Challenges Facing Businesswomen and Their Negative Impact on the Performance of Small Businesses in the Province of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia

Businesswomen are increasingly playing a significant role in the economy at both, national and international levels. Women-owned businesses provide job opportunities and contribute to strengthening the family and community’s cohesion. However, the majority of women business owners, whether small or big, in terms of size or those conducted without permits especially in developing countries, are all put at a disadvantage in starting businesses. The reason behind this is due to social, political, family and economic challenges faced by businesswomen in many countries. Other obstacles arise from the personality traits of women entrepreneurs and have continuously caused to hinder their engagement in businesses or their willingness to initiate their own new businesses. The impact of these challenges varies from one businesswoman to another. For instance, poor economic conditions may motivate a Chinese businesswoman; however, the same conditions may represent an obstacle to other businesswomen in some Middle Eastern countries. This research study, following an explanatory nonexperimental research design (Belli, 2008; Cook and Cook, 2008; Johnson, 2001) will focus on the most important challenges facing Saudi businesswomen, particularly including social and economic constraints, discrimination and infrastructure challenges. The study has outlined that family constraints are ranked at the top of those challenges. Recommendations aiming to help businesswomen overcome these challenges shall be drawn up in this study. The study is purposefully divided into several parts as follows-Part I- Introduction- Addresses the research problem, its hypotheses, importance and objectives.Part II- Addresses the research methodology, literature review and previous research.Part III- Data collection, draw up conclusions and recommendations.