Women's road to business success in the era of equal opportunities policy
Abstract
In the era of equal opportunities policy, the road to business success is still more time-consuming and labour-intensive for women than it is for men. Numerous studies indicate that women are faced with specific requirements concerning the enhancement of their role in management. However, despite the existing procedural and legal solutions, women's access to leadership positions is still difficult. Analysing the situation in Poland, a change in the situation of women in the labour market after the accession to the European Union is practically imperceptible or insignificant, despite such strongly emphasised equal opportunities policy, especially in projects co-financed by the Structural Funds. The paper aims to answer the following questions: (1) what factors hinder women's entrepreneurial activity?, and (2) does the phenomenon of discrimination against women in the labour market still exist despite the strongly emphasised, especially after 2004, principle of equal opportunities? The provision of answers to thus formulated questions was preceded by an analysis of secondary sources and a CAWI study conducted on a sample of 353 randomly selected companies from Lodz representing various sectors. The respondents in the study were women-entrepreneurs or women occupying managerial/executive positions.
Keywords
entrepreneurial activity of women, equal opportunities policy, structural funds
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