The Top Challenges Faced by Women in Business in 2018 (Infographic) Women entrepreneurs continue to face more hurdles than male entrepreneurs today.
By Rose Leadem •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
From entertainment to tech, women continue to face gender-based challenges in nearly every industry -- and entrepreneurship is no different.
In a survey of more than 3,000 men and women entrepreneurs worldwide, 99designs uncovered the surprising number of challenges women entrepreneurs face in business compared to their male counterparts, with everything from raising capital to hiring employees.
Related: 4 Things Women Entrepreneurs Need to Know Before Approaching Angel Investors and VCs
According to the research, surveyed male entrepreneurs were twice as likely to raise $100,000 or more of outside funding for their startups than female entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, these numbers stayed pretty consistent when this survey was conducted last year. When women can't get enough funding to launch their businesses, it affects nearly every aspect of their startups, including hiring employees, renting office space and setting reasonable work hours.
Whether it's due to a lack of funding or lack of employees, women entrepreneurs (68 percent) are more likely than male entrepreneurs (48 percent) to run businesses out of their homes. They are also more likely to register as sole proprietorships than men (49 percent of women vs. 31 percent of men).
In the study, the number of women and men starting businesses in various industries was for the most part equal, with the same number of women and men entrepreneurs going into areas such as business consulting, marketing and PR, retail and media and entertainment. The majority of surveyed men and women also agreed that not asking for help, getting out of their comfort zones and feeling guilt for working too often were some of the top challenges of starting a business.
Related: How to Succeed as a Female Leader Anywhere In the World
However, despite these commonalities, women are still discriminated against and gender inequality continues to persist in 2018. To learn more about women in business this year, check out the infographic below.
