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.


Introduce the Problem
Our society is unable to face the challenges of the modern world or keep pace with rapid developments that have evolved in various economic, social and cultural fields without giving proper attention to women since it is upon them that rests the responsibility of raising future generations.Ignoring women's education will eventually bring up young people who are incapable of adapting to changing conditions and cultures.Nowadays, some men are putting the blame on women for not being able to manage their affairs or businesses, claiming that women are only held responsible for the management of their homes.Though this is a false accusation, the person who is to blame is the man.In a male-dominated society, the lack of a strong belief in women's ability to manage their businesses will lead to poor encouragement for supporting their role in economic and social development, frustrate their determination and shrink their contribution in the workforce.The society's perception of working women in general and businesswomen in particular is considered one of the fundamental challenges which leads to the withdrawal of women from their private businesses.Moreover, family traditions put pressure on many personal decisions taken by women.These traditions have limited women to the confines of their homes where they are only expected to raise kids and those traditions have deprived them from taking leadership positions in many private and family businesses.Those same traditions have created within them feelings of lack of confidence, fear of failure and dependency.Although the human sex ratio in the world is roughly equal, women hold just one percent of the world's wealth (Bajpai, 2014).Since Saudi Arabia has a sizeable economic power, opportunity is more important than capital which is targeting opportunity not vice versa.Businesswomen are attracted by the existing economic opportunities and are not driven out of their economic needs (Danish, 2011).Even so, the percentage of companies registered in the name of Saudi businesswomen has only reached 4.3% of the total registered companies.Therefore, tangible and emotional resources have to be provided for businesswomen in the form of financial and moral support to alleviate their strong, valuable and primary role in economic and social development (Al-Mubarak, 2016).

Entrepreneurship
"The term entrepreneurship is used to describe a dynamic process of creating incremental wealth; this wealth is created by individuals who take the major risks in terms of equity, time and career commitment for providing value to some product or services" (Esiobu, Onubougu, & Ibe, 2015, p. 92).

Unemployment:
It is the case of having an individual who is able, willing and seeking work but does not find a job at the working age).

Disguised unemployment
It is the overcrowding of employees in government jobs where more people are working than is necessary.Disguised unemployment frequently exists in developing countries.The overall productivity is not affected if those excess employees are being expelled from work

Masculinity-Femininity
Biological differences between male/female are universal.However, within societies there are differences in gender roles.Masculinity emphasizes assertiveness and competition; femininity centres on nurturance, a concern for relationships and for the living environment (Hofstede, Hofstede and Minkov, 2010).

Research Problem 
Many studies have addressed small businesses, in general, and particularly focus on businessmen; however only a few studies address the challenges faced by businesswomen.

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What are the main challenges faced by businesswomen which lead to the failure of their businesses or the discontinuity of their businesses? What are the perceptions, customs and traditions of the Saudi society which places barriers that hamper the performance of businesswomen?  What are the best solutions to overcome the challenges that prevent businesswomen from operating their own small businesses and impede women's entrepreneurial potential?

The first hypothesis
There is a direct correlation of statistical significance between women's managerial and financial capacities on one hand and the challenges facing businesswomen in their businesses on the other hand.

The Second Hypothesis
There is a direct correlation of statistical significance between women entrepreneurship and the chances to overcome the challenges facing businesswomen in their businesses.

The Third Hypothesis
There is a direct correlation of statistical significance between the State's role in small businesses and the challenges facing businesswomen in their businesses.

The Fourth Hypothesis
There is a direct correlation of statistical significance between limited available job opportunities for women and the challenges facing businesswomen in their businesses.

The Fifth Hypothesis
There is a direct correlation between the dominant culture of a society and the challenges facing businesswomen in their businesses.

The Sixth Hypothesis
There is a relationship between the behavioural tendency of men to exploit their weaker peers and the challenges facing businesswomen in their businesses.

The Seventh Hypothesis
There is a relationship between the society's encouragement and the challenges facing businesswomen in their businesses.

Objectives of the Study
This study mainly aims to achieve the following objectives:  Identify the fundamental challenges that lead to the failure of businesses conducted by businesswomen.

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Explore the economic and social problems that have acted to aggravate these challenges and their negative impact on the performance of businesses conducted by businesswomen.

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Identify the serious problems resulting from the failure of businesses conducted by female entrepreneurs.

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Provide recommendations that contribute in reducing the obstacles and challenges associated with women's businesses.

Importance of the Study 
The importance of this study lies in exploring the real business world of women engaged in small businesses within Jeddah Province in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

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The Study is also important in identifying the major challenges facing businesswomen.

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The Study draws up the proper recommendations for the problems and challenges facing businesswomen.

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The study is beneficial in escalating the solutions and recommendations to official bodies and research entities, ultimately leading to the improvement of the performance levels of businesswomen engaged in their private businesses.

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The study aims to shed light on the important role played by businesswomen in economic development.

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The study also aims to enrich scientific research in the field of women entrepreneurship.

Scope and Limitations of the Study
Subject matter: A descriptive-analytic Approach has been undertaken in this study to identify the challenges facing businesswomen engaged in small businesses in Jeddah Province.It also identifies the most important means to draw up recommendations that improve the chances of businesswomen to succeed.

The Locale of the Study:
This study is limited to Jeddah Province.

Corporate Limits:
This study is limited to businesswomen engaged in small businesses.

Limits of Time:
This study was conducted in 2016.

The Challenges Facing Businesswomen
The perceptions and views of the society of businesswomen's work: family traditions and social customs often direct a woman to domestic work and reliance on her father, if she is not married, in any of her financial, social or crucial decisions.Traditions play an active role in the subordination of women to men -and sometimes men's domination and exploitation of women.In most cases, according to tradition, a man -either the father or husband -is the breadwinner and supporter of a woman.In a study by Hofstede (1980), it was found that man in the Middle Eastern cultures has the desire to show off his authority in the society, whereas social hierarchy is clearly depicted among the classes of the society.A father freely exercises his full authority over his family members and solely takes most of the family decisions.This concept is also supported by Pheysey's study (1993) on the status of these societies which are included among patriarchal societies (Power Culture).The same manifestation of authority is also applied in the domain of the family where a father protects and dignifies his family members and receives in turn loyalty and obedience from them.The father may play a role in woman's career as it is the case with women doctors who own their private clinics.The father assists and encourages his daughter to study medicine in order to hold a medical profession.After graduation, he contributes in financing her to initiate a private business.By this, the father becomes proud of his daughter who has eventually become a doctor and succeeded in what he could not achieve.Fear of failure: the female's low self-esteem can originate from family education which exposes her to the complexity of the fear of failure and risk avoidance (Hassan, 2001).A father spoiling his daughter may lead her at the end to be irresponsible, dependent on others and unaware of her esteem.
In most cases, the father is responsible for making a lot of his daughter's decisions; whereas after marriage, the husband is the one who makes decisions, in general (Bharthvajan, 2014).This explains how the percentage of female workers is 14% while about 40% of bank deposits are made by Saudi women beneficiaries.The amount equivalent to USD 11.5 billion is not employed in investment channels but is maintained in current accounts.
The size of women's investments excluding Real Estate, such as investment in stocks, amounted to SAR 8 billion (approximately, $2 billion); while the size of investments in Real Estate reached SAR 120 billion, approximately $32 billion (Al-Azzal, 2014).These figures show the desire of women to invest in less risky assets such as Real Estate.The decline in oil prices may lead some private companies to exit from the market and raise the fears of many women to initiate their private businesses as it was the case in Greece (Gianna, 2015).However, this does not prevent the fact that some businesswomen have strong and challenging personalities.
Many businesswomen are capable of controlling their lives while others fail to do so.As Roger Brown (2003) puts it, it is the general sense of controlling one's own life is what matters, as some people of different characters have this kind of sense while others suffer being in short of it.It should be noted that out of the Top 100 world's richest women, ten businesswomen are from the Middle East (Sadi & Al Ghazali, 2009).The relatives of businesswomen are not convinced of their abilities to manage their private or family businesses.They also lack moral support and face the beliefs that their opinions and decisions are illogical because they are often sentimental, emotional or are affected by family problems (Al-Raqab, 2009).Businesswomen face the difficulties that clients, suppliers and some businessmen are not convinced to deal with them (Anjum, 2012).If the society perceives businesswomen from a prejudiced view which differentiates between men and women at work, then this perception will most probably seem like chains to women that prevent them from progressing forward with their lives, take free actions or make the best use of their entrepreneurial creativity.Many businesses registered in the names of women are in fact owned by their husbands, sons or brothers, since some systems prevent husbands to own a private business if they hold a government position.Businesswomen encounter administrative problems represented in their inability to issue work permits for workers without a male guardian, in addition to bureaucracy, slow procedures to end business transactions and other problems related to court affairs and bankruptcy.Even if a woman's name is included in the management list of her father's company, most often a man will have a more powerful and dominating role over her (Kaleem-Ullah, 2012).This goes back to traditional education which focuses on the role of a male to manage affairs in the absence of his father.Likewise, a male is responsible for the management of the company, the financial affairs for the family hence this sense of responsibility grows with the male.However, a female is not responsible for the family's financial affairs and does not run a private business or manage the company, for example, after the death of her father, even though if she was better educated than the male or if the male was less enthusiastic to manage the business (Cappuyns, 2007).If a female is involved in a private business, her role is bound to be a mediator in case any disagreements occur between the member brothers of the company.A businesswoman may be one of the nonvoting members (silent partners) who have no right to participate in the management of the Company or perform any job duties (Gillis-Donovan & Moynihan-Bradt, 1990).If she performs any administrative tasks, it would be an unpaid work (Cappuyns, 2007).Furthermore, her role and decisions are highly marginalized in her father's company if she was married to someone outside the family (Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce, 2012).Many working women are married with children and are responsible of the traditional household duties in addition to their career responsibilities.Due to this exhausting dual role, a woman may be eventually forced to quit her business under the pressures of her husband or father to give proper care to her family life.She may also sacrifice her job due to the dominant social perception that work makes her unfaithful to her family and children (Al-Zaidi, 1995) especially that a larger number of children inevitably increases her duties.Women's work could lead to big family problems, such as divorce, and this may be one of the reasons that makes women fear to initiate their private businesses.Similar problems exist in several countries around the world, including Malaysia.
According to a study, women's work has particular important impacts on the children, husband and the woman herself and may often lead to divorce (Zouzah, 2005).The strong economic status in most of the Gulf countries has attracted a lot of men and women to work in the government sector since it is characterized by job security and stability, a feature more convenient to women.The economic boom may possibly be one of the factors for attracting men to own their businesses since there are better chances of success at periods of economic prosperity.Men in the Gulf societies are more inclined to take risks than women.A few government procurement contracts are awarded to women.In developed countries, only 5% of the total volume of government contracts is awarded to businesswomen (Cantwell, 2014).Women suffer from a damaged sense of self-worth (Bharthvajan, 2014) due to their father's patriarchy control, her brother's exploitation and her husband's negligence of her abilities to manage her home, representing her own small world.There is discrimination in the way men and women are treated due to the society's perceptions of women.This behavior may lead to economic and social oppression for women since a woman works in her home without getting paid and becomes financially dependent on a man-figure or a husband who does not mind taking a portion of the income.Discrimination against women further increases when they are seen as a minority as is the case in the United States where there are African American and Latin American women (Akel, 2014).The challenges facing women are more severe when they are married at an early age.Lack of care-giving programs for children and elderly people compel women to spend a large part of their lives meeting family needs.These obligations have restricted them from participating in the economic development, not to mention the high financial costs for child care.Lack of financial resources compel some women to depend on their savings to finance their businesses as it is a common matter in many countries.In the United States, some businesswomen resorted to their savings to initiate their businesses (Akel, 2012).Transportation and communications problems have a high impact on the performance of women.Lack of public means of transportation as in Britain (including trains, underground, scheduled buses, mass transit systems and taxi reservation by phone which is safer for women) have led women to rely on a driver in all their transportation.The work of women is limited to the education field, as a teacher, or the medical field, as a doctor, whereby many of those who work in the medical field find difficulties in night shifts as it may cause family problems.One of the challenges facing businesswomen is the availability of financial resources and the inclination of clients to deal with men rather than with women in business deals (Jubain, 2016).Moreover, lack of administrative, accounting and marketing experience for some women is also an issue.Some suitors propose to marry women on the condition of quitting their jobs (Al-Zahrani, 2011) while many men believe that women are overcrowding men in job opportunities particularly during the last few years where the unemployment rate has risen.Furthermore, it is not permitted to issue work permits for women without a sponsor.

Previous Studies
A Study by Debroux (2003) entitled "Female Entrepreneurship in Japan" found out that there are traditional Japanese beliefs which discourage the work of women.Everybody agreed that the work of the woman has negative effects on her husband and children.However, Japanese women believe that they are capable of assuming the responsibilities of their homes and work at the same time.Nonetheless, Japanese men think that women must be confined to the boundaries of their homes to give birth and raise children, whereas their work will cause harm to their children.This concept goes back to the traditions which act as barriers that obstruct women from pursuing to work outside their homes.In summary, the research states that the most important reasons behind the work of women in private businesses are as follows:  Need for self-achievement and self-esteem.

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Wish to be one's own boss.

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Search for job satisfaction.

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Getting away from unsatisfactory work situations.

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Better combination of family life and work.
The research mentioned that the most important challenges facing businesswomen are gender related as follows:  Discrimination.

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Personal traits such as lack of aggressiveness and risk taking.

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Lack of expertise and experience.

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Managing the business such as marketing and employment staff.Buttner (2001) believes that the management styles of women entrepreneurs as mutual empowering, collaborative, empathy and nurturing.Similarly, the Japanese society is dominated by men (Roberson and Suzuki, 2003).The size of businesses managed by women is only 3%.Furthermore, men represent 90% of the parliament.It has been observed that the majority of the work held by women is secretarial work, paper work and hosting customers (Kitamuray, 2008)  China in the early nineties led to the re-shaping of the role of businesswomen nowadays.Not too long ago, the role of the woman in the Chinese society was neglected and unacceptable in business.The woman was confined to her home to give care to her children and host her husband's visitors by offering the traditional Chinese tea since she was subordinate to her husband.However, after the economic revolution, women were liberated from discrimination, family and social restrictions that have lasted for several centuries."Women were regarded as accessories of their male 'guardians', namely their father and husband before and after marriage respectively, and of their son after their husband had died, known as 'the three obediences" (SIMO, 2012).On the other hand, the perception of the working woman has changed these days; for now, she began to participate in the economic life thanks to the imposed laws to protect women and offer them equal rights as their male counterparts in the workplace.According to Forbes listing, only fourteen women in the world have earned their own 10-figure fortunes in 2010 and half of them are from China.One of the most important reasons for the success of Chinese businesswomen is the economic transformation which has focused on the provision of economic and investment opportunities for men and women alike.Moreover, many women were encouraged by the government.It has been observed that one of the reasons for women's entry into the private business is that before 1978, most female workers used to work in textile factories.When these factories were shut down, they were forced to look for other work since many became without income.This has served as a motivation factor for women to run their private business.In addition, the one-child policy in China has granted women some free time, to some extent, to dedicate to their work.Moreover, raising children in China is the grandmother's responsibility in case the mother has a job.Due to the large Chinese family and the presence of all its members in one household, raising a child during its first year is mostly done by the grandmother.For future trends, the pursuit of education and scientific disciplines for a lot of girls has changed their desire from initiating a private business to a more stable kind of work instead.Folker (2008) compared in his study entitled "Women in Family Firms: Characteristics, Roles and Contributions" the roles of men and women and pointed to the role of businesswomen throughout history where they used to work in family businesses but without any positions or salaries.Nowadays, their roles have changed and assumed other tasks such as secretarial or administrative support functions in spite that a household's requirements limit the role of women.The study also stated that women have the intellectual ability to build strong relationships with customers.They also have loyalty towards their work and flexibility in dealings.The woman always acts as a mediator in case internal disagreements occur between brothers at work.In addition, she has the ability to work within a group or a team.The study added that the female in the United States has always tried (some of them) to attract the attention of the members of her family to the family business to prove herself reliable.She is always encouraging her father, in case she works with the father, and has a sense of belonging to the business she performs due to her feminine nature.The study of "Public Opinion on the Participation of Saudi Women in National Development -conducted in Al-Sayeda Khadija Bint Khuwaylid Center in Jeddah Chamber of Commerce by Ameer (2012) pointed to four major themes representing the difficulties faced by businesswomen.

The first theme
The work environment preferred by women, telework, the woman's attitude in the decision-making process and the balance between family duties and work requirements The second theme Focus on the guardian's role including the necessity to obtain his approval for the employment of the woman, his consent for her to travel outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the guardian's impact on taking future decisions for her.

The third theme
Training and the role of the media

The fourth theme
The most important theme in the researcher's point of view is the difficulty in accessing transportation means and the scarcity of day care centers for children.
The study also showed that women encounter some harassment at workplace.The best types of work for women are those in restaurants, pharmacies, health-related jobs and entertainment."Social Constraints Faced by Women Working in the Health Sector" is a study on a Sample of Employees Working in Hospitals -Reconnaissance by Al-Zahrani (2011) showed that family problems that face female doctors who exercise medical professions.Those family problems are represented in night shifts for female doctors and their inability to stay overnight away from their homes.This matter raises problems between female doctors and their husbands due to a man's belief that the spouse is not giving proper care to the children or the husband.Besides, the father also objects to the idea that his daughter stays overnight away from home during a night shift.On the other hand, the woman does not prefer to work in the field of technical services -even if she was educated.The study also showed that despite the prevailing customs and traditions in this conservative society, it has been found that there is an acceptance of medical professions by women's relatives.The study showed a shortage of child care facilities for the children of female doctors.In another study entitled "Obstacles Facing a Saudi Woman and Limit her workforce participation in the Tourism Sector" by Al Shammari (2007) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it has been concluded that Saudi women working in the tourism sector have faced difficulties represented in parental unacceptance of this type of work due to the negative perceptions of this field as having an extroverted nature of work and not a conservative one.The difficulty for women to work in this field does not lie in the woman's acceptance but in some families who do not accept this type of work due to some problems represented in mingling with individuals who are of different traditions and customs, in addition to harassments from customers and employees and the long working hours.This comes in spite that investment in family tourism is one of the most important tourism investments in the Kingdom."Doing Business with Impudence: A Focus on Women Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia" by Sadi and Al-Ghazali (2009), is another study that showed there are many challenges facing businesswomen including lack of information and consulting services for businesses in which women want to initiate; in addition to lack of marketing and feasibility studies and the control of the commercial market by large investors.Women entrepreneurs who run their businesses also face several challenges including fierce competition in trade, in addition to social and family obstacles.The study also showed that most businesswomen who started their businesses find financial and moral support from their families, show self-confidence and have a strong network of connections in the society.A study conducted at The International Labor Office in Geneva ( 2008) by the World Bank Group (WBG) showed that many women in Lebanon, Bahrain, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates want to expand their companies to become international, while some of these companies are already international.However, it was noticed that a large size of their international trade relies on import, a case which shows that the majority of the people in those countries are consumers.The study also showed reliance on technology as in using computers, the Internet and websites.Most transactions are carried out through the mobile in everyday business transactions.The most important challenges faced were financial and administrative expertise and the ways to learn and develop such skills.Another challenge, ranked as the second top challenge, is hiring skilled employment.The top third challenge is the ability to access credit and capital.Finally, the high cost of the public services such as transportation costs is also problematic.The study recommends reducing the time for the registration and regulatory procedures required for businesses and improving employment laws.

Comments on the Studies
The Arab and foreign studies have altogether shown that challenges facing women exist in all countries of the world.However, there is a difference in the type of these challenges.For example, most of the basic challenges facing women are summarized in the following points: For example, in Saudi Arabia, as is the case in Japan and Pakistan, we find that the first challenge (Gender and Masculinity) is of particular importance in these societies, while it may be less important in other countries as China and the United States.Financial difficulties, such as bank loans, may be ranked critical in some developing countries, such as Pakistan, India, some Arab and African countries as Nigeria and Kenya but may be less intense in Saudi Arabia.The transportation problem is a source of nuisance and disturbance to Saudi businesswomen and represents one, of the challenges, which faces them.There is no transportation system as in Britain where there are several means of transportation -such as the underground, scheduled buses, trains -all designed to solve the transportation problem.Businesswomen in Nigeria suffer from bad roads especially needed to transport their agricultural products from locations far from the city center.Not to mention high transportation costs and the recruitment of a private driver.In addition, there is a shortage in day care centers for children and a woman often leaves her child with her relatives.

Second
Business problems and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the industrialized world have been of great interest for a long time as seen in the Hawthorne Study on the productivity of women, team work and working environment.However, they have only recently emerged in developing countries since most of these countries are newly founded or liberated during the midst of the past century (Levitt & List, 2011).

Third
Most of the work carried out by women entrepreneurs in developing countries is related to restaurants, services and retail areas.This means that women concentrate on dealing with customers, not companies, and services, not industries.

Fourth
Most of the studies focused on applying the descriptive approach, especially the Saudi studies.The analytical approach was mainly applied in Western studies.

Fifth
Most studies focused on family businesses while the current study focuses on the challenges facing Saudi businesswomen in private and small businesses.

Research Methodology
This research focuses on the relationship between the challenges facing businesswomen and their performance capacities in their businesses on one hand and the continuity of these businesses on the other hand.Underpinned by a positivistic paradigmatic assumption, the main theoretical approach of this study is manifested in the descriptive and inferential statistical methods which are undertaken in this study so as to target the quantitative data gathered from the survey.This is due to the fact that providing description of a specific social or human phenomenon is more easily applicable than applying the experimental approach on humanities.The main tool used in the research is a survey since surveys are generally used to identify social and economic problems, their causes and draw up proper recommendations for them (Ryan, 2003).

The Population of the Study
The population of the study refers to the entire group of individuals to which the study and its conclusions can be applied or generalized in accordance with the research problem (Banejree & Chandhury, 2010).The population of this study refers to the entire individuals, events or observations of the subject of the research.The population in the research includes all businesswomen in Jeddah Province.

The Sample for the Research Study
The survey method is adopted in all research due to its efficiency in terms of cost, time and effort in studying the entire population.A sample is a subset of this population from which the respondents are selected according to a specific method.The proper selection of the sample will ultimately lead to draw conclusions similar to a great extent to those if the entire population at large were studied (Lunsford & Lunsford, 1995).For the sake of having an unbiased and a representative sample of the population, the researcher has opted to rely on a probability simple random sample (Blair, Czaja, & Blair, 2013) of 100 individuals (n = 100).

Sources of Information and Data Gathering
The study was based on two types of sources:

Primary Sources of Information
The survey serves as a tool for the collection of original primary data related to the topic under investigation, thus, contributing in the achievement of the study's objectives.The survey was designed to examine the hypotheses concerning the challenges facing businesswomen in their businesses; then a statistical analysis of the data was performed to verify the hypotheses of the study.

Secondary Sources of Information
They include literature reviews or scholarly books that have addressed the subject of the study either in books, previous studies or circulars to collect the necessary data for this study.(Feinberg, Kinnear, and Taylor, 2012).

Research Tools
To collect the required data from the sample of respondents, the researcher utilized a survey.The survey is based on a set of 100 statements divided over the main variables covering the hypotheses of the study.The survey tool also included different variables related to the characteristics of the sample such as gender, previous work experience, age and qualifications.The researcher verified the validity of the assessment method in the exploratory phase by selecting a random sample of ( 15) businesswomen in Jeddah Province in order to assess the consistency of results across items of the Survey.Each Item score is correlated to determine its internal consistency with the total scores of the category to which it belongs.Furthermore, the internal consistency of the data was tested calculating the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient which will be discussed in a subsequent section of this study.

Data Analysis
In the previous section, the main theoretical concepts informing this investigation were outlined, as well as the methodological tenants of this study, rationales for selecting them and the details of the data collection instrument used in this study (a 50-item survey) and the participants who were selected to take part in this study.The purpose of this data analysis section is to present and analyze the gathered data by means of the survey of Saudi businesswomen within Jeddah province of Saudi Arabia.Additionally, this section presents the measures taken, including statistical measure, to ensure validity and reliability.The analysis of the data was immediately performed once all the participants completed the questionnaire.The primary data was obtained from the hard copies of the survey where data was entered into an SPSS® file (.sav).Thus, the bulk of the statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 23® software.The questions were divided into two groups.The first group included 38 Likert scale statements and one open ended optional statement by the participants.The second group included demographic information which included gender, number of years in employment, age and highest academic qualification.All variables were assigned as ordinal (items 1-38) and nominal (items 40-43).

The Reliability of the Questionnaire Constructs using the Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient
The Cronbach alpha is considered by many researchers as the most commonly used indicator of internal consistency.It provides reliability estimates from the consistency of item responses from a single assessment.The generally agreed upon lower limit for Cronbach's alpha is 0.70 (Hair, Anderson, Tatham & Black, 1998).
Utilizing the IBM SPSS Statistics 23® package, the consistency reliability of the data was validated by determining the Cronbach's Alpha correlation coefficient.The obtained correlation coefficient obtained was 0.965 and was statistically significant at the 0.01 level as shown in Table 1.The Cronbach's alpha value of the raw data was 0.874.The coefficient value for this study exceeded 0.8, thus satisfying the internal consistency requirements.

Demographic Information of the Participants
The following figures illustrate the demographics of the participants.The figures above illustrate that the majority of the participants were females (99%) and most of them had between less than 5 years to 6-10 years of employment.The participants' qualifications were equally distributed between high school, bachelor degree and masters (postgraduate studies).A positive indication here is that a research that is mainly related to businesswomen is best carried out with female participants.

Likert Scale Data Analysis-Research Assumptions
As mentioned at the beginning of this research study, there are seven hypotheses that this study is based on.The statements that each hypothesis is based on are all the Likert item (ordinal nature) data which are analyzed for correlation relationship using Analysis of Variance (one-way ANOVA).In order to test the consistency and integrity of the responses as corresponding to the seven hypotheses of this study, a one-way ANOVA, which is used to determine whether there are any significant differences between the means of two or more independent (unrelated) groups (Norris, Qureshi, Howitt, & Cramer, 2014), was used to test for any inconsistencies between the responses of the participants.Thus, statements of predictable assumptions made by the researcher were tested for statistical significant differences so as to formulate a clearer view of responses given by the participants.The results of these analyses are presented below.As can be seen from Table 2, the significant p values were > 0.5 and thus, the responses of the participants did not differ statistically significantly with regards to the administrative and financial capacities of businesswomen and the obstacles faced in small businesses.This indicates that the participants were in agreement with the statements forming the first hypothesis.Table 3 above indicates that the significant p values were > 0.5 and thus, it can be seen that the responses of the participants did not differ statistically significantly with regards to the business opportunities for businesswomen and the ability to overcome such obstacles.This indicates that the participants were in agreement with the statements forming the second hypothesis.Table 4 above indicates that the significant p values were all > 0.5 and thus, it can be seen that the responses of the participants were in coherence with each other and did not differ statistically significantly with regards to the third hypothesis relating to role of the state in small businesses and the obstacles facing businesswomen in these businesses.This indicates that the participants were in agreement with the statements forming the third hypothesis.From the above table, it can be seen that although the participants were in agreement with statements 2 and 18 which is evident from the calculated p values (> 0.5) and thus indicating no statistically significant difference between the responses of the participants to statements 2 and 18.However, one of the calculated p values of the options for statement 28 about the most popular type of businesses that businesswomen like to get involved in, have a value less than 0.05 which indicates statistically significant difference between the responses of the participants with regards to choosing home cooking business as a popular choice for businesswomen.The fourth hypothesis is still accepted since, barring the home cooking business as a popular choice among businesswomen, the participants are in agreement that there is a relationship between the limited employment opportunities for women and obstacles that are faced by businesswomen.From the calculated p values in table 6 above, it can be seen that all the significant p values were > 0.5 and thus, it can be concluded that the responses of the participants were in coherence with each other and did not differ statistically significantly with regards to the third hypothesis relating to correlation between the culture of the society and the obstacles facing businesswomen in these business project.This indicates that the participants were in agreement with the statements forming the fifth hypothesis.Table 7 above indicates that the significant p values were all > 0.5 and thus, it can be seen that the participants were in agreement were in coherence with each other and did not differ statistically significantly with regards to the sixth hypothesis relating to the culture of exploitation by men and the obstacles facing businesswomen in these businesses.This indicates that the participants were in agreement with the statements forming the sixth hypothesis.In Table 8 above, it can be seen that the statements are agreed upon by the participants judging from their responses and the calculated p values which were all > 0.05 and thus indication that the participants are in agreement that society's culture and customs disadvantage businesswomen and create obstacle for them to start small businesses.Additionally, the participants' responses to statements 34, 35 and 36 which are relating to the support of the whole society in general and businessmen, banks and commercial centers, indicate that the participants are in agreement that it is crucial to have such support in order to overcome obstacles faced by businessmen in small businesses projects.Accordingly, the seventh hypothesis relating to the opposite relationship between the support of the society and the obstacles facing businesswomen in these projects, is also accepted.

Recommendations
1.The development of systems and laws to ensure their compatibility with the existing environment and working conditions of women.
3. Highlight the role of social values and beliefs, religion and social changes in women's leadership, whether in private or public business (Cho et al., 2015).The impact of social challenges on businesswomen is greater than that on businessmen from the leadership perspective, especially in a country like Saudi Arabia with it conservative customs and traditions (Al-Ahmadi, 2011).
5. Activate the role of banks through recruiting and training a number of credit employees and customer relationship managers, particularly specialized in studying women's financing requests, especially in remote areas outside of major cities (Al-Ayadah, 2016).
6. Raise awareness among women and parents to know the rights of women at the workplace.
7. Put emphasis on work ethics, issue laws to prevent immoral, offensive advances and sexual harassment.
Raise awareness of such annoying actions, mechanisms to deal with them and the punishment for such conduct.
8. Focus on the role of technology, the essential use of computers and supporting software in accounting, tax systems, customers' database and setting up future plans; in addition to e-mails and video-conferencing which have become an integral part of our modern technology (Bharthvajan, 2014).9. University education should play a role in the involvement of young men and women in the private business sector.In addition, it has been found out that university education contributes to improving business performance and hence increasing the businessmen's and businesswomen's income (Guo, Chen, & Yu, 2016).
10. Provide marketing information, feasibility studies and all other information needed by businesswomen to study investment opportunities and risks.The availability of regularly updated information keeps us away from sudden, unexpected events and risks since information leads the road to success.Information frequently brings its own reassurance, people fear the unknown; where the is information and knowledge, problems are better understood (Thompson, 1981).
11. Introduce the concept of teleworking ("work-at-home" employee) which meets the conservative personality of businesswomen.Examples include knitting, cooking, translation, medical consulting and party planning and preparations.It's worth mentioning that about 46 million American women work from home (Azzam, 2008).
: Internal Consistency as a Measure for Test Validity

Figure 1 .Figure
Figure 1.Ages and genders of the participants