Women Involvement in Small-scale Business in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia

Transcription

1 Women Involvement in Small-scale Business in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia A. M. Sultana, Nurul Syafiqah Arifin and Jamil Osman Juraini Women involvements in small-scale are considered as the positive efforts to enhance the family income as well as the economic development for the economy of the country. Women economic participation could expand their ability to make decisions in the family and would play an important role in the empowerment of women. The study, therefore, attempts to assess the involvement of women in small enterprise in the state of Kelantan, Malaysia. A total 50 of the women were interviewed from the Rural Transformation Centre (RTC) in Wakaf Che Yeh, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. The first objective of this study was to examine the factors influence women's involvement in the. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents involved in bushiness in order to contribute to the family income. The second objective of the study was to discover whether they face any challenges of being in the. Results revealed that the major challenges faced by women in related to community traditional gender norms. Moreover, other challenges such as the difficulty of receiving loans and fear of sexually harassment are common among the respondents. Despite this, there are positive impacts of on women by changing their lifestyle, increasing freedom of mobility, by knowing more about people from different backgrounds and gaining confidence to do many things by their own. The study concludes that a small scale plays an important role to the empowerment of women in the community at Kelantan. Key Words: Small-scale, Job satisfaction, Family tradition, Empowerment, Entrepreneur 1. Introduction About one billion people are living on less than US$1 a day, an estimated 70 percent of whom are girls and women (UNDP, 2008, Hasni, 2012). Women are half of the total population of any country. Women are much more likely than men to be poor and illiterate. They usually have less access than men to medical care, property ownership, credit, training and employment. It is necessary to improve women socioeconomic condition, well as empower women for women to participate in the overall development of the nation. One way to improve the woman's condition as well as empower women economically is women's engagement in entrepreneurial such as income generating activities (Chowdhury and Amin, 2011; Hasni, 2012). It is said that women entrepreneurs have enormous potential to bring prosperity in the world (McConnell, 2007). Therefore, many developed and developing countries in the world are taking steps to promote women entrepreneur ships among their population (Hasni, 2012). For example, in Bangladesh various agencies and non-governmental organizations are introducing different development projects such as micro credit programs in order to involve women in income generating activities for the empowerment of women as well as the alleviation of poverty. Similarly, in Malaysia, women's labor force participation has an important impact on the process of economic development. The labor force participation rates of women have risen in Malaysia since its independence. To empower women by creating greater awareness of micro-finance and various small loans, especially for low-income women, several projects have been taken by the Ministry of Entrepreneur and Co-operative Development (Hasni, 2012). Currently, women's involvement in *Dr. M Sultana Alam, Department of Social Studies and Citizenship Studies, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia.

2 entrepreneurial activity is increasing steadily over the years. According to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) the registered number of women owned es increased from units in 2001 to 54,626 in (Kavitha & Anantharaman, 2008). The study attempts to assess the involvement of women in small enterprise in the state of Kelantan. Kelantan is famous for its Malay culture, traditional arts and crafts as well as its firm Islam religion practice. The main economic activities for Kelantan originated from agriculture fields such as paddy, rubber and tobacco produce (Aziz et al., 2012). Generally, women in Kelantan are known as very independent and actively engaged in es. They are viewed as the aggressive entrepreneur than their counterpart men in the local marketplaces. However, many women can be found to conduct in this state, especially in popular markets and shopping areas (Norhaiyati, et al., 2011). Thus, women are contributing to the economy of the community in the state. Despite the significant amount of women's involvement in the who contribute to the economy of the community. It is, therefore also important to discover whether they face any challenges of being in the and how impacts on their empowerment. 2. Methodology and Research Design This was a micro study involving a small number of respondents. The study was based on primary information. Data was collected from Rural Transformation Center (RTC), Wakaf Che Yeh, Kelantan (Figure 1). A total of 50 women were selected as the respondents for the study. The majority of the respondents were Malay as 70 per cent of the total population are Malays. Purposive sampling method was used to select a sample from RTC, which represents the entire population. Purposive sampling method was used to select 50 respondents for this study. The questionnaires and observation techniques were used as the instrument for collecting information from the respondents. Questionnaires were handed to each respondent and the information was collected directly by the researchers. There were some difficulties faced by the researcher during data collection. Some respondents did not understand the questionnaire clearly due to lack of education. However, the researcher explained clearly in her mother tongue. Although the researcher made sure that the research was only an academic purpose, a few respondents did not fully co-operate with the researcher. Due to these situations, the researcher needed to terminate the interview session with some respondents and started the new one. The data such as frequencies and percentages obtained from the analysis were presented in tabular and graphical forms to fulfil the desired objectives. The study questionnaire technique used in order to examine woman s perception on about their, factors influence to be involved them in and whether they face any challenges conducting the profession they involve in. The variables relate were measured using 5 statements using Anchored scale ranging from 1=strongly Agree 5=Strongly Disagree.

3 Figure 1: Rural Transformation Centre, Kota Bharu (RTC) 3. The findings Table 1 summarized demographic background of respondents. The data revealed that the majority of respondents (38 percent) involved in this research were aged between years old while only a small number (4 percent) of respondents belonged to the age range between years. In terms of ethnicity, the majority (70 percent) of the respondents were Muslim. These results are not surprising as mentioned elsewhere, 70 percent of the population in Malaysia are Malay. The data on marital status of the respondents revealed that the highest numbers (54 percent) of respondents were married. Different educational levels of respondents were selected in this study. Results revealed that the highest number of respondents (42 percent) belonged to higher secondary level of education. Only a few respondents (20 percent) belonged to the primary level of education. However, there was a respondent who holds Master degree and PhD level education. Although previous studies argued that the educated and experienced women are more interested in becoming entrepreneurs than non-educated and inexperienced women (Kavita et al., 2008; Hasni, 2012), these results revealed that most of the respondents were not well educated. The World Bank (1995) mentioned that a Bangladeshi bank assuming 40 percent of loans to be nonperforming required a spread of 20 percent between lending rates and the bank s costs of funds just to break-even.

4 Table 1: Demographic Information of the Respondents Category Frequency (N) Percentage (%) Age years Ethnic group Malay Siamese 9 18 Chinese 6 12 Marital status Single Married Divorce/single mother 9 18 Level of Primary education education Secondary education Higher secondary education 3.1 Factors Influence to Start up Business The study examines the factors that influence women to start up a small scale. The literature supports that there are various factors such as economic necessity, career prospect, job satisfaction, motivation, family tradition (Schwartz, 1976; Alstete, 2002; Scott,1986; Norhaiyati & Nik., 2011). Recent studies revealed that in Malaysia, psychological motives such as selfsatisfaction, the search for independence, and source of finance have been found to be motivating factors for women entrepreneurs to start-up (Nordin, 2005; Hasni, 2012). The present studies lend support to the literature. The study examined the factors that influence women to start up using 5 statements ranging from 1=strongly Agree 5=Strongly Disagree. The results (Table 2) revealed that most of the respondents mentioned those factors such as (1) economic necessity (2) self-choice (3) Selfsufficient (4) family and friend s encouragement and (5) family tradition of starting up a small scale. The most prominent factor was in terms of I start up a because of I want to become independent (67 percent agree & 24 % strongly agree respectively). A larger number of respondents considered self-choice (44 percent agree & 24 percent strongly agree respectively) as the important to start up. Family and friend s encouragements were seen as the motivating factors that contributed to start-up the.

5 Table2: Factors Influence Women Involvement in Business Statements Strongly disagree Disagree Not sure Agre e Strongl y agree N % N % N % N % N % 1 I start up because of the economic necessity of my family 2 I start up because I like profession 3 I start up a because of I want to become independe nt 4 I start up with family member s encourage ment 5 I start -up to continue my family tradition. 6 I start- up with the my friend s encourage ment 7 I start up

6 because I have to support my family on my own. 8 I start up because I get support from the association s. 9 I involved in because this field brings more profit than other profession. 10 I start up to help my husband in family income Impact of Small-scale Business on Empowering Women The study analyzes the impact of small-scale towards women empowerment using a total of 10 statements. Before analyzing the impacts of small-scale towards women empowerment it is also important to define what constitute empowerment. In order to define or most authors defined empowerment as the ability of women to take control of their own life, selfconfidence. There are women who exercise a great deal of choice and thus enjoy power, they can be considered as the empowered. Women empowerment further can be defined as women's autonomy, relative access to household resources and control over decision-making power (Kabeer 1999, Batliwala, 1995). Batliwala (1995) conceptualized decision making power as the degree of control over material, human and intellectual resources exercised by different sections of society. In a recent study Sultana et al (2013) argued that employment was found to be a key indicator in enhancing the level of decision-making power as well as empowerment of women in all aspects. The present study contributes to show that women's participation in the small- scale play an important role for empowering women by controlling over decision-making, economic freedom, increasing self-confidence, company ownership and freedom of making own choice. Results ( Table 3) revealed that the majority of respondents showed positive attitudes towards their empowerment in terms of (1) ability to deal with people from different (2) ability of time management (3) satisfaction of economic contribution to family (4) independence of using own income family (5) changing lifestyle (6) making own choice (7) ability to contribute to the welfare of the family (8) self-confidence to do the things by own (9) ownership of the company and (10) freedom of family decision making. The majority of respondents agreed with the above statements

7 and based on the theoretical orientation, these results proved that there is a huge impact on on empowering women especially at the household level. Table 3: Percentage and Frequency of Impacts of Small Scale Business on Women Statements Stron gly disag ree Disa gree Neither disagr ee or agree Agr ee Strong ly agree 1 I know how to deal with people from different background 2 I know how to manage work and family 3 I have the freedom to take family decision 4 I can contribute my family income 5 I feel free to use my own income 6 My helped me to change my lifestyle. 7 I can contribute to the welfare of my family member 8 I am confident that I can do many things. 9 I can appoint workers to help my. 10 I have the freedom to do something for my own F % F % F % F % F %

8 3.3 Challenges faced by Women in Small Scale Business The study also assesses whether any challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, who own micro and small es in Kota Bhar, Kelantan by using eight statements related to the possible constraints that they may face. Results (Table 4) revealed that the major challenged faced by respondents in terms of lack of knowledge about since the majority of respondents agreed in terms of I do not have enough knowledge about (38 percent agree and 36 percent strongly respectively). As mentioned elsewhere, most of the respondents in this study tended to have a moderate level of education. Table4: Percentage and Frequency Challenges Faced by Women in small scale Statements Strongly disagree Disagre e Not sure Agre e Strongly agree F % F % F % F % F % 1 My family is not confident with my work. 2 My family does not allow me to go outside for. 3 People look at me like I am weird. 4 People think that is male dominated profession. 5 I have been discriminated as by the traders as being female entrepreneur 6 I am always having a fear of sexual harassment 7 I do not have enough knowledge about the 8 I am having difficulties getting loans

9 There is a link between the challenges faced by women in small-scale es and low education and lack of training (Decal, 2010). On the other hand, gaining relevant skills and knowledge are difficult to achieve for the women, since they frequently have triple work burden (Anisiobi., 2014). However, there are other types of constraints such as difficulty of receiving loans. A large number of respondents (28 percent agree & 44 percent strongly agree respectively) were having difficulties of getting loan because of being a female entrepreneur. The present study constrained by previous conducted by Aziz et al., (2012) on challenges faced by micro, small, and medium lodgings in Kelantan, Malaysia. The study demonstrated that generally in Kelantan the microenterprises are utilizing their revenue to enhance ventures. The study highlighted that micro; small and medium accommodation enterprises are both facing problems in raising capital in managing their accommodation that has given them many challenges. Another constraint faced by women entrepreneur was related to community perception. Some people believed that is male profession. Gender role also plays an important for the challenges faced by women in small scale. It was noted that the fear of sexually harassment among respondents are common. A small number of respondents (24 percent agree and 12 percent strongly agree) that they are fearful of sexual violence especially of being a female entrepreneur. 4. Summary and Conclusions The study assessed women s involvement in small-scale in Kota Bhar, Kelantan, Malaysia. The main aim of this study was to explore factors, impacts and challenges faced by women in small scale. The findings of this study showed that the major factors that influence women to start-up are an economic necessity, self-choice of becoming an entrepreneur, becoming self-sufficient, family and friend s encouragement and a family tradition. The study analyzed the impact of small-scale towards women empowerment. The results demonstrated that women s participation in the small-scale plays an important role for the empowering women by controlling over decision-making, economic freedom, increasing selfconfidence, company ownership and freedom of making own choice. Lastly, the study examined whether any challenges faced by women entrepreneurs, who own micro and small es in Kota Bhar, Kelantan. The results revealed that the major constraints faced by women entrepreneurs are related to lack of knowledge about, difficulty of receiving loans, patriarchal gender attitudes when are viewed male profession and fear of sexual harassment. The study showed that women tended to have lack of knowledge about and education. Moreover, women entrepreneurship has been recognised as an important untapped source of economic growth and socioeconomic development of any nation. Given the importance of women's participation in the, the government and NGOs would facilitate training and education for women in terms of the importance of marketing strategy as well as other strategies to the management. Furthermore, the study was limited to a small number of women who involve in a small scale in Kota Bhar, Kelantan. The current research was able to manage to distribute 50 respondents only. Therefore, the results of this study could not be generalized to a broader scope. 5. Acknowledgments

10 We gratefully acknowledge, the study respondents who consented to voluntarily participate in the study and provided valuable information on their participation in small scale in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. 6. References Aziz, Y. A Khairil., W. A., and Zaiton, S., Challenges Faced by Micro, Small, and Medium Lodgings in Kelantan, Malaysia. Inta. Journal of Economics and Management. Vol 6 (1): Pp Alstete, J.W On Becoming An Entrepreneur: An Evolving Topology. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, Vol. 8, No.4, Pp Anisiobi., A., L Women Entrepreneurship in Malaysia: An Empirical Assessment of the Challenges Faced by Micro and Small Business Owners in Kuching-Sarawak. International Journal of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education (IJHSSE). Volume 1, Issue 4. Pp Batliwala, S., Education for Women s Empowerment, ASPBAE Position Paper for the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, New Delhi, Asia-South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education. Chowdhury, M. and Amin, M The effects of human, social and financial capital on women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh and their willingness to venture creation, International Journal of Business and Economic Perspectives, Vol 6 Issue 1, Pp Decal, F Challenges Faced By Women Entrepreneurs. Journal of International Business, Vol. 5. Pp Hasni Che Ismail (2012). An Exploratory Study of Motivational Factors on Women Entrepreneurship Venturing in Malaysia, Business and Economic Research, Vol. 2, No. 1 Pp McConnell, L New initiative focuses on opportunities for women: doing report [Online]. Norhaiyati., A M and Nik., M, N., The Influential Factors in Decision-Making Process among Malay Woman Entrepreneurs: A Case Study in Tok Bali, PasirPuteh, Kelantan, Malaysia. The NIEW Journal. Vol 3. Nordin, M Women : determinants for venturing in Malaysian SMEs. Kavita, R., Anantharaman, N. & Jaysingam, S Motivation factors affecting entrepreneural decision: a comparison between Malaysian women entrepreneurs and women non-entrepreneur, Communications of the IBIMA, Vol 2 Issue12, Pp Kabeer., N Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the measurement of Women s Empowerment. Development and Change,Vol 30, Pp Schwartz, E Entrepreneurship: A New Female Frontier. Journal of Contemporary Business, Vol. 5 (1),. Pp

11 Scott, C.E Why More Women Are Becoming Entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business Management. Vol. 24 Issue 4, Pp Sultana A. M., Norhafiza M., H and Fauziah, C., L Measuring Empowerment between Working and Non-working Women: Malaysian Perspective. Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies. Volume 1, Issue 05 Pp