Addressing
Gender Barriers to
Entrepreneurship
and Leadership
Among Girls and Young
Women in South-East Asia
Across Asia-Pacific, entrenched gender inequalities continue to constrain women’s contribution to their communities and societies through entrepreneurship. The structural barriers and discriminatory gender norms that women face from a young age are deeply interconnected and compounding — layering onto one another to damaging effect — leading to gaps in skills and competencies required to thrive in the 21st century.
Taking a Human Centered Design approach, this research strengthens the evidence-base to support the advancement of gender equality and tackle gender-related barriers that adolescent girls and young women face.
Research Location
Indonesia
Lao PDR
Thailand
Indonesia
Lao PDR
Thailand
The Research Approach
Understanding gender inequality requires shifting from analysing individual drivers in isolation; to seeing how they interact with one another and shape overall dynamics. This research takes an ecosystem approach to understand how girls’ and young women’s capacity and agency for entrepreneurship are shaped by their household, community and wider ecosystem as they move from adolescence into early adulthood.
Individual Ecosystem
How do individual attributes like demographics, motivation, and psychological factors shape a young woman’s aspirations, including her aspirations for pursuing entrepreneurship and leadership roles? How do these individual factors evolve over time based on her interactions with her wider ecosystem?
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Social Ecosystem
How do socio-cultural norms, the expectations of family and community, gender socialisation, biases, and stereotyping influence young women’s aspirations, choices, opportunities and agency? How does this shift from ages 10-24?
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Education Ecosystem
How does the education and skills development ecosystem shape the motivation, capabilities, and opportunities of girls and young women to pursue entrepreneurship or to develop entrepreneurial acumen that can be applied in other pursuits?
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Employment and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
How do the market and access to resources and support services enable or hinder young women’s capacity and agency for entrepreneurship relative to young men?
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Policy and Legal Ecosystem
How does the gender-responsiveness of policies, laws and regulations impact young women’s capacity to pursue entrepreneurship and leadership and advance or constrain their broader empowerment?
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Stories from the field
Inspired by stories from the field research, personas that highlight young women’s journeys are presented here. These are based on experiences and lived realities of young women across age, geographies, and diverse socio-economic and cultural contexts.
These fictional personas are accompanied with a Journey Map. This map presents key factors that enable or hinder the development of a young girl’s capacity for entrepreneurship in her ecosystem from adolescence to early adulthood — illustrating that these barriers do not suddenly present themselves later in life.
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Note: These images are for representative purposes only. The fictionalised stories are not those of the young girls in the images.
Learnings from the Research
This section presents the key learnings from the mixed methods research conducted across the three countries — through a combination of primary research, literature review, and survey findings. Learnings relate to the different ecosystem ‘levels’ in which girls and young women exist, and the connections between them
Individual Ecosystem
Social Ecosystem
Education Ecosystem
Employment and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
Policy and Legal Ecosystem
Relative to young men, young women suffer from significantly lower self-confidence and higher fear of failure. Girls and young women assign responsibility for their success or failure to their own perseverance; and underestimate the role of external factors beyond their control.
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Fear of negative judgement by family, peers and community is at the heart of why girls and young women seek to avoid failure
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Girls and young women across all ages assign full responsibility for their success to their own motivation and perseverance; and underestimate the role of factors outside of their control
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Girls at a younger age feel most confident when in spaces of education engaging with their teachers, or when appreciated by their family and peers
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Relative to young men, young women suffer from significantly lower self-confidence and higher fear of failure. Girls and young women assign responsibility for their success or failure to their own perseverance; and underestimate the role of external factors beyond their control.
Girls and young women feel that their individual needs and choices must come second to family duties. From a young age, girls report being expected to balance their education and employment aspirations with an unequal share of domestic work.
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Girls and young women report that their family duties and responsibilities must come before their own needs and aspirations.
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Young women and girls need validation or permission for their professional choices
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Young women bear a disproportionate share of domestic work — reducing the time they can spend on learning and on recreation
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2
Girls and young women feel that their individual needs and choices must come second to family duties. From a young age, girls report being expected to balance their education and employment aspirations with an unequal share of domestic work.
Young women feel that their career possibilities, including for entrepreneurship, are limited by societal pressures on appropriate roles for women. They seek to expand their understanding of viable opportunities.
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The research validates how the aspirations of young women and girls are strongly tied to their socio-cultural contexts and the models they see represented around them.
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Despite some shifts in gender norms, perceptions of segregated female versus male professions persist. Women face negative stigma when they are viewed as too ‘ambitious’ in their professional aspirations
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Community experiences help girls and young women envision future possibilities. Across all ages, women call for visible and accessible female role models.
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In Indonesia and Thailand in particular, the internet and social media provide young women with access to perceived role models beyond their communities
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Young women feel that their career possibilities, including for entrepreneurship, are limited by societal pressures on appropriate roles for women. They seek to expand their understanding of viable opportunities.
While education is perceived to be critical in job market signaling by young women, it is viewed as inadequate in developing entrepreneurial skills and equipping them for work. Skills development options are particularly restricted for young women who cannot afford to access or travel to these programs. These limitations are further compounded for girls who are married early or face the stigma of teenage pregnancy.
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For young women more than for young men, formal qualifications are seen as a necessary signalling device for professional advancement.
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Especially in remote areas, adolescent girls and young women view teachers as the principal source of professional guidance.
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Family financial constraints are the first barrier to young women pursuing higher education or skill building opportunities. Those from low income groups are restricted in their access to learning opportunities and seek alternative avenues to advance their education.
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Young women from poor families are more likely to drop out of school due to the need to enter the labour market early, child marriage, or teenage pregnancy, among other factors.
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Young women, more than boys, believe that they are inhibited in their interpersonal, communication, and financial management skills that are critical to building entrepreneurial acumen. They attribute this to inadequacies in teaching methods and learning opportunities available to them.
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Young people are aware of the benefits of having a variety of skills that prepare them for the world of work, or for developing their own business, and seek experience-based learning opportunities to build their transferable skills. However, many are not able to access these.
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While education is perceived to be critical in job market signaling by young women, it is viewed as inadequate in developing entrepreneurial skills and equipping them for work. Skills development options are particularly restricted for young women who cannot afford to access or travel to these programs. These limitations are further compounded for girls who are married early or face the stigma of teenage pregnancy.
Young women, especially those in rural areas, are driven to entrepreneurship not only because of a lack of local formal employment opportunities; but also due to the flexibility that entrepreneurship affords for balancing income generation with care responsibilities.
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The research highlights high entrepreneurial intentions among young women and girls across all age groups across the three countries. Within this, there is significant variation in the nature of these aspirations, for example between urban and rural settings and between opportunity versus necessity-driven entrepreneurs.
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Entrepreneurship allows young women to manage their time and exercise agency in decision-making and control of assets
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Gender discrimination and bias in formal employment settings contribute to women opting for informal employment options
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Young women, especially those in rural areas, are driven to entrepreneurship not only because of a lack of local formal employment opportunities; but also due to the flexibility that entrepreneurship affords for balancing income generation with care responsibilities.
Inadequate access to affordable finance, business networks, and information — underpinned by discriminatory gender norms — are the most significant barriers that young women face to starting and growing businesses.
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For aspiring female entrepreneurs, limited access to capital is a key obstacle to pursuing entrepreneurial ambitions. Long-run institutional structures and gender norms shape both demand and supply factors affecting access to capital.
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Access to business networks and mentors are perceived as the most crucial enablers for young women who aspire to be entrepreneurs
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Where enterprise support services do exist, insufficient information and gender-blind design restrict access and relevance for women.
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Once women are engaged in entrepreneurship, social media is a channel to meet their business and capacity building needs
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Young women and girls report that mobility constraints related to unsafe public transport, social stigma, and lack of ownership/control of vehicles, limit not only their education and employment opportunities, but also their opportunities to access markets and grow their enterprises.
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Inadequate access to affordable finance, business networks, and information — underpinned by discriminatory gender norms — are the most significant barriers that young women face to starting and growing businesses.
The lack of female leadership in decision-making positions and the existence of gender-blind policies and laws limit the potential for advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.
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Women are poorly represented in political and economic leadership across South-East Asia
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Gender-blind laws act as barriers to young women’s fair and equal access to opportunities in the region
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Where gender equality laws do exist, they are not necessarily enforced, or people are not aware of them.
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The lack of female leadership in decision-making positions and the existence of gender-blind policies and laws limit the potential for advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Opportunity Areas for Action
Grounded in the principles of systemic change and gender transformation, these recommendations are presented as strategic entry points to unlock the full inclusion of young women in opportunities offered by entrepreneurship and leadership. Derived from the research, these recommendations are focused on the means to empower young women with the resources, capacities, and institutional changes to exercise agency in their journey from adolescence to adulthood.
EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE
Generation Girl
In Indonesia, Generation Girl is a non-profit organization aimed at introducing young girls across all backgrounds to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields through fun, educational Holiday Clubs with a goal to shape future female leaders and empower women to make their mark in male-dominated fields.
For more information, please visit: https://www.generationgirl.org/
Women Allies for Social Change
In Thailand, the International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice offers a course called “Women Allies for Social Change” which is intended to build a supportive community of Thai women for gender-transformative social change. It develops their critical consciousness to drive gender transformative collective action by teaching them feminist concepts and presenting them with Buddhist feminist analysis of structural violence, power, privilege and social action.
For more information, please visit: http://womenforpeaceandjustice.org/courses
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Support Young Women to Build Self-Confidence and Exercise Agency
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Creating Opportunities for Exploration and Expressing Voices
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Bringing Possibilities Closer to Home
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Supporting Gender-Transformative Collective Action
EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE
Champions of Change Coalition
The Male Champions of Change is a coalition of Australian CEOs, Non- Executive Directors and community leaders who actively work towards tackling inequality by encouraging men to step up besides women on issues of gender equality.
For more information, please visit: https://championsofchangecoalition.org
Women Make the News
In 2018 UNESCO in Thailand launched an initiative entitled, “Women Make the News”, an online database of female experts including women in STEM which Thai journalists can draw from. This could be replicated in other countries of the region.
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Engage Boys, Families, Peers and Community Members as Agents for Gender Transformation
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Converting Parental Pressure into Parental Support
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Leveraging the Role of Boys and Young Men as Gender Champions
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Showcasing the Successes of Women
EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE
Adolescent Kit for Expression
The Adolescent Kit for Expression and Innovation by UNICEF is a package of guidance, tools, activities, and supplies to support adolescents ages 10-18. It aims to offer adolescents the chance to express themselves, experiment, solve real problems, and explore new ideas.
For more information, please visit: https://www.adolescentkit.org/
Youth Co:Lab Springboard Programme
Youth Co:Lab Springboard Programme is a business incubation platform for young entrepreneurs to turn SDG solutions into innovative businesses. It helps young female entrepreneurs in Asia-Pacific to build their financial and digital literacy by providing action-oriented training courses that help them anticipate and prepare for specific hurdles they might face in their businesses. See the training modules on Springboard’s online Learning Management System.
For more information, please visit: https://www.youthcolab-learn.org/
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Reengineer Education Systems as Effective Launchpads for Professional Journeys
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In-school and Out-of-School Opportunities to Develop Transferable Skills and Entrepreneurial Acumen
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Strengthening Career Guidance and Information Channels for Girls and Women
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Helping Young Women to Experience their Aspirations
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Building Financial, Legal and Digital Skills
EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE
Teen Club
In Thailand, the Bureau of Reproductive Health launched a LINE account called “Teen Club” targeting teenagers to provide correct information about reproductive health and birth control. The LINE account allows users to check their right to access contraception services, search for providers, as well as record and keep track of their menstrual cycles. Similar platforms could be launched to give young people low-cost entrepreneurship support services. UNICEF also supports lovecarestation.com a website which gives young people access to information on sexual reproductive health as well as mental health issues.
Peer Support through Public Spaces
Enterprise training or peer support can be provided in public spaces such as community centres and temples. These spaces tend to be freely accessible and frequently located in most rural areas. For example, Bangkok’s largest training centre is in a temple, equipped with space and facilities including electricity, water, tables and chairs. Enterprise training and advice can also increasingly be made available at low cost on social media platforms.
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Make Entrepreneurship Support Services Gender-Responsive and Accessible to Young Women
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Creating One-Stop-Shop Solutions for Access to Information on Business Support Services
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Connecting Young Women Entrepreneurs to Mentors and Advisors
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Enhancing Inclusion in Access to Enterprise Support Services, and Linking to Access to Finance
EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE
Helping Women Leverage Technology
In Viet Nam, The Asia Foundation partnered with MasterCard and the Viet Nam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) in 2017 to help women leverage technology for starting and growing businesses.135 VBSP serves seven million poor and near-poor borrowers, 50% of whom are women. The project involves the development of a banking platform and offers women new options for mobile banking and online transactions including options to buy raw inputs for their production processes.
Women’s Empowerment Principles Awards
The UN Women Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Awards recognise individuals and businesses that promote a gender-inclusive business culture and the achievement of gender equality in the Asia-Pacific. The 2020 Award winners include companies and individuals that have promoted women leaders, make working conditions fairer, supported equal parenting and caregiving roles, and improve access to finance for women entrepreneurs.
For more information, please visit: https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2020/12/winners-revealed-of-new-un-award-for-womens-empowerment-in-business
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Enact Corrective Interventions to Redress Women’s Relative Asset and Time Poverty
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Expanding Access to Financial Products and Services and Business Platforms
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Scaling up Gender Lens Investing
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Redistribute Girls’ and Women’s Unpaid Care Burden, in Particular Through Engaging Boys and Men
This research was commissioned by the UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office and the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub under the Youth Co:Lab initiative co-led by UNDP and the Citi Foundation.
To learn more, please visit Youth Co:Lab and UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific.
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