A Research Overview of Women Entrepreneur’s in Malaysia: How Far Have They Come?

Abstract

The number of women entrepreneurs in Malaysia has increased in the past three decades due to the emphasis on industrialisation, growing interests in privatisation, self-employment and business oriented employment. The government has been continuously working on creating or rather cultivate an enterprising culture among Malaysia women. This has spurred many local researchers to see if the national policies and programs have made differences or rather has these efforts alleviated the poverty level. The numerous empirical researches on women entrepreneurs were done especially among the Malay women involved in micro and small enterprise. The findings of these studies range from individual characteristics of the respondents, experience, management skill, competency, motives, barriers, challenged faced, size of their business and sector involved. However, these studies were done albeit in a fragmented fashion, it is important to see if the these critical factors significantly contributed towards the success of women entrepreneurs in Malaysia and to understand if there is a common challenge faced by these women.