women of business

women of business

The motives for business entry are often discussed in terms of „push‟ and „pull‟ factors. Push factors like unemployment, redundancy, or encountering the glass ceiling, are frequently cited as important reasons why women and ethnic minority immigrants opt to become self-employed. At the same time, immigrants and women may be drawn to entrepreneurship by pull factors, such as spotting a profitable market opportunity, a desire to innovate, be independent, or realize one‟s true potential. These positive motives are recognized in economic and management theory  but are generally overlooked in the literature on women and ethnic entrepreneurs. Merton  was an exception to the latter, and argued that social exclusion can pressurize individuals to innovate or break the rules in order to gain acceptance in mainstream society. Furthermore, some women opt for entrepreneurship because of their belief that entrepreneurship offers a means of reconciling their traditional role as homemakers with their role as business women