Gender and Entrepreneurship in Iran

Abstract

The issue of female entrepreneurship has become a globally important topic in recent years, especially for countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Yet, in the case of Iran the topic remains under-researched despite the significance of female entrepreneurship as means of addressing the disproportionately high unemployment within the educated female work force. This article presents the findings from a survey that uses the World Bank Enterprise Survey questionnaire to document the characteristics of a sample of enterprises in Iran. The results suggest that entrepreneurship rate among Iranian women falls within the regional variation and remains low relative to other regions of world outside Asia. Low female entrepreneurship is mostly distinct among small and medium enterprises (SMEs). On the positive side, however, women entrepreneurs in Iran (similar to the rest of MENA) tend to be better represented in larger firms. The research highlights some of the notable characteristics of female entrepreneurship, indicating a high presence in the service sector, especially gender-segregated activities, as well as in some new and growing industries such as electronics and information technology. Our data shows that female-owned enterprises in Iran tend to face particular challenges in accessing some infrastructure services, particularly telecoms and the Internet. Yet, there were fewer complaints among female entrepreneurs regarding other aspects of business, such as obtaining permits and paying taxes, in comparison to the rest of the MENA region. Many female entrepreneurs indicated that international economic sanctions were a major obstacle for their business, predominantly because female-owned firms are new and tend to depend more on technology and foreign trade. Generally, a large part of gender differences in terms of enterprise ownership could be explained by firm size and industrial characteristics of female-owned firms, though one needs also to recognize challenges women face with regard to attitudes toward gender roles and stereotypes.

Keywords::

• Gender and Entrepreneurship
• women in Iran
• women's economic status
• women's entrepreneurship
• women's employment
• World Bank Enterprise Survey

Notes

¹ Statistical Center of Iran (1390/2011), Census Results. Available at: www.amar.org.ir/Default.aspx?tabid = 1160, accessed 2012.

² See further P. D. Reynolds, W. D. Bygrave & E. Autio (2004) Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2003 Executive Report (Babson College, London Business School and Kauffman Foundation); L. Dignard & J. Havet (1995) Women in Micro- and Small-Scale Enterprise Development (London: Westview Press); and R. Bahramitash (2013) Women, Islam and Entrepreneurship, in A. Afsaruddin, H. Abugideiri, H. Ezzat & N. J. DeLong-Bas (eds) The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women, vol. 2 pp. 492–496 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

³ For examples, see V. Moghadam (2003) Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers); and M. Elgezir (2010) Wading through Treacle: Female Commercial School Graduates (CGSs) in Egypt's Informal Economy, Feminist Formations, 22(3), pp. 10–50.

⁴ According to a 2013 World Bank report, women in MENA enter labor markets at half the global rate; see http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/03/15/women-in-mena-enter-labor-markets-half-global-rate-says-world-bank-report-, accessed November 2013. See also Klaus Schwab (2012) The Global Competitiveness Report 2011–2012 (Geneva: World Economic Forum).

⁵ See T. Vishwanath (2012) Opening Doors: Gender Equality in the Middle East And North Africa (Washington, DC: The World Bank). Available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/10844, accessed October 2013.

⁶ H. S. Esfahani & P. Shajari (2012) Gender, Education, Family Structure, and the Allocation of Labor in Iran, Middle East Development Journal, 4(2), pp. 1250008-1-40.

⁷ See further Bahramitash, Women's Entrepreneurship: Contemporary Practice, pp. 486–492; and F. Moghadam, Iran's Missing Working Women, in R. Bahramitash & H. S. Esfahani (eds) Veiled Employment: Islamism and the Political Economy of Women's Employment in Iran, pp. 256–272 (Syracuse: University of Syracuse Press).

⁸ See, for example, M. A. Daryani (1999) Karafarini [Entrepreneurship] (Tehran: Pardis).

⁹ See F. Saaber (2001) Rahhayeh Toseeh Karafarini Zanan dar Iran [Paths to the Development of Women's Entrepreneurship in Iran] (Tehran: Roshangaran).

¹⁰ See P. Gelard (2005) Avamel Moasser dar Towse'ye Karafarini Zanan-e Irani [Factors affecting Iranian women's entrepreneurial development], Pajohesh Zanan, 3(1), pp. 101–123; Z. Arasti & M. R. Akbary-Jokar (2007) Esterategy Modiriyati va Rooykard-e Zanan-e Karafarin Irani be Movaffaghiat [Management strategy and women's approach to successful entrepreneurship], Faslnameh Modares Ulum Ensani, 12(1), pp. 55–77; and Z. Alipour (2000) Tajrobeh-ye karafarini zanan dar Jomhori Islami Iran: Tavoni/Khososi [Women's entrepreneurship experience in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Cooperatives/private] in Taavon [Cooperation], pp. 14–19.

¹¹ See P. Gelard (2008) Bahrevari-ye zanan karafarin [Productivity of female entrepreneurs], Faslnameh Pajohesh Bazargani, No. 46 (Spring), pp. 179–209.

¹² See F. Javaheri & S. Ghesavati (2005) Baresi tasir nabarabary jensiaty bar karafarini zana dar Iran: Mavaneh kar afarini zanan [Study of gender inequality in women's entrepreneurship in Iran: Barrier's to women's entrepreneurship], in Fasnameh Eghtesadi, Ejtemai va Farhangi, no. 1785, pp. 35–41.

¹³ See, for example, M. R. Zali, J. Yadollahi & M. Razavi (2009) GEM-Iran Summary 2008 Report (Tehran: Faculty of Entrepreneurship); P. Gelard (2005) The Efficient Factors Affecting the Development of Women Entrepreneurship in Iran, Women Research, 13, pp. 101–123; P. Gelard (2007) Characteristics, Motivations and Goals of Iranian Women Entrepreneurs, Iran Journal of Trade Studies (IJTS), 11, pp. 267–295; and L. Sarafraz & N. Faghih (2011) Women's Entrepreneurship in Iran: A GEM-Based Data Evidence, Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 1(1), pp. 45–57.

¹⁴ See Saaber, Rahhayeh Toseeh; Zali & Razavi, GEM-Iran; and Sarafraz & Faghih, Women's Entrepreneurship.

¹⁵ This methodology was used in a recent survey led by A. Maydari, although its results had not been published when this article was written.

¹⁶ See Merriam-Webster Dictionary entry for entrepreneur, online at: www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/entrepreneur.

¹⁷ See R. Bahramitash (2013) Gender, Micro Entrepreneurship and the Informal Sector in Iran (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).

¹⁸ See M. Azkia (2011) Contemporary Rural Development in Iran since 1950–2013, International Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 1, pp. 145–159.

¹⁹ Z. Karimi (2005) The Role of Government Support in the Promotion of Women Entrepreneurship, presented at the Iran National Seminar on Women Entrepreneurship, Tehran, Iran.

²⁰ The questionnaire and dataset used in this paper are available from the authors. The WBES questionnaires and datasets for other countries are available from the Enterprise Surveys website, www.enterprisesurveys.org/.

²¹ The results of those interviews and case studies are included in a separate report available from the authors.

²² A sampling weight for an observation is the inverse of the probability that a unit with the key characteristics of that observation may be selected. For example, if there are 80 small firms and 20 large firms in an economy and we take a random sample of 10 firms that includes five small firms and five large firms, the probability that a given firm would enter our sample is 0.0625 for small firms and 0.25 for large firms. When we want to derive the characteristics of the population from our sample, we can apply such weights. For example, if we need the average age of the firms in the economy, we need to multiply the age of each small firm in the sample by 1/0.0625 = 16 and the age of each large firm in the sample by 1/0.25 = 4 and then sum up the results and divide the total by the population of firms (i.e., 100). This method gives more weight to the small firms, which are under-represented in our sample. If the smaller firms are younger, the unweighted average age would underestimate the average age because the sample has relatively few small firms compared to the entire population of firms.

²³ The details of weight calculation may be obtained from the authors upon request. They are not presented here in order to save space.

²⁴ For small firms, the mean share of female-owned enterprises across countries and years is 0.5 percentage points lower when weights are used, compared to when no weights are applied. The standard deviation of the bias is 3.1 percentage points. For medium firms, these figures are 0.25 and 4.2 percentage points, and for large firms they are 0.6 and 4.8 percentage points.

²⁵ See Esfahani & Shajari, Gender, Education.

²⁶ See R. Bahramitash (2013) Gender, Micro Entrepreneurship and the Informal Sector in Iran (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).

²⁷ See Bahramitash & Esfahani, Veiled Employment; and Esfahani & Shajari (2012) Gender, Education.

²⁸ See H. Afshar (1997) Women and Work in Iran, Political Studies, 45(4), pp. 755–765; P. Alizadeh & B. Harper (2003) The Feminization of the Labour Force in Iran, in A. Mohammadi (ed.) Iran Encountering Globalization: Problems and Prospects (New York: Routledge); and N. Chamlou (2008) The Environment for Women's Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa, Orientations in Development Series (Washington, DC: World Bank).

²⁹ Bahramitash & Esfahani, Veiled Employment; and Esfahani & Shajari, Gender, Education.

³⁰ A visitor to industrial firms in Iran cannot help but note that in their chemical labs and quality control facilities the staff are almost entirely women.

³¹ See S. Sandberg (2013) Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group).

³² Bahramitash & Esfahani, Veiled Employment; and Esfahani & Shajari, Gender, Education.