in the traditions and norms of the society and are more severe than how
entrepreneurs are dened and perceived. They are not only faced with the harsh
negative stereotypes that many working women in Iran are faced with, but also with the
stereotypes that do not see women as qualied entrepreneurs.
The economy of Iran is dominated by the traditional merchant economy which has a
male dominated culture (IRIN, 2003). Moreover, the post-revolutionary and war
atmosphere in Iran has reinforced certain social norms for Iranian women and has
determined suitable occupations for them (Alaedini and Razavi, 2005). As a result of
these social norms the majority of occupations except for teaching and healthcare are
male dominated and the occupational segregation has led to lowrates of participation in
workforce despite womens high levels of education.
In addition, Iranian women experience negative attitudes towards working outside
their homes (Ghorayshi, 1996). Ghorayshi (1996, p. 460) believes that the negative
stereotypes toward womens work have roots in the dominant gender ideology which
emphasizes mens provider role and womens domestic responsibilities. Living in a
culture where negative gender stereotypes are so common, women face more difculties
startingtheir own businesses. Iranian women entrepreneurs must put extra effort to rst
break these negative stereotypes and then move forward.
Among the negative stereotypes against Iranian women, there is a commonly held
belief that Iranian women lack technical knowledge and skills. This is unusual given
their high levels of post-secondary education women achieve. Alaedini and Razavi
(2005) report some of the negative perceptions as Iranian womens lack of physical
power and technical knowledge, womens lack of interest in learning, and womens
maternity and child rearing needs.
Many of the women in the sample referred to different forms of stereotypes they had to
deal with. For example, manyof the respondents mentionedhowdifcult it was for themto
get their licenses to start their businesses since they were viewed as not qualied because
they were women. One of the respondents who started a transportation company stated:
[. . .] while there was no legal or ofcial rule that prevented a women from getting a license for
a transportation company which is a business traditionally done by men, I was rejected so
many times because I was a women.
Some received such discriminative reaction from their customers as well. For example,
one of the respondents stated:
[. . .] I had to lie to the customers that the business owner is a man outside the country and I am
his representative so they would agree to do business with me.
Moreover, while the majority of the entrepreneurs in the sample had their family
support, several explicitly referred to negative reactions of their relatives to their work.
For example, one entrepreneur mentioned:
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[. . .] my father believed in my abilities and supported me nancially [. . .] but my relatives
criticized my father for trusting his daughter with his money [. . .] if I was a boy they would
not think the same way.
Or another respondent who reported:
[. . .] while my husband did not object to me starting my own business, my in-laws criticized
me for not being a full-time mother. They believed that my main job should be taking care of
my kids and working outside of the house is not suitable for women.
It is likely that gender stereotypes are more challenging for Iranian women
entrepreneurs to overcome relative to Western women. Iranian women entrepreneurs
not only receive discriminatory treatment from ofcials and their customers but also
from their relatives. These negative reactions have roots in the existing gender
stereotypes about womens roles and capabilities. As it appears what enabled the
entrepreneurs in the sample to overcome the stereotypes was their persistence and their
strong condence in their abilities.
6.2 Culture and traditions of the society
Women in the workforce are bounded by the traditions of their society which in most
cultures expect them to meet certain masculine standards (Tower and Alkadry, 2008).
Conservative religious practices and tribal customs work against women and the lack of
the basic rights and persistent violence against women keep women from being fully
productive in their societies (Coleman, 2010). The gender gaps in income and access to
educational and career opportunities are among the destructive results of discriminating
cultures women live in. These social restrictions have also been negatively impacting
womens individual lives. In a study done byTower and Alkadry (2008) it was suggested
that these social boundaries are among the reasons that the number of single or divorced
career women has increased in recent years and the authors suggest that both business
organizations and the government need to pay more attention to this problemwhich can
negatively impact both women and men.
Brush et al. (2009) argue that the meso and macro environments have a considerable
impact on women entrepreneurs and can limit women entrepreneurs exercise of
choices. The meso environmental impacts reect regional support policies, initiatives
organizations and industries have, and environmental issues such as occupational
segregation and social networking while the macro environment refers to national level
policies, culture, law and the broader economy (Brush et al., 2009).
The barriers and the constraints Iranian women face in their social lives are mostly
related to cultural ideologies and traditions (Arab-Moghaddam et al., 2007) which have
roots in the macro environment level of barriers. In a society with entrenched
hegemonic traditions, women are positioned by circumstances that they are obligated
to accept (Cubillo and Brown, 2003).
Religionwhichis inextricablywovenintothe clothof cultural life (Tarakeshwar et al.,
2003, p. 377) has made Iranian women face different forms of conict which as
Arab-Moghaddam and his colleagues (2007, p. 113) mention is a result of practices of
Islam and the pressure for a more secular oriented modernism. Moreover, even though
everyday Iranian women enjoy more educational and professional opportunities due to
the globalization and communication technology, cultural constraints which are based on
traditional views still make it harder for them to progress in their careers
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(Arab-Moghaddamet al., 2007). In addition, during economic downturns, Iranian women
have a harder time nding a job and making career advancement since priority is given to
men (Alaedini and Razavi, 2005).
Beyond these cultural barriers, certain laws and regulations are causing difculties
for Iranian women in the workforce. As an example, current family law requires
women to have their husbands permission for employment or setting up a business
(Alaedini and Razavi, 2005). Unfortunately, all these cultural customs have made
women themselves less willing to work outside the home (Alaedini and Razavi, 2005).
All these barriers are among the reasons that Iranian womens participation in the
workforce is not high despite their high educational achievements.
Iranian women also face barriers which have roots in the meso level of environment.
One of the challenges Iranian women face in this regard is occupational segregation.
As Blau et al. (2002) point out occupational segregation makes it more difcult for
women to enter certain arenas of business. After the Islamic revolution in 1979, Iranian
women lost their legal rights to possess several positions such as judges and presidents
(Kar, 2010). Moreover, due to the educational policies the participation of women in
certain engineering elds such as civil engineering is limited ( Javadian and Addae,
2011) and with the exception of clerical, healthcare and teaching occupations, most of
the other occupations in Iran are now male dominated (Alizadeh and Harper, 2003).
As Sarfaraz (2010) mentions in GEM women report, one of the reasons for the low
participation of Iranian women in entrepreneurial activities compared to men is the
cultural expectations for women. The major cultural barrier that the entrepreneurs in
the sample referred to goes back to the social expectation from Iranian women. They
are expected to be full time house wives and mothers even if they work outside the
house. As one of the respondents stated:
[. . .] when I decided to start my own business, my husband told me that he is not going to
prevent me but will not support me either [. . .] so I still had the full responsibility of house
works and the children while running my business.
Many of the entrepreneurs of the sample stated that what enabled them to overcome
such challenges was their ability to balance work and family. They believed that even
though they are running businesses and working fulltime, they are fully responsible
for the children and the house chores. One of the respondents mentioned:
[. . .] Iranian women tend to think that they either have to work outside the house or by a full
time house wife [. . .] but that is not true [. . .] while I am working fulltime I am fully
responsible for the children and house chores [. . .] whenever you walk into my house you will
nd it clean [. . .] it is all about managing your time right.
Another barrier that entrepreneurs in the sample face from the meso environment is in
regards to the social networks. Among the identied sources of opportunity in
entrepreneurial studies, social networks have been identied as an important source
since social networks play an important role in expanding the boundaries of an
individuals rationality (Hills et al., 1997). Gilmore and Carson (1999, p. 31) dene a
network as:
[. . .] a collection of individuals who may or may not be known to each other and who, in some
way contribute something to the entrepreneur, either passively, reactively or proactively
whether specically or not.
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Social network which is an important factor explaining why some individuals become
entrepreneurs while other do not (Aldrich and Zimmer, 1986) provides individuals with
product and service ideas as well as self-condence ( Johanisson, 1996). For women
entrepreneurs, social networks are known to play an important role in women
entrepreneurs access to nancial capital (Carter et al., 2007).
The majority of the entrepreneurs referred to their close family members as their
main source of nancial, informational and emotional support. Having mainly family
members in the social networks not only limits these womens access to nancial capital
but it also restricts their access to useful information. However, the support of family
members played an important role in their success. This is consistent with Golrod (2005)
study which suggests that a contributing factor to womens entrepreneurship in Iran is
the support provided by their family and friends who help them overcome the existing
barriers. The majority of the entrepreneurs in the sample referred to the support and the
encouragement they receive fromtheir family especially their husbands or fathers as the
main factors for success. As one of the respondent mentioned [. . .] my husband has
always supported my work [. . .] if it was not for his emotional support I would have
never been able to succeed.
Therefore, Iranian women entrepreneurs are faced with several challenges faced by
themfromthe meso and macro environment. In order to overcome these challenges, they
need to have the full support of their family especially their fathers or husbands.
Moreover, since they are traditionally known be in charge for the house work and
children, they cannot drop such responsibilities. It is not only the expectation of others
fromwomen to take care of house work and children but women themselves are tight to
such social norms. For example, Iranian women prefer to cook for their families and not
eat out or many of them do not believe in child care and prefer to raise their children on
their own. Such expectations and social norms are among the reasons for low
participation of women in workforce. Women who choose to participate in the workforce
such as the entrepreneurs of our sample found ways to balance work and family.
However, nding such balance is a challenge due to the heavy responsibilities Iranian
women have at home.
7. Discussion
We recognize that this is a work in progress, but few studies have investigated gender
issues in Middle Eastern countries that impact women entrepreneurs. Using qualitative
data obtained from archived interviews of successful female entrepreneurs in Iran, our
ndings suggest that there are some similarities and some differences between female
Iranian entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurs that are better researchedandunderstood
from the Western world. These are largely related to the differences in the cultural and
social environments between Iranandthe Western world. Stated quite simply, some of the
ndings in the entrepreneurship literature that are related to female entrepreneurs based
on Western samples of women may not apply to women in other parts of the world.
Iranian women face some of the same barriers introduced in Western studies such as
negative stereotypes and cultural implications. However, Iranian women are even more
negatively affected by these factors than Western female leaders. With respect to
internal factors such as fear of failure and a lack of self-condence two characteristics
that are often found among female entrepreneurs in the literature we believe that these
are non-factors for Iranian women. The challenges of daily life for Iranian females,
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along with the far more difcult challenges of culture and negative stereotypes makes
these less likely to be factors affecting Iranian women entrepreneurs.
Iranian women possess the same characteristics and skills required to run businesses
and to be competent entrepreneurs as women all around the world. Based onthe ndings
of this paper, Iranian women do not possess the negative internal factors such as lack of
self-condence and fear of failure which are considered barriers for women
entrepreneurs. However, due to the gender stereotypes and the negative impacts of
their traditional culture, Iranian women have difculty opening uptheir ownbusinesses.
In traditional Iranian culture women are mainly responsible for taking care of the family
and the existing stereotypes have created the impression in the society that women
should only work outside the home if the family has the economic needs. In order to
overcome such challenges Iranian women entrepreneurs need their familys support
especially the male support. Moreover, in order to succeed as entrepreneurs they are
obligated to balance family and work and doing so is much more of a challenge for
Iranian women than Western women due to the social norms.
8. Limitations and future research direction
Among the limitations of this paper is the very little empirical research that we could
drawfromthat has specically researched Iranian women entrepreneurs. We based our
discussion primarily on Western literature and the personal assessments and
observations of one of this papers co-authors. Another limitation of this study is in
regards to the interpretation of interviews. Since the interviews were not conducted by
the authors themselves, we relied on the accuracy of the interview data that was
archived and available on the internet. The translation and interpretation of the
interviews may not have been fully accurate or some of the data may have been missing.
Moreover, since the original interviews were in Iranian language, Farsi, some
misinterpretation might have resulted in the process of translation.
We strongly believe that further research is needed. Iran is the second largest oil
producer in OPEC and it is a major economic and socio-political force within the Middle
East. Greater understanding of its society and its changing culture is needed. Women
make up half of Iranian population and are highly educated, and while they are making
progress in terms of their contributions to the Iranian economy, they still lag the
contributions of men. That said, the increased participation of women inentrepreneurship
can help to decrease the high employment rate the country currently suffers from.
As Sekaran (1990) has mentioned every research project has seven predictable life
cycle stages. Conceptualizations, birth, infancy, adulthood, take-off stage, maturation,
and decline. Without any doubt, the topic of female entrepreneurship in Iran is still in its
conceptualization stage. Therefore, there are various implications for future research
studies within this topic. The eld requires extensive theoretical bases as well as
empirical studies. Irans participation in GEM opens up the opportunity to examine
different aspect of entrepreneurship for both men and women entrepreneurs. As
discussed before, relying merely on the theories and research done in Western countries
is not enough to direct the woman entrepreneurship research in Iran. After discussing
some of the factors that impact Iranian women entrepreneurs, future research should
examine and directly compare male and female Iranian entrepreneurs and strategies and
polices for advancing female entrepreneurship in Iran. We see this paper as just aninitial
starting point that will develop into a broader research body.
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9. Conclusion
Gender stereotypes, societal traditions, self-efcacy and risk taking are among the
commonly researched topics in womens entrepreneurship. This paper examined the
impact of these factors on successful Iranian women entrepreneurs. It appears that
negative stereotypes and cultural barriers have a negative impact on successful Iranian
entrepreneurs. However, personal internal factors such as risk averseness and low
self-efcacy which are commonly considered barriers for women in the Western world
may not be barriers for Iranian women with respect to entrepreneurship. Iranian women
face great challenges in their daily lives that make these factors pale by comparison. In
fact Iranian womens high level of self-efcacy and their risk taking abilities were found
to be possible factors for success for the entrepreneurs of the sample.
Even though the participation of Iranian women in entrepreneurship is still at a
relatively low level (around 25 percent), many women still possess the characteristics
and the skills needed to succeed as entrepreneurs. It is expected that over time more and
more women will nd themselves in entrepreneurial positions within Iran. The cultural
and the traditional boundaries as well as the negative stereotypes are the main barriers
these women have to overcome. These will take time, and further research is needed to
examine the similarities and differences that women entrepreneurs face in Iran and other
parts of the world.
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About the authors
Golshan Javadian is currently a PhD student at Morgan State University. Her research focus is
on women entrepreneurship in Iran. She has presented a paper at the Eastern Academy of
Management and published papers in the Journal of International Business and Economics.
Golshan Javadian is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: gojav2@morgan.edu
Robert P. Singh is a Professor of Management in the Earl G. Graves School of Business and
Management at Morgan State University (Baltimore, MD). His research focuses on entrepreneurial
opportunity recognition, social networks of entrepreneurs, and the unique issues facing minority
and older entrepreneurs. He has published three books, several book chapters, and nearly
30 research papers in leading peer-reviewed journals. He has also presented dozens of papers at
leading international and national entrepreneurship and management conferences.
GM
27,3
164
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