Training programme launched to empower women in business

The Bureau of Gender Affairs has launched a professional development training programme designed to equip female entrepreneurs with the skills to build and sustain successful businesses.

The programme is designed to tackle long-standing gender disparities in the labour market, while boosting women’s participation in business and entrepreneurship.

Spanning six weeks, the training takes place every Wednesday and focuses on essential topics geared towards helping participants to become well-rounded businesswomen. It has already seen significant interest, with approximately 100 participants expected to complete the sessions.

CEO of the Small Business Association (SBA) Dr Lynette Holder lauded the initiative, highlighting that women consistently demonstrate better financial management than their male counterparts.

“The facts are that women represent better credit for financial institutions. Women actually pay back their loans, they manage their credit and service their credit better than our male counterparts. So the question therefore is, if that is our reality, why is it that we don’t have more women involved in business?

“It is our responsibility, collaborating with the Bureau of Gender Affairs to change that,” she said.

She added that encouraging female entrepreneurship brought additional, social benefits beyond business. “As we know, women in business have that dual responsibility of managing the business and managing their households. So we are satisfied that the more females that we can actually get involved in business, the better that they will be able to provide for their homes. That is a critical responsibility.”

According to Dr Holder, two-thirds of the women who have enrolled in the training’s three cohorts are self-employed, which she sees as an encouraging sign of a growing appetite among women to launch and expand their own enterprises.

During the programme’s launch at SBA’s offices, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Carolyn Estwick-Best noted the deeper structural challenges faced by women in the workforce.

“Although we are well-educated, we must be content with varied disparities in the labour market [in regards to] quality employment outside of education, service and care industries. We face greater fallout from global economic shocks, we are heavily dependent on informal sectors for our income and among the first to lose our jobs in times of financial crisis. These challenges are exacerbated by our domestic responsibilities, society’s imbalanced expectations of us and undercurrents of gender stereotypes.

“This is why we must continue to strive for gender equality and the economic empowerment of women. These tools are necessary to secure financial independence, ensure the well-being of our families and communities and, ultimately, the development of our country.”

(SB)