As there is a growing female presence in business and politics, there has been a lot of progress towards gender equality. After reading Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg on empowering women in the workforce, I couldn’t help but think of the increasing role of women in business. How does this happen? There has been a sudden burst of women making the Forbes List, such as Sheryl Sandberg. There’s obviously no right way of doing it, but there is one thing that is increasingly happening and that is that there is an increasing number of women entering the market. As I increasingly hear about woman entering really competitive industries, it’s impressive to see this. The real question is has it been because women weren’t able to do it or because they weren’t given the opportunity due to a law or a cultural norm.

Doing my research on New Britain Avenue, I couldn’t help but think about culture and how it played into the role that woman have in business. I observed the different roles of Spanish and Asian women in business. In about the ten Asian owned businesses that I went to, eight out of the ten were owned by woman or by a couple. On the contrary, the owners at the Spanish owned small businesses were all men. I thought that was quite interesting. I started speculating about why that might be.

In the woman owned travel agencies, the Asian woman was sitting at a large desk in the end of the store. They were the center of attention, right smack down in the middle. There were also men at both of these stores, however the men were either standing or sitting on either side of the store; they were on the sidelines. A thought came to mind of what I learned in one of my courses on authoritarianism in Northeast Asia. Andrei Lankov explains in his book, The Real North Korea (2013) that women in North Korea are increasingly engaging in the black market because they aren’t considered a political threat. Opposed to women, men are forced to work and are conscripted into militias, giving them very little space to engage in any activities that are not administered by the state. Many women are engaging in the black market and selling all types of household appliances and the state allows them to. They are gaining valuable skills and teaching their kids the same thing. The factors that inhibit men while allowing women’s presence and giving them the opportunity to participate in the market in North Korea might shed some light on why so many Asian (particularly Vietnamese-American) women have established businesses on New Britain Avenue in Hartford

By contrast, men predominantly own stores in the other commercial strip that I observed on New Britain Ave. That surprised me. I expected at least one female owned business; however out of the ten businesses I entered on that block, there weren’t any owned by women. Also, Hispanic people owned most of them. I come from a Hispanic background and from personal experience I know men “pull the strings”. The two men that I interviewed mentioned how they left their home countries due to the authoritarian political systems that did not let them pursue what they wanted in their countries (similar to the Asian context). The men I met were very hardworking and ambitious, always taking on new jobs and willing to take odd jobs. They were very knowledgeable about a lot of things. When these men started their business, they weren’t alone. They were the face of the business, while women family members were in charge of the financial aspect of the business. Wives weren’t always on site, but they were mentioned many times as the assistants to these men and critical to the existence of the businesses. Men were the face of the business. They deal with purchasing merchandise and meeting with suppliers, but the women are in charge of the administrative side of the business.

Upon reflection, I realized that cultural differences have affected what role woman have in immigrant businesses in the US. The political situations in the home culture have also shaped business entrepreneurship in Hartford. The men that I spoke to had different experiences that prompted them to be take a chance and start a business. And, in some cases women were given opportunities to create businesses. Overall, I noticed that woman might seem underrepresented in these businesses, but really, they are very present. They are not necessarily the “face” of some immigrant businesses but they do have a strong presence and impact on the success of these establishments. Efforts to empower women around the world are on the rise. These are examples of how women (as business owners or business managers) in Hartford are just as able as men and their example can empower future women to get more involved.