Making a living was no easy task for Bu Sumini. The single mother of two suffered a work accident that set her back two months in the hospital and left her in debt.
To make ends meet, she started selling sembako or daily necessities, only to end up getting scammed for IDR100 million (US$ 7,000) by a fake supplier.
The sad reality is that Sumini is not alone in this circumstance. Despite making up some 43 per cent of Indonesia’s entrepreneurial force, many women in the country still face numerous hurdles on their path to success.
Closed doors and sticky floors
Women-owned businesses are a critical component of Indonesia’s growth journey, even with so many factors working against them. For starters, simply entering the workforce is a daunting task as they struggle to balance family responsibilities and navigate a host of cultural factors that set them back.
Marriage and childcare responsibilities, for instance, push back the age at which many women start working, sometimes to as late as 45 years old.
Then there’s the gender wage gap, colloquially referred to as “sticky floors”, which is another major challenge, especially in lower-earning jobs where women reportedly earn 63 per cent less than their male counterparts.
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All of this has contributed to a startling disparity in Indonesia’s labour force participation, with only 56 per cent of women being able to work, compared to 84 per cent of men. With the odds stacked against them in the corporate world, it is not surprising that many women in Indonesia are turning to entrepreneurship to change their fates.
Investing in women entrepreneurs in Indonesia
Investing in women entrepreneurs not only addresses financial inclusion, social justice and gender equality, but a growing body now points to its business case.
The local government is already taking steps to enable better digital and financial inclusion. But businesses also have a role in empowering and transforming women-owned enterprises into powerhouses for collective growth.
Of course, shifting more capital towards women is one way to do this, but equally, it is about developing the right products and solutions for female entrepreneurs.
At Ula, we recently launched Teman Ula, a unique new solution that allows micro-entrepreneurs to start or expand their business by aggregating orders and selling within their community.
Solutions like this have helped thousands of women, including Bu Sumini, get back on their feet and grow businesses.
In fact, 63 per cent of all Ula users are women, including proud owners of neighbourhood provision shops, home retailers and more.
Teman Ula has been especially successful in helping more women earn up to five-six times additional income, which is especially meaningful for those with children or elderly family members to take care of.
We’re so proud and humbled to be able to put power back in the hands of these resilient women and help them emerge stronger from their circumstances.
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It takes a village to raise a nation
According to a study in collaboration with the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Economic Governance (AIPEG), if the proportion of women in Indonesia’s workforce were to be increased by just ten percentage points, it may potentially raise the country’s GDP by one percentage point to a total of US$432 per person.
Ula strongly believes in this, and we have made conscious hiring decisions to ensure that over 39 per cent of our team are women, and this number continues to grow.
As caretakers of their families and a key force in the local neighbourhood, women around us have the power to drive transformation at the grassroots level.
Women using Teman Ula aggregate orders from their neighbourhood to bulk-buy provisions and daily necessities at a cheaper price. Not only does the entire community benefit from the price discounts, but these women can also maintain a steady income and earn a small margin while reselling the supplies.
For the 27.55 million people in Indonesia who live below the poverty line, products like Teman Ula are enabling a new generation of micro-entrepreneurs, led fiercely by women, growing businesses, sustaining families, and gaining greater financial independence.
Bu Sumini’s story is just one of many examples that stand testament to this.
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