Success means enlisting men

Women entrepreneurs in poor countries

San Francisco : Efforts to help women build small businesses in developing countries risk failure unless husbands, fathers and other men are convinced to be supportive and involved, activists said.

Without the backing of men, women entrepreneurs are likely to quit, receive threats and even suffer violence, groups working in Asia, Africa and Central America said on Wednesday at SOCAP, an annual conference of social entrepreneurs and investors.

The groups included the British-based Value for Women, which promotes women's economic participation, and Oxfam America, which launched an initiative called Women in Small Enterprise (WISE) to support women entrepreneurs."Without men's involvement, you definitely see a lot higher dropout rates," said Alicia Robinson, chief investment officer for WISE, based in Guatemala. Women entrepreneurs there often need their husband's permission to launch a business, Robinson said.

"Men need to feel like they are allowing their wives to participate," she said. "Men need to feel like they are deriving some kind of benefit from it." Value for Women appeals to men's attitude of "what's in it for me?" said Rebecca Fries, the group's global managing director. "Our programs are more effective and the impact is more effective if I'm engaging male family members," she said.

Women entrepreneurs need to be trained not only in solid business skills but also soft skills of communication and negotiation, the activists said. The soft skills help women navigate resistance by husbands or fathers as they defy traditional roles or become breadwinners, they said. Resistance to female entrepreneurship can come from husbands, fathers, brothers, sons and even other women, said Fries.

Girls in East Africa and South Asia who benefit from Spring Accelerator, a project aimed at improving the lives of girls in developing countries, can find themselves facing trouble from men, said Spring investment director Suzanne Biegel. "Now this girl is empowered and she breaks up with her boyfriend, or now she's starting to make money and now she's more of a target," Biegel said.