Women’s Entrepreneurship Challenges and Policies in Iran

Abstract

The first part of this chapter focuses on the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and the public policy for supporting women entrepreneurs in Iran. In particular, institutional and cultural barriers to women’s entrepreneurship are investigated and discussed. Balancing family and work, as one of the biggest challenges faced by a female entrepreneur, is also considered and the approach women entrepreneurs in Iran use to overcome this issue will be studied. Then the Global Gender Gap Index, introduced by the World Economic Forum is used to show the difference between the performance of women and men in terms of economic participation and opportunities, and educational attainment. The chapter also draws attention to the challenges of female entrepreneurship in rural areas. Real-world examples of successful women entrepreneurs in rural areas highlight the role that entrepreneurial activity can play in an individual’s and society’s well-being. Through two case study examples of women entrepreneurs in rural areas, the impact of disability (application of resilience theory), and gender roles learned from family on entrepreneurial success will be discussed. The last part of the chapter is about the prevalence of Information Technology (IT) among young women and men in Iran as part of entrepreneurship development in the country. The internal and external efforts undertaken by the public and private sectors to promote IT entrepreneurship in the country will be explained and the emergence of women entrepreneurs in IT, as a substantial change in the entrepreneurial environment of Iran, will be studied.