Chapter 4: Women Entrepreneurs: The Case of the Ethnic Minority Entrepreneur—Workforce Challenges and Policy Implications

Female minority/ethnic entrepreneurs represent a small but increasingly important subset of all entrepreneurs. This population faces additional pressures and constraints that other entrepreneurs are less likely to face. These constraints include being more vulnerable to market conditions, being smaller and thus more likely to fall under the radar, being more necessity rather than opportunity driven, more limited to retail/service low profit sectors of the workforce and often involving women who are a by-product of diasporas and other oppressive conditions. Additional challenges that this population faces include weak digital technology skills, few role models, work-life balance tensions, lack of financial resources, stereotypes that further limit access and advancement and language-cultural barriers that limit understanding on how business works in America. Proposed solutions for helping women minority entrepreneurs include leadership development, overall business skills training, social media and marketing, mentoring, use of lending vehicles like CDFIs, access to capital and an overall culturalization process that familiarizes and sharpens the way business is conducted in the US.