Barriers For Women Research Articles

Factors that affect women entrepreneurs: evidence from an emerging economy

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify factors that motivate women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to become self‐employed.Design/methodology/approachDifferent factors, documented in previous research, that affect women's decisions to start their own businesses were included in a questionnaire. A total of 750 women entrepreneurs in the UAE were asked to express the degree of agreement with the factors listed in the questionnaire. Of them, 449 completed the questionnaire.FindingsFinancial support from the government especially in the start‐up capital is an important factor that motivates women to establish their own businesses. Self‐fulfillment, knowledge, skills and experience, including relationship to spouse/father business, are all important factors in the development of women entrepreneurs. Unlike previous research factors such social norms, market network, and competition do not seem to be barriers for women in becoming entrepreneurs.Research limitations/implicationsQuestionnaires were mainly distributed in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. To give a clear picture of factors affecting women's decision to start their own businesses in the UAE, the opinion of women located in other Emirates needs to be investigated. The questionnaire survey targeted women entrepreneurs. To give a clear picture, future studies should target women who chose not to start their own businesses.Practical implicationsThe outcome of this study will be used by researchers and policy makers to motivate women to become entrepreneurs. Women involvement in developing their businesses provides job opportunities and ensures that women are taking active part in the development of the national economy.Originality/valueThis is the first study that uses empirical evidence to identify factors that motivate women in the UAE to become self‐employed.

A Case of ‘Unmet need’? Barriers to Women’s use of Modern Contraceptives in the Republic of Yemen

A CASE OF ‘UNMET NEED’? BARRIERS TO WOMEN’S USE OF MODERN CONTRACEPTIVES IN THE REPUBLIC OF YEMEN BY CHRISTINA HELLMICH* The existence of barriers to fertility regulation has frequently been considered as an important determinant for the pace of fertility decline or its delay.1 Barriers to contraception account for a substantial proportion of unwanted and mistimed births. Above all, barriers to family planning methods have enormous implications for the health and wellbeing of women. In fact, in 1994 the United Nations Programme of Action, adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, called on ‘all countries . . . to identify and remove all the major remaining barriers to the utilisation of family planning services’. Furthermore, it set the goal of ‘public, private and non-governmental family planning organisations to remove all programme-related barriers to family planning use by the year 2005’.2 Nonetheless, barriers remain. The Yemen Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) of 1997 confirmed the existence of a largely ‘unmet need’ for family planning in the country, as 23 per cent of the women surveyed expressed their desire to limit or space births but were not using any form of contraception.3 The reason for this situation was primarily found in the inadequate availability of contraception due to its inaccessibility or high cost.4 Despite the proclaimed intentions of the Yemeni government to improve the availability and quality of reproductive health services, with a prevalence rate of only 9.4 per cent the use of modern contraception in Yemen continues to rank among the lowest in the Middle East and North Africa. To gain a meaningful understanding of the reasons why the stated fertility preferences of Yemeni women and their actual contraceptive behaviours appear to be contradictory is the goal of this paper. While a review of the demographic and family planning literature reveals many references to factors that limit the practice of contraception, little has yet been said about the specific case of Yemen.5 As such, the following discussion relies heavily on primary data.6 The evaluation of * University of Reading. I would like to acknowledge the generous funding of the Leverhulme Trust in support of this research. 1 Barriers are defined as the factors that hinder realistic availability of the technologies as well as of the correct information that women need in order to control their fertility. 2 United Nations (1994). 3 Central Statistical Organisation and Macro International (1997), p. 64. For the same conclusion, see Marie Stopes International (2000). 4 On ‘unmet need’ see Robey et al. (1993); Pritchett (1994); Westoff and Bankole (1995). 5 For a comprehensive literature review, see Campbell et al. (2006). 6 Data presented in this paper were collected during 20 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Yemen. The Maghreb Review, Vol. 34, 1, 2009 The Maghreb Review 2009 This publication is printed on longlife paper j:MARELAY 14-9-2009 p:18 c:0 key findings from group discussions and in-depth interviews with Yemeni women is combined with an analysis of the statistical data from the DHS of 1997 as well as other information derived from other secondary sources. The underlying theoretical model is the Easterlin Synthesis Framework according to which fertility regulation is a function of two classes of factors, namely the strength of the motivation to avoid pregnancy and the costs, both perceived and real, of practising contraception, or, in other words, the barriers to contraceptive use.7 To enable a nuanced analysis, identified barriers have been divided into the following categories: knowledge about contraception (narrowly defined in terms of awareness of various methods and means of obtaining them); concerns about sideeffects , misinformation and fears (as a result of both the lack of accurate information about methods and the prevalence of traditional concepts of the female body, fertility and illness); perceptions of the social, cultural and religious acceptability of contraception (with a specific emphasis on husbands’ opposition and religious incompatibility); and provider bias and quality of reproductive health services. The analytical value of this breakdown is twofold. It gives structure to the analysis of complex and interrelated issues. Equally importantly, it provides an organizing framework for the assessment of the policy and programmatic...

Factors Influencing Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy for HIV-Infected Female Inmates

New HIV cases are increasing among women, especially women of color. Moreover, the rate of infection for incarcerated women is twice that of incarcerated men. With advances in medication therapy, HIV has become a chronic illness that can be successfully treated, provided the patient is able to achieve adherence with the prescribed antiretroviral medication regimen. Incarcerated women, however, frequently come from environments burdened with violence, substance and physical abuse, homelessness, child-care issues, and mental illness. Such burdens negatively affect the ability of these women to adhere to the medication plan. This study explored incarcerated HIV-infected women's barriers to and facilitators of adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), the role of health care provider relationships in adherence, and the ways in which issues of medical privacy influence ability or desire to adhere while incarcerated. A secondary analysis of an existing set of qualitative interviews with HIV-infected female inmates was conducted.

Rural Women Walking for Health

The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe rural women's barriers and motivators for participation in a walking program. Twenty rural women, ages 22 to 65, participated in a 12-week walking program. Data from field notes and focus groups were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Data were inductively coded, codes were categorized into themes, and themes were classified as barriers or motivators to adopting a walking program. Three main barriers are identified: balancing family and self, chronic illness gets in the way of routine, and illness or injury breaks routine. Seven motivators are identified: being part of a group, group camaraderie, learning, pacesetter, seeing progress, energizing, and I am a walker. Women report that family responsibilities are a powerful and pervasive barrier. Motivators center on the importance of group interaction. This qualitative study increases our understanding of rural women's barriers and motivators to embarking on and sustaining a regular walking routine.

Barriers to Care for Antenatal Depression

Barriers to Care for Antenatal Depression

Understanding Optimal Nutrition Among Women of Childbearing Age in the United States and Puerto Rico: Employing Formative Research to Lay the Foundation for National Birth Defects Prevention Campaigns

Neural tube defects (NTDs) are serious birth defects of the brain and spine that affect approximately 3,000 pregnancies in the United States each year and affected 404 pregnancies in Puerto Rico from 1996 to 2002. Consuming the B vitamin folic acid can reduce the incidence of NTDs 50%–70%, and recent efforts to reduce NTD rates have focused on increasing the number of childbearing-aged women who take a vitamin containing folic acid every day. As the first stage of formative research in campaign planning, two exploratory, qualitative studies were conducted in order to (a) understand the complexity of vitamin use among women in the United States and Puerto Rico and (b) serve as a foundation on which to develop national communication and education interventions. Also, this information shed light on theories that might be used to guide campaign development. Results indicated that campaign messages designed to increase folic acid use through multivitamin supplementation in the United States must address women's barriers to vitamin use (e.g., cost, time), increase women's perceived need for multivitamins (e.g., identify immediate, tangible results from taking a daily multivitamin), and address the relationship between daily food choices and the need for supplementation. Future campaign messages in Puerto Rico must focus on many of these same issues, in addition to increasing women's knowledge about when folic acid should be taken in relation to pregnancy and addressing women's perceptions that vitamins cause weight gain (an undesirable outcome for most participants). The practical and theoretical implications of these results are discussed in terms of their contribution to the development of a creative new approach to increase multivitamin consumption among women of childbearing age in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Gender, age and self‐employment: some things change, some stay the same

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate age and gender differences in initial motivations for starting a business. What is not known, however, is whether the initial motivations for starting the business are different for older people and whether any gender differences exist. Historically, women were “pushed” rather than “pulled” into business ownership, but more recent studies have indicated that, overall, many women now actively choose self‐employment. However, age may be a new barrier for women and men.Design/methodology/approachThe study combined a self‐administered questionnaire which was used to collect data relating to general information about the respondent and their business, in addition to their start‐up motivations. In total 270 questionnaires were returned. About 15 in‐depth interviews were also conducted to verify the empirical findings.FindingsThe results showed that self‐employment is a reactive rather than proactive decision for both older women and men; however, women were less inclined to actively seek self‐employment as their employment option of choice. In addition, the findings also show that a significant motivation for many younger women is still because of the double domestic shift, indicating therefore that some things change but some things stay the same for women.Originality/valueWhereas the majority of previous research has looked at start‐up motivation, few have considered age and gender as independent variables. Given the increasing number of “baby boomers” starting their own businesses, this research can have practical policy implications.

The Gender Relations of Software Work in Vietnam

Studies of women and Information Technology (IT) in developing countries have primarily focused on the impacts of IT on women’s employment opportunities and on their economic power. By contrast, here we examine the nature and quality of the jobs themselves in the context of the Vietnamese software industry. This article presents data from the first systematic survey of Vietnam’s software workforce. Although the industry is relatively young, gender segregation in software work has already been firmly established. Women are concentrated in jobs that are considered to be less skilled than those of men, such as testing as opposed to programming and systems design. This, in turn, has led to a gender gap in pay and training, as well as posed career barriers for women. The case study illustrates how the long-standing interconnection of gender, skill, and technology still functions to men’s advantage, as a result of which women remain marginalized in the course of technological design.

Pink-collar medicine: Women and the future of medicine

The number of women in medicine is increasing. There is evidence that women practice in different ways than men; are interested in different aspects of medicine; work fewer hours; and receive less pay for equivalent hours than men. Women are also less likely to be represented in the higher echelons of power within academic medicine. Women’s carrers are adversely affected by pregnancy, childcare, family responsibilities, and gender role conflict although there is evidence that this does not need to be the case. This article reviews the current literature on gender differences in medicine and makes recommendations to ensure women have a voice to determine their place in medicine in the future. The positive changes that women bring to medicine are highlighted and the barriers for women in the profession are outlined.

Gender as a Barrier for Women With Children in Academe

This research involved in-depth interviews with nineteen women professors, drawn from across various faculties and ranks at one Canadian university, and was intended to explore the interconnections between the women's personal and professional lives. The women in this study chose to combine having children with an academic career. Most of them depicted their career trajectory as a lifelong challenge, one that was both fulfilling and prestigious. In contrast, the women reported a number of obstacles in their career paths that served to prevent them from gaining full membership in academic life. This study probes the nature of such obstacles that are grouped into two categories: the child-related time crunch and the career-related time crunch. As a result of these obstacles, the women encountered childbearing/childrearing problems, research dilemmas, a willingness to leave the academy, and denial of tenure and promotion. Findings call for a restructuring of academic careers in order to effectively accommodate women with children in the profession.

Women with Physical Disabilities Who Want to Leave Their Partners

Four domains of barriers for women with physical disabilities who are considering leaving a partner are outlined. These obstacles include (a) physical needs; (b) financial needs; (c) custody concerns; and (d) relationship issues. Disability policies can have direct bearing on the lives of women with disabilities, and hence on their freedom to choose to remain with or to leave a partner.

Assisting Women Victims of Violence Who Experience Multiple Barriers to Services

This study examines the extent to which programs for domestic violence and sexual assault gear services toward women facing multiple barriers (i.e., substance abuse disorders, mental health problems or learning disabilities, incarceration, and prostitution) and the unique problems such women encounter when accessing services. As part of a national evaluation, the authors interviewed staff from 20 programs focusing their service efforts on multibarriered women. Problems encountered by such women include lack of services dealing with multiple barriers, uneducated service providers, and batterers using women's barriers to further control or victimize them. This article describes the strategies programs use to meet these women's distinct needs.

Women's barriers to HIV-1 testing and disclosure: Challenges for HIV-1 voluntary counselling and testing

In view of the ever-increasing HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, the expansion of HIV-1 voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) as an integral part of prevention strategies and medical research is both a reality and an urgent need. As the availability of HIV-1 VCT grows two limitations need to be addressed, namely: low rates of HIV-1 serostatus disclosure to sexual partners and negative outcomes of serostatus disclosure. Results from a study among men, women and couples at an HIV-1 VCT clinic in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania are presented. The individual, relational and environmental factors that influence the decision to test for HIV-1 and to share test results with partners are described. The most salient barriers to HIV-1 testing and serostatus disclosure described by women include fear of partners' reaction, decision-making and communication patterns between partners, and partners' attitudes towards HIV-1 testing. Perception of personal risk for HIV-1 is the major factor driving women to overcome barriers to HIV-1 testing. The implications of findings for the promotion of HIV-1 VCT programmes, the implementation of partner notification policies and the development of post-test support services are discussed.

Rasch Calibration and Optimal Categorization of an Instrument Measuring Women's Exercise Perseverance and Barriers

The purposes of this study were: (a) to determine the optimal categorization of an instrument measuring women's exercise perseverance and barriers using the Rasch analysis and (b) to examine urban women's exercise perseverance and barriers. A 23-item barrier instrument with five response categories was administered to 479 women from a metropolitan area. The data analysis started from collapsing the original five adjacent categories into three and four categories and 11 sets of original and collapsed data were analyzed using the Rasch rating scale model. The model-data fit, category and separation statistics, and parameter estimates provided by Rasch analyses were used to determine the optimal categorization of the instrument. Instead of the original five-category construct, which had a disordered internal construct, a collapsed three-category construct (i.e., Very Often/Often, Sometimes/Rarely, and Never) was found to have the optimal categorization. The time barrier domain was found to be the most severe barrier domain, but the barrier “lack of self-discipline” was the most severe individual barrier. Rasch calibration provides a new way to construct an instrument with optimal categorization, to describe the nature of barrier items and the respondents' attribute being measured, and to develop a practical and informative scoring sheet.

RESPONSE TO BAXTER AND WRIGHT

The glass ceiling is a very popular metaphor among gender scholars. It has become a shorthand expression for describing myriad obstacles that prevent women from being promoted to high positions of authority, prestige, and pay. So it is significant when Gender & Society publishes an article debunking its implicit claims. In their recent article, Janeen Baxter and Erik Olin Wright (2000) argue that metaphor of glass ceiling does accurately depict barriers that women confront in workforce. In their study of three countries, they find little evidence to support idea that discrimination against women increases as they move into top-level management positions. They suggest that barriers for women actually may be greater at lower levels of job hierarchies than at top. It is debatable whether they have correctly defined glass ceiling, however. They write, Taken literally, metaphor of glass ceiling implies existence of an impermeable barrier that blocks vertical mobility of women. Below this barrier women are able to get promoted; beyond this barrier, they are not (p. 276). To test for existence of glass ceiling, they examine whether the barriers to managerial promotions become increasingly severe for women compared to men as they move up hierarchy (p. 277).

Faculty Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion: Barriers for Women

Women faculty continue to experience academe differently than male faculty. A review of recent literature indicates that women's representation on university faculties has advanced slowly; women are less likely to be tenured or promoted compared to male faculty; and women faculty earn less than their male colleagues. A recurring theme is that the intellectual and social isolation of women faculty affects their research productivity. Gender stereotypes held by colleagues, departmental and college administrators, and students also contribute to the difficulties women face in the reappointment, tenure, and promotion process. A personal perspective on the reappointment process is provided in order to illustrate how isolation and naïvete regarding the social structure of academe can affect a woman's career advancement. The benefits of greater representation of women on university faculties are reviewed, and departmental and college administrators are reminded of the important role they play in ensuring future gender-balanced faculties.

Focus Section: Women in Geography in the 21st Century: Faculty Reappointment, Tenure, and Promotion: Barriers for Women

Women faculty continue to experience academe differently than male faculty. A review of recent literature indicates that women’s representation on university faculties has advanced slowly; women are less likely to be tenured or promoted compared to male faculty; and women faculty earn less than their male colleagues. A recurring theme is that the intellectual and social isolation of women faculty affects their research productivity. Gender stereotypes held by colleagues, departmental and college administrators, and students also contribute to the difficulties women face in the reappointment, tenure, and promotion process. A personal perspective on the reappointment process is provided in order to illustrate how isolation and naivete regarding the social structure of academe can affect a woman’s career advancement. The benefits of greater representation of women on university faculties are reviewed, and departmental and college administrators are reminded of the important role they play in ensuring future ...

The female condom: tool for women's empowerment.

International and US experience with the female condom has shown that the device empowers diverse populations of women, helping them negotiate protection with their partners, promoting healthy behaviors, and increasing self-efficacy and sexual confidence and autonomy. This commentary reflects on some approaches that have been taken to study empowerment and makes several observations on the political and scientific initiatives needed to capitalize on this empowerment potential. Women's interest in the female condom indicates a need for more women's barrier methods to be made available. For some women, cultural proscriptions against touching the genitals may create initial hesitancy in trying these methods. But the disposition of regulatory agencies and the attitudes of health care providers has unfortunately exaggerated this reticence, thereby effectively reducing access to these methods. Also, lack of important detail in clinical studies restricts our capacity to introduce the female condom, or similar methods, under optimal conditions. Future trials should prioritize community-based designs and address a range of other critical health and social issues for women. Women's need for HIV/AIDS prevention technologies remains an urgent priority. Both political and scientific efforts are needed to realize the public health potential embodied in the female condom.

Risk perception and counselling among HIV-positive women in São Paulo, Brazil.

This study of HIV-positive women at a clinic for HIV/AIDS in São Paulo examined their risk perception for HIV before they had learned of their diagnosis and their experiences with pre- and post-test counselling. A sample of 148 women was interviewed regarding demographics, HIV risk factors and risk perception, pre- and post-test counselling, and sexual and reproductive conduct. The majority (77%) had been infected by their partners--37% by an injecting drug user partner. More than half (53%) did not perceive themselves at risk before learning of their HIV status and, of 68 who had perceived themselves at risk, 29% did so only after their partners became ill. The majority (64%) did not receive any kind of pre-test counselling. Post-test counselling was reported by 83% but 14% reported being mishandled by a physician in the process. Findings suggest the importance of prevention efforts to reduce women's barriers to learning about HIV status and the necessity of improving the quality of pre- and post-test counselling.

Applying the Cognitive Information Processing Approach to Career Problem Solving and Decision Making to Women's Career Development

An expanded framework of the Cognitive Information Processing (CIP) approach to career problem solving and decision making is outlined for career counseling with women. The modified framework addresses structural and individual barriers in women's career development and provides practical suggestions for applying and evaluating the CIP approach in career counseling.