Poor social security hinders entrepreneurship among women

Women often choose entrepreneurship only after their children are born

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By Merja Ojansivu
     
      In order for women to dare to become entrepreneurs, the social security of entrepreneurs should be improved, maintains Chairwoman Mirja Erlund from the Central Association of Women Entrepreneurs in Finland. In fact, women establish their firms at a much older age than men. It is safer to have children when employed through a regular job contract, and set up a company only after starting a family.
      The amount of women entrepreneurs in Finland is in the top group within the European Union. Women account for one third of all entrepreneurs. But there could be even more, as women form nearly half of the active workforce.
      Women play a particularly key role as founders of service firms in the health care sector, in domestic services, consultancy, travel, and personal services.
     
Erlund feels that society should support the possibility of trying out one's hand at entrepreneurship without a fear of failure.
      "At present, the fear that becoming an entrepreneur will be final and fateful is a huge obstacle where attitudes are concerned. As if one could never get rid of being an entrepreneur."
      Erlund is well aware that women usually start their own firms after they have turned 35, gotten their children through the first years, and gained good professional experience and skills as wage-earners. Academically educated women entrepreneurs also make a name for themselves working for others and jump over to entrepreneurship only after amassing solid experience.
      According to Erlund, the children of entrepreneur families should have the same rights as the children of wage-earners. This is not the case in reality. Entrepreneurs receive a tax benefit if they hire someone to care for the sick child of an employee, but the same benefit does not apply if the person was hired to care for the entrepreneur's own child.
     
Managing Director Jussi Järventaus from the Federation of Finnish Enterprises feels that the issue of tax benefits to support the care of sick children is one of the most important proposals that would affect women.
      Järventaus emphasises that as entrepreneurs, women do not need to face discrimination, as they sometimes do as employees. "As entrepreneurs, women have good and equal chances for advancement."
      One big issue is where to find people to continue the work of those entrepreneurs from the baby-boom generation who will retire in the near future. And who will found the private health care companies that would share the responsibility for caring for the growing number of senior citizens?
     
According to the entrepreneurship programme of the current government, women entrepreneurs are needed in much larger numbers than the current level. A working group of the Ministry of Trade and Industry that pondered the entrepreneurship of women set a goal of raising the share of women from slightly over 30 to 40 percent of all entrepreneurs.
      The number-one proposal of the working group was that the costs of parenthood should be evenly divided between predominantly male and predominantly female sectors. A substitute system was also proposed, so that entrepreneurs could take more time off after the birth of children.
      The working group also proposed that the waiting period for entrepreneurs before payments of illness benefits begin be shortened from the current nine to four days, and that a venture capital fund and business incubator be established for the service sector. The group would like to see the mentor system used to support women entrepreneurs be made permanent.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 12.4.2004

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MERJA OJANSIVU / Helsingin Sanomat