Resources

Nifta Sugey Lau Ibarias
Postdoctoral Researcher
Center for China and Asia-Pacific Studies

Female entrepreneurship is a key driver of global economic development, poverty reduction, empowerment, and gender equity. According to the most recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, women’s entrepreneurship has grown significantly worldwide, increasing from approximately 6% in the first half of the 2000s to more than 10% today. Paradoxically, it is high-income countries that continue to record the lowest female participation in startups and the most pronounced gender gaps.

Meanwhile, in Asia-Pacific economies, particularly in dynamic contexts such as South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Indonesia and Vietnam, women have demonstrated an outstanding role in the startup ecosystem and business innovation. Nevertheless, their presence on the boards of large corporations remains low compared to their counterparts in the United States and Europe. A notable exception is China and Hong Kong, where women entrepreneurs dominate the rankings of self-made female billionaires published by Forbes and Fortune Magazine. These divergent trends are deeply tied to the cultural characteristics and development trajectories of these economies.

Confucianism, on the one hand, has contributed to the suppression of women and the denial of their recognition, perpetuating a strict hierarchy within the home and society. Traditionally, women’s education has not been seen as a priority and has been subordinated to their husbands’ professional development and the stereotyped “obligation” as household caretakers. As a result, most businesses created by women have historically emerged as responses to necessity and unemployment, often located in the informal sector and led by women with low levels of schooling.

On the other hand, although the particularities of their identities as entrepreneurs and their success are greatly influenced by challenges related to social norms and gender expectations, certain values rooted in Confucianism that inform behavior at the societal level, such as diligence, perseverance, hard work, and willpower, are reflected in women-led ventures. These traits have supported the creation of more tolerant and harmonious corporate cultures within the companies they lead, also demonstrating greater persistence and prudence with regard to long-term goals and the development of their businesses. Essentially, for these women, there is no room for failure.

Women face challenges in securing financing from institutions with patriarchal cultures that demand guarantees to which few have access. Likewise, their access to business networks is considerably lower than that of male entrepreneurs, who form more exclusive networks and have traditionally excluded women from membership or meaningful participation in business
associations.

Faced with limited opportunities both for financing and for acquiring contacts and market knowledge, family and friendship support networks, also characteristic of these cultures, have been fundamental to women’s business leadership. For this reason, senior positions occupied by women in large companies are often observed in family-owned enterprises. However, this reality is changing with the growing demand for technological development in these economies.

Pull factors—such as access to education, industry development, and increasing digitalization—are beginning to replace some push factors, such as labor discrimination or the lack of opportunities in the formal sector. As highly qualified professional women have become a key force in the high-tech industry, more and more women are participating in corporate decision-making and leading their own companies in strategic sectors. The path toward consolidating female leadership in the business sphere is still long. Women entrepreneurs have had to challenge deeply rooted social, religious, and institutional norms that have historically disadvantaged them in order to transform the business ecosystem.

Timely enough, the region finds itself at a point in its development history where it has become increasingly inexcusable not to recognize and unlock the vast reserve of these women’s potential. Their significant contributions to the growth of their economies are only comparable to the great achievement of paving the way in these societies for a new generation of successful and well-prepared young women who are beginning to enter the workforce and continue pushing for greater spaces and recognition.