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FEDERAL STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

"NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

"HIGH SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS"

Bachelor's work

in the direction of preparation Management

Female leaders in business in different countries

(Динамика лидерского потенциала у женщин-предпринимателей разных стран)

Implementer: Mazerkina Ksenia Dmitrievna

Supervisor: Lobanova T.N.

Candidate of Psychological Sciences

assistant professor

Moscow 2018

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Theoretical foundations of female leadership and entrepreneurship

1.1 Key terms used in the research

1.2 «Glass ceiling» and gender inequality

1.3 Inequality in Russia

1.4 The image of an entrepreneur

1.5 What brings women to managing their own business?

1.6 Female leadership style

1.7 Female entrepreneurship and work-life balance

2. Supporting female entrepreneurs: worldwide experience

3. Research on women's experiences in business in Russia

3.1 Methodology

3.2 Results

Conclusion and discussion

References

Applications

Introduction

According to the International Labor Organization, reducing the age gender gap in the workforce by 25% would bring US$ 5.8 trillion to the global economy and boost tax revenue. At the moment, around 50% of women work across the world. Now, according to RosTrud, around 77% of women able to work in Russia are employed, which makes our country outpace most countries of the world. The trend is more and more women are striving for careers. Unfortunately, the barriers keep women from achieving certain goals or reaching higher position, there is even a term for the phenomenon - `glass ceiling'. Let's look at some of the statistics in order to illustrate the relevance of my work. Of all the heads of federal subjects of Russia only three are women. Around 15% of State Duma are female. The percentage of women in boards of directors of Russian public companies is twice as less than in the world on the average- 5,7% - reports Deloitte.

Even in the traditionally `female' sector - non-profit organizations, where 75% of the workforce are women - only 18% of CEOs are female (US, 2015).

The goal of the work is to generalize and distinguish the main behavioral patterns of female leaders in Russia comparing those with other countries' experiences. I would also like to suggest the complex of measures that can be taken in our country in order to raise the percentage of women on the leading positions.

Within this broad purpose, the following objectives are expected to be fulfilled:

1. Generalize the most topical studies conducted in the field.

2. Find successful programs that had an impact on female entrepreneurship.

3. Analyze the main stereotypes and obstacles that women have to deal with.

4. Research the essential entrepreneurial qualities.

5. Descry the methods of dealing with discrimination and conflicts based on stereotypes.

The findings of this study will redound to the benefit of society as the workforce and the economy are the strongest when we embrace the diversity. In the situation of increasing interest of individuals towards entrepreneurships across various social layers, this study will be of current interest to hundreds of people. The study may be applicable for not just individual entrepreneurship, but also for managers who are interested in diversifying their companies. It will also uncover the current challenges of business for women as well as the methods of dealing with them. Additionally, I hope that the interest towards this topic will rise in Russia, as the currently existing studies are nor consistent nor global.

Delimitations of the study:

1. What are the challenges for female entrepreneurship across the world?

2. Which gender stereotypes are still strong in the workforce?

3. What are the advantages of diversifying the business management?

4. What are the essential qualities for a woman to succeed in entrepreneurship?

The first chapter will cover the main theories and previous research relevant to the topic. The second chapter reveals the practices of embracing female entrepreneurship across the world. The last chapter analyzes the interviews conducted within the study.

1. Theoretical foundations of female leadership and entrepreneurship

1.1 Key terms used in the research

There are a few points of interest that have to be addressed before discussing the topic and conducting a thorough analysis.

Entrepreneurship - the activity of setting up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. Low & MacMillan (1988) suggest that entrepreneurship should be defined as the `creation of new enterprise'. The purpose of entrepreneurship research should be to `explain and facilitate the role of new enterprise in furthering economic progress'. It is a relatively new topic for Russian theorists and have not yet been thoroughly studied. It is definitely a subject with huge potential for future development.

WLB - Work-Life Balance - an individual's ability to meet their work and family commitments, as well as other non-work responsibilities and activities (Delecta, 2011). Greenhaus (2002) defined work -life balance as satisfaction and good functioning at work and at home with a minimum of role conflict. This issue has been studied widely in works of various researchers and often addressed when talking about entrepreneurship or business. As for Russian theorists, most of the works concentrate specifically on work-life balance among women - for instance, Chernova, J. V. (2012). The balance of the family and work: the policies and individual strategies of mothers (Чернова, Ж. В. (2012). Баланс семьи и работы: политика и индивидуальные стратегии матерей. Журнал исследований социальной политики).

1.2 «Glass ceiling» and gender inequality

According to the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, the concept refers to "artificial barriers to the advancement of women and minorities." These barriers reflect "discrimination ... a deep line of demarcation between those who prosper and those left behind." The glass ceiling is the "unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements" (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission 1995b:4). The term was first introduced in the beginning of 1980 in the gender theory studies - however, later was extended to other social groups and minorities. female leadership women discrimination entrepreneur

The popular notion of glass ceiling effects implies that gender is stronger at the top of the hierarchy than at lower levels and that these disadvantages become worse later in a person's career (Cotter, David A., et al, 2001).The researchers provide several criterions of how this type of discrimination can be identified and measured. Firstly, glass ceilings are measured as the residual differences due to race or gender after controlling for education, experience, abilities, motivation, and other job-relevant characteristics. As for the glass ceiling hierarchy - the development of a woman's career is more complicated at higher levels. For instance, in an organization or industry that has a gendered glass ceiling, the percentage of female CEOs is lower than the percentage of female company officers, the share of female officers is lower than the share of female middle managers, etc. The researchers distinguish between inequality and glass ceiling - if women of nonmanagerial positions experience the same inequality degree as women of the elite levels, then it is not appropriate to name the situation a glass ceiling. Each level of organization's hierarchy is dependent on the other ones (Ferree, Purkayastha, 2000). The odds of being promoted are cumulative to the candidates - getting promotion to the next level is always dependent on first, making the cut at the previous level. Thus, in organizations on each level, the chances of being promoted get lower for a female candidate.

"Sticky floor" is another phenomenon connected to the "glass ceiling", which means that women, compared to men, stay longer at the initial positions in the organizational hierarchy. Men in the early stages of careers move faster to the next steps of the career ladder, while young women stay longer at the initial stages of the professional path. The faster career start for men subsequently provides them with the necessary professional and managerial experience, and thus allows them to overtake women in the employment of senior management positions, leading to a situation of "glass ceiling" (Roschin, Solnzev, 2006).

In addition to those concepts, there is a phenomenon of glass escalator - the effect of men having better payments, higher status positions, and faster career development in professional areas predominantly filled by women (Wingfield, 2009). The researchers studying the effect focused on men nurses, social workers, librarians and paralegals. Men employed for a female-dominated profession attract more attention being seen as rarity. As a consequence, their achievements and talent are recognized more often, which makes them more likely to be promoted. Researchers also mention that women of these spheres are expected to have career interruptions - such as taking care of infants, schoolchildren and aging parents. Meanwhile, the stereotypes that men are better leaders are so strong - that the management of female-dominated areas is also usually mostly male - and these people also choose the candidates for benefits and promotions (Williams, 1992). The same author publishes another article regarding the topic 19 years later. She ascribes the phenomenon of glass escalator to the fact that masculinity and qualities associated with it are usually more highly valued in the workplace. Williams' research in 2013 shows that the general patterns of inequality in the female-dominated professions stay the same - for instance, men are still paid more (Williams, 2013).

According to Berry and Franks (Berry, P., & Franks, 2010), there is a tendency to leave employment in favor of seeking entrepreneurial success among women, due to gender challenges in the world of business. Thus, more women than ever before are running their businesses worldwide.

1.3 Inequality in Russia

When it comes to the representation of women among entrepreneurs, which is 30%, the researcher notes that the share of women among entrepreneurs is less than among management. The largest share of female managers was noted at state-owned enterprises - 44%, while in Russia's non-state enterprises it is 32%, at foreign enterprises - 27%.

Roshin notes that one of the most interesting results is that the probability of having the leadership status for women is positively influenced by the status of the husband. For men there is no symmetrical influence. Thus, it can be concluded that the presence of the husband's managerial status creates additional opportunities for professional growth for women, contributing to the successful solution of the problem of the "glass ceiling" at the expense of the spouse's resources, helps overcome the resistance of professional and social networks, provides social and organizational capital, creating resources for growth.

The research also finds that for men, the presence of subordinates is positively associated with family status - married men are more likely to have subordinates. For women the factor has no influence on family status. In this case, the presence of children adversely affects the probability of having subordinates. Thus, the women's family load can have an impact on career advancement and on job duties.

According to the report "Gender Equality and expansion of women's rights and opportunities in Russian in the context of the millennium development goals" prepared by Roshin, gender economic inequality affects the problems of access to economic resources, manifested in unequal ownership of property. Women, losing at the start of economic reforms in the privatization of state enterprises, the main access to which, with the chosen mechanism, was granted to men, heads of enterprises and organizations, have less and less opportunities to enter the richest strata of the population.

Researcher assumes that this kind of inequality will have an increasingly negative impact on the equality of women's rights and opportunities, on the development of women's entrepreneurship. Since the lack of property leads to worse opportunities for obtaining loans, there are problems associated with the need to create and provide financial risk insurance mechanisms to support women's entrepreneurship. Gender inequality in property will also adversely affect the equality of political representation of men and women, since political structures primarily provide the interests of large economic owners.

Roshin believes that as the market economy develops in modern Russia, more and more financial barriers to open a business are accumulated. Having lost at the start, in the process of privatization and accumulation of initial capital, women can further fall behind in access to economic resources and property. The research claims that in this situation, protectionist measures are needed to promote the development of women's entrepreneurship and reduce entry barriers to business for them.

The report provides an insight on female professions - the expansion of the service sector in the last third of the 20th century stimulated the growth of women's employment, created jobs, demand for women's labor, but at the same time contributed to the segregation in the labor market. The report concludes that the main sphere of women's employment is the service sector. Its employees are 60% female, while the share men's employment is less than 30%. The analysis of the gender wage gap based on the statistics provided by the Russian Monitoring of the Economic Situation and Public Health (Higher School of Economics) shows that professional segregation contributes steadily to differences in earnings. At the same time, the analysis of segregation indexes shows that its level remains generally stable enough. Perhaps the increase in the gender wage gap was due to the increase in differences in the average wage levels in the "male" and "female" types of employment. That is, "male" types of occupation are becoming even more highly profitable, and "female" - low-income. Roshin mentions that it should be borne in mind that even in "female" professions, men tend to occupy higher positions - referring to the glass escalator phenomenon.

Roshin also touches upon discrimination claiming that in the Russian labor market, mainly hidden discrimination is practiced, appearing in the policy of hiring and promotion and reflects the gender preferences of employers in relation to certain jobs and activities. Such latent discrimination contributes to the formation of horizontal and vertical segregation in the labor market.

Speaking of discrimination in the labor market, Roshin distinguishes two groups of stereotypes that support gender inequality: stereotypes of the situation and stereotypes of behavior.

Stereotypes of the situation are the stereotypes of the employer. The employer perceives women as less useful labor force. He proceeds from the notion that woman needs to combine her work with family responsibilities, so from her, to a lesser extent, one should expect outstanding efforts, career orientations, etc. Such behavior of the employer is undoubtedly discriminatory.

Stereotypes of behavior are, on the contrary, the stereotypes of workers. Since women know that they are treated like less preferred workers, they proceed from the fact that they do not have the opportunity to compete with men and choose activities that require less labor.

For instance, according to the Russian Monitoring of the Economic Situation and Public Health, more than half of women believe that they have a deficiency of qualities that are valued in the current economic situation in Russia. As for men, their assessments were more optimistic. On average, compared to women, men who believed that they lacked valuable qualities, was 10% less. Thus, discrimination and the mechanism of women's self-selection, which do not allow them to occupy the same position with men, operate simultaneously in the labor market. The report concludes that extensive participation of women in Russian business did not eliminate the differences between men and women in employment - women continue to work in conditions of horizontal and vertical segregation in the labor market and typically receive a lower salary. Thus, to eliminate the economic basis of gender inequality, it is not enough to ensure the equal participation of men and women in labor activity. Roshin believes it is necessary to change the structure of demand in the labor market, the practice of hiring and promoting staff, increase the importance and prestige of women's positions.

According to the GEDI Institute, 75% of countries participating in their study (total of 30 countries) do not do not fulfill the basic requirements for the successful development of female business - one of them being Russia (GEDI Institute Report, 2014). The main problem, according to GEDI analysts, is the lack of access to external capital. In the whole world, it is more difficult for women entrepreneurs to get a loan than for men. For instance, in Turkey the problem is even more serious: 50% of women do not have the opportunity to get an account in a bank. The country shares the 18th place of the rating with Russia, where, in the opinion of 59% of Russian businesswomen surveyed, there have been no positive changes in the business climate in the last year. Experts also believe that the market is hindered by the traditional imbalance of personnel and gender inequality in access to education.

1.4 The image of an entrepreneur

Managing a business, leaders often have to work in unpredictable, complicated conditions, being under high pressures. Also, entrepreneurs often have strong commitment to their ventures, so they may experience influential emotions in connection with their performance. Factors like these sometimes create serious information overload, especially since entrepreneurs often have to work heuristics to manage their thinking and decision making, and show intensified perceptivity to various types of cognitive bias or error (Baron, 2000).

It is believed that there is a set of qualities that are beneficial for entrepreneurs' success and impact their motivation. For instance, Kuznetsov, A., McDonald, F., & Kuznetsova, O. (2000) believe that those are having ambition, drive, being innovative and answer quickly to new business opportunities. In this study, the specifics of a Russian entrepreneur are uncovered. For instance, entrepreneurs in Russia are should be able to mobilize the ability to create or join informal networks - Russian business landscape requires its participants to maintain personal relationships that help with various business-related issues. The researchers claim that networking abilities are far more important than institutional knowledge in economics. Moreover, Western researchers also often mention the importance of one's sociability. For instance, most businesses are founded not by single entrepreneurs but by two or more people. Undoubtedly, the ability to get on well with partners helps enhancing success in those situations. Moreover, business leaders have to communicate with many individuals outside their companies --bankers, potential customers, future employees. Effective interaction with such persons can increase the probability of gaining positive results (Baron, R. A., 2000).

This study also mentions the importance of physical attractiveness - the researchers conducted a study where they empirically discovered a positive correlation between female cosmetic business owners' attractiveness and their financial success. However, a study conducted by Labunskaya shows that women's physical attractiveness can be a barrier in terms of collaboration with both male and female entrepreneurs (Labunskaya, 2008). As for men, they see woman's physical appearance as a threat for his masculinity, his primacy in business. Female entrepreneurs interpret other female entrepreneur's attractiveness on the basis of evaluating her own appearance, from a position of rejection of accentuated masculinity and femininity which connects them with male entrepreneurs. Moreover, failures and frictions in terms of entrepreneurial interaction may be more pronounced in the process of female collaboration, rather than men and women collaborating. Thus, we can suggest that females' attractiveness would rather help in terms of communicating with customers or investors.

Brandstдtter summarized several studies in order to find the most typical entrepreneurial personal qualities. Firstly, entrepreneurs are more willing to take risks than managers of stable enterprises. Clearly, entrepreneurs deal with disorganized and unstable situations more often than manager - which are less problematic for risk prone people.

Innovativeness is also believed to have positive effects on new ventures' success. This trait is also characterized as `openness to experience' which has a favorable impact on business establishment and success. As Zhao and Seibert (2006) discovered in their study, entrepreneurs have substantially higher scores on openness than managers. When it comes to the determinants of innovativeness, it is believed that internal locus of control is the most substantial factor in entrepreneurial innovative behavior (Babaola, 2009). The study also highlights the viatal roles of possession of higher education and high self-efficacy among women entrepreneurs. Women with a strong internal locus of control tend to identify opportunities to develop their skills and have the determination to seek for new techniques and technologies.

Another one is conscientiousness which means socially imposed impulse management that eases task - and goal-oriented performance, such as thinking before taking action, suspending fulfillment, following patterns and rules, and planning, organizing, and prioritizing work - the trait that is also reported to be intrinsic to entrepreneurs, much more often than managers. There is a positive correlation between conscientiousness and the motive to become an entrepreneur as well as entrepreneurial performance.

Extraversion involves an energetic attitude to the social and physical world and combines qualities such as sociability, effort, resoluteness, and positive emotionality. This trait shows a positive correlation with entrepreneurial intentions and success of one's venture. Extraversion, in particular activity, is also believed to be connected with proactive personality - which involves taking opportunities, framing the environment in accordance with one's objectives and preservice in pursuing goals. Other studies suggest that extraversion would be a significant personal trait for a successful entrepreneur as extraverted people are more likely the necessary social skills, and are good at persuading others--an important skill for entrepreneurs when convincing numerous stakeholders such as venture capitalists, bankers, and customers (Zhang, Z., Zyphur, M. J., Narayanan, J., Arvey, R. D., Chaturvedi, S., Avolio, B. J., ... & Larsson, G., 2009)

Agreeableness contains a people-oriented and communal attitude toward others and includes qualities such as selflessness, kindness, trust, and propriety - this is the trait that is actually found to be as less intrinsic for entrepreneurs than managers. This can be interpreted by the necessity for autonomy among new ventures - in fact, researchers provide the evidence for a strong negative interrelation between need for autonomy (i.e., acting separately from others and social norms and expectations) and agreeableness. Thus, we can say that entrepreneurs have to be able to stand out and stand for their beliefs rather than agree with others and conventional opinions.

Stress-management and stability - entrepreneurs show lower scores on neuroticism which indicates that they are less likely to anxious, nervous, sad, and tense. Thus, entrepreneurs usually tolerate stress better, as well as having stronger locus of control (meaning individuals believe they have control over the events of their lives). Some studies claim that entrepreneurs actually tend to have lower stress levels, compared to mangers. For instance, for female entrepreneurs career orientation toward mastering management negatively correlates with the level of emotional exhaustion, which may be due to the satisfaction of the desire for excellence described, through managerial activities. If a person manages others, it means, in his subjective assessment, he exceeds them in something (Vodopyanova, 2007).

A study conducted among Russian entrepreneurs reveals that comparing the qualities that contribute to the success of women in business, with the same set of men, it is clear that they coincide in 20-25% of cases (Babaeva, Chirikova, 1996). For example, while men rate "the ability to make non-trivial decisions" the highest, women consider the ability to communicate the most vital one. Men distinguish qualities that depend on their efforts, for women the preeminent qualities are determined by the situation. Men emphasize their abilities and actions, in accordance with them - a very paradoxical result: only 20% of surveyed women managers refer themselves to people of a rational type. The rest insist on a large share of irrational or intuitive strategies. Even among 20% ??of women managers who insist on their rationality and clarity, a point of view has been formed, according to which rationality helps in the implementation of business tasks, but the selection of people is carried out intuitively.

Experience also seems to be a key factor for success - only about 4% of women before joining the business were clerical workers or ordinary employees. This suggests that the experience in managerial work contributed to the successful occupation in entrepreneurship.

Observing female entrepreneurs during interviews convinced the researchers about "hyperthymic" nature of respondents, which generates such a `venturous' approach to business, and leadership qualities make "psychological nature" work for the prosperity of the business (Chirikova, 1998) Therefore, if such women change the sphere of activity, in any case they will behave in a similar way. While hypertension is not a necessary personality trait for female entrepreneurs, but it largely determines the entrepreneur's psychological profile.

In general, women mention the following features that contribute to business success: the ability to establish contacts with people, love for people, conscientiousness and responsibility, the ability to carry through to the end, the desire to understand everything and learn, intuition, luck, and cunning.

The researchers emphasize that woman achieves success in business not at the expense of imitating the male style of management, but through the creative use of her character and stereotypes of behavior inherent in women and which were recently considered unacceptable for a manager. Today, the unconventional management style, humane management, is more in line with the changing conditions of firms' activities and facilitates the transition to a new management paradigm. Its essence is a departure from managerial rationalism towards greater openness and flexibility in relation to constantly changing requirements of the external environment.

1.5 What brings women to managing their own business?

1) Young Women - this group defines females who decided to take the entrepreneurial path in the first stage of their life cycle, when they had no children, may or may not have a husband or a partner and had little work experience. Entrepreneurship for these women may come out as a result of a natural option (such as unconstrained family continuity or entrepreneurial enthusiasm) or due to the absence of other job options.

2) Growing Women - this phase is characterized by the presence of dependents and intermediate work experience. This group considered females who selected entrepreneurship as a career in the middle phase of their life cycle: they typically have dependent small children, though they may not have them; some had husbands or life partners, others were separated; or may had or not a partner and they had regular work experience. These women chose entrepreneurship after abandoning their dependent jobs or other autonomous activities.

3) Consolidated Women - women of this stage have advanced work experience (over 20 years), with or without dependents. In this case, they entrepreneurship serves as the goal of their work development or the consistent furtherance of their professional career. These women chose entrepreneurship reacting to the lack of job opportunities, or because they were eager to develop their own independent enterprise; in any case, they had gained good work experiences as dependent employees and then left their jobs to start a company as the goal of their professional development.

According to Neider (1987) and Hisrich and Brush (1986), female and male entrepreneurs are unlike in their motivations to start a business: men are driven by the desire to have charge of their destinies, while women are motivated by the need of freedom and accomplishment.

Generally, it is acknowledged that women often, but not always, have contrasting to men's aspirations, and may start enterprises with non-pecuniary motives in mind (M Minniti, W Naudй, 2010). Also, it is more typical for women than for men to start a new firm seeking for greater flexibility in balancing work and family responsibilities - this, partially explains the reason behind women entrepreneurs earning less than their male counterparts.

Orhan and Scott define several groups of motives:

· Dynastic compliance - the term refers to the case of the study where the wife had to take over the family business that had a long family history after husband's death; eventually the children were supposed to manage it. Dynastic compliance involves compelled inheritance and continuation of business after a family member abandons it for any reason.

· No other choice - this category includes women who were disappointed by the salaries offered in their professional field; women who had time off for their children and family or moved to a different location and could not find a comparable position. In such situations, women turn to entrepreneurship as a better alternative to unemployment or low-level positions

· Entrepreneur by chance - this refers to women who eventually were employees in corporations, typically well-educated and satisfied in their work; however, were forced into a CEO position after certain circumstances.

· Natural Succession - this group introduces women who have `grown into' managing a business after gaining the necessary experience or felt like it was natural to help their husbands with entrepreneurship, eventually occupying a leading position.

· Forced entrepreneur - those are women who were not satisfied by the evolution of their career, or the position they were put in - for instance, some experienced lack of perspective being employed for other companies.

· Informed entrepreneur - describes women who were influenced by their family and friends - successful entrepreneurs and role models.

· Pure entrepreneur - for these females, entrepreneurship seemed as another step in their careers. They gained enough experience and also had new ideas in order to innovate their field.

This classification provides us with a whole diverse system of reasons and factors that influence a woman's decision to become an entrepreneur.

Now, according to the study of Russian female entrepreneurs, in 80% of cases (Babeva, Chirikova, 1997), the choice of business and the occupation of the leading position were determined not by the respondents themselves, but by the introduced circumstances. The respondents themselves were inclined to denote this in one case as destiny, in the other as the choice of the staff. That is, the factors of entering the business were determined either by the current situation (the way out of it is to take responsibility for oneself), or by the desire of the nearest entourage, whose trust cannot be deceived.

The model of the formation of women's business is distinguished by a certain amount of compulsion, the inability to exist in their profession in a different way than taking responsibility for themselves. In fact, the new economic policy has placed women managers in front of the need to develop new areas of responsibility. Business as a goal, as a desire to actively change their lives, was typical to only 20% of respondents interviewed in the study and 35% of interviews received by other researchers.

Comparing the structure of the motivation of male and female entrepreneurship reveals a distinct difference between the two: business leaded by women is focused on the state of related people, or those for whom the woman manager is responsible. Internal sensitivity generates a special sensitivity to the state of other people, which largely regulates the motivational potential of the woman manager.

Long-term observation of women who took the leading position in business (for 2-3 years) suggests that their motivation is more mobile than that of men and restructured under the influence of certain factors: the state of the firm, the composition of the team, financial pressure, self-esteem, an idea of the degree of realization of the goals. However, money, interest and self-realization are repetitive choices that make complex movements within a closed triangle.

Women-managers who are engaged in business for 4-5 years, especially in the age of 32-45, are interested in professional growth, acting independently within their high professional standards. If, at the beginning of the journey, they were those who performed "any kind of work in their firm, if only the business was moving," now the situation is changing in the direction of rethinking their professional capabilities and their further growth and modernization. This phenomenon is similar to the growth of professional orientations in the structure of motives among business men (for women, it is less pronounced).

A very modest position in the motivational system of female entrepreneurs is occupied by self-assertion. Its low rating, as a regulator of activity and career aspirations, testifies to the unique structure of the motives of female entrepreneurship in Russia (compared to data obtained in international studies). Researchers conclude that Russian female management will have its own development path, different from well-known European or American models.

1.6 Female leadership style

· “People Development” - putting effort and time into teaching, coaching and listening to colleagues' apprehensions and needs;

· “Expectation and rewards” - setting expectations and apparent goals, and rewarding accomplishment of goals;

· “Role model” - being a role model, building recognition and acknowledging the ethics of decisions;

· “Inspiration” - introducing a fascinating view of the future and sharing optimism;

· “Participative decision making” - creating a welcoming atmosphere where individuals are encouraged to speak up and share their opinions.

As a result, corporations with a higher proportions of women in top management show higher performance on the organizational level, as opposed to companies that have no female leaders occupying senior positions.

In Russia, female managers tend to stand by the participative managerial style (more often than men), which of course has its advantages - for instance, staff will more readily accept changes of policies, which will speed up the process of introducing new ideas. Moreover, staff will feel personal responsibility for company's success; they will take part in improving the atmosphere at work more often. Sharing opinions will lead to more creative processes, improving company's performance and innovativeness. However, women also show the ability to adjust, if the method of sharing opinions does not work and do not hesitate to make the decisions by themselves.

Perhaps, higher attention to team's needs and opinions for women result in a personal attachment to the subordinates - University of Texas study concludes that women who have the authority to fire, raise salaries and hire people, are more likely to have signs of depression than men with similar powers - 1,300 men and 1,500 women occupying the same positions at work were surveyed (Pudrovska & Karraker, 2014). It is interesting that in a situation where there are no administrative powers at all for an employee, women are less prone to discouragement. Men, in contrast, without authority suffer emotionally. At the same time, women with administrative resources have higher wealth, better education, prestigious work and career growth - all these indicators should contribute to positive mental health. However, their less educated colleagues are much more stable emotionally. The author of the study, believes that women's leadership is difficult to accept by society, so the woman-leader has to deal with external stresses.

Women, unlike men, are more likely to give up privileges given by official position (Chirikova, 1998). They often emphasize the leading role of the contribution of their subordinates, often underestimating their role. Moral support of subordinates and their encouragement are the main characteristics of women's management, which help to achieve goals in their own business.

Russian women often admit that diligence and the ability to do painstaking, demanding for extra attention work are the qualities that helped them in business. They find that seeing into details helps them perform excellently, exercising their thinking and analytical abilities. However, some women believe that this quality can harm strategic thinking and slow down the decisional process. Paying attention to details may also result in fear of mistakes, which impacts the processes - report some respondents. However, an American study shows that businesswomen recognize their managerial advantage in a completely contradicting manner quite simply - "Women are brave ..." - a respondent claims. This is explained unexpectedly: "At home, women have all the power and they are coping with it ...".

Meanwhile, men view their working as a series of transactions with subordinates: issuing remuneration for successfully executed work or applying punishment for inadequate execution of the assignment (Chirikova, 1998). Men more often than women use the power that their position or formal authority gives them. Female leaders believe that the basis of their leadership style is the transformation of the interests of employees into the general goals of the working collective. They attribute their power to more personal characteristics such as well-developed intuition, the ability to establish personal contacts, work capacity, rather than their official position. Psychologically, a woman tends to engage in daily proof of her "right to leadership" compared to a man. Perhaps that's why women more than male managers encourage the participation of employees in the common cause, they share information and power more willingly, encourage self-assertion of employees.

However, it is interesting to note that researchers are retreating from the traditional notion of ??the masculine and feminine traits and their influence on the models of leadership behavior widely accepting the new system model of gender behavior, which was called the androgynous theory. Androgynous theory acknowledges masculinity and femininity not as alternatives, poles of the same continuum, but as independent measurements. Comparison of the indices of the same individual on the scales `masculinity' and `femininity' allowed to calculate the degree of one's psychological androgyny. Androgynous, according to this theory, are individuals who have high rates for both femininity and masculinity, which allows them to adhere less strictly to gender role norms, easily switching from traditionally female occupations to masculine, etc.

Individuals relatively free from the fixed gender typification have richer behavioral repertoire and are psychologically more prosperous. Consequently, the existence of women with leadership qualities of men and the psychological advantages of women fits perfectly into the androgynous theory.

Female businesswomen tend to pay special attention to preserving their `femininity' - studies conclude that in order to achieve success in business, a woman must remain a woman, but not just a woman, but a "self-actualizing person," capable of constantly expanding her opportunities and retaining her femininity "no matter what."

1.7 Female entrepreneurship and work-life balance

For now, women are still expected to do most of the housework, even when earning more than the partner. A recent study by Natasha Quadlin and co-author Long Doan goes through the answers of 1,000 respondents in US and finds that approximately three quarters of them believed that the female partners in heterosexual couples should do the cooking, laundry, clean the house, and buy groceries - preliminary results presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA). Additionally, nearly 90 percent of the respondents thought that heterosexual men should do automobile maintenance and outdoor chores. Regardless of the partners' income or gendered hobbies and interests, the respondents gravitated toward the person's sex instead when assigning the chores they should be responsible for.

Research conducted among US households concludes that household labor is steadily divided along traditionally gendered lines. Women continue to acquire the majority of household chores. Although changes toward more gender equality have been observed across cohorts, not many researchers maintain an optimistic vision and believe that changes in men's contribution to household work occur at a slow pace (Lachance-Grzela & Bouchard, 2010).

Russian researches who study the topic, often refer to the term of gender contracts. Gender contract is contextually conditioned, hierarchically structured patterns of gender interaction. The gender order is a set of gender contracts prescribing different gender roles and statuses to different spheres of public life in the Soviet era and to different social strata in the post-Soviet period (Temkina, 2002).

In order to understand the mentality that Russian female entrepreneurs have to work within, we need to see what people were taught growing up - a few decades ago. For instance, within the framework of the Soviet gender order, on the one hand, equality was declared, under which every person, regardless of gender, becomes a citizen. On the other hand, gender ideology reproduced biological determinism, which gave femininity "specific" natural, physical and psychological properties, and women - the status of special citizens. The gender order of this type is called conventional taking into account the fact that the preservation of certain traditions (the value of motherhood, the division of responsibilities within the family) and the destruction of others (the economic dependence of a woman on her husband).

However, modern changes in gender relations are not the result of a purposeful gender policy of the state and political debate, on the contrary, they are the result of spontaneous adaptation to changing economic conditions and development of strategies by different groups. In the dominant contract, the main gender roles remain, but their ratio is changing towards a working mother. The competition of the old and the new gender order creates a situation of uncertainty and multivariance.

It is worth noting that researchers suppose - women who are in the same economic and social conditions - combining work and family life, sometimes perceive the burden on their shoulders differently (Aleshina & Labutinskaya, 1989) - they note the following reasons for the appearance of a feeling of inadequacy in the performance of the roles of the wife and mother: 1) objective difficulties in the successful implementation of family and professional roles (for example, inability to complete housework, small earnings); 2) lack of character, personal characteristics; 3) poor health; 4) bad relationship with her husband and children; 5) lack of time. Another reason, often underlying the negative experiences of working women, is the so-called guilt feeling. It is completely subjective and is expressed in various kinds of self-incriminations (for example, that children are not looked after well, the husband is deprived of the attention of the wife, etc.) because the work takes too much time and energy from the respondent. At the same time, an objective picture of the life situation can be in many ways different or even opposite. So, sometimes the husband and children do not even experience any lack of attention and warmth from the working woman.

The level of development of services and the features of Russian mentality make it difficult for women to combine business activities and family functions in Russia in a strong degree, compared to developed countries (Chirikova, 1998). In families where the wife is an entrepreneur, the role of the husband in making individual decisions is significantly reduced, and the redistribution of power is not in favor of the wife, but in the direction of greater collegiality. The traditional responsibility for assigning chores in the family is partly abandoned by female entrepreneurs, and they also shift to the collective opinion of family members. Participation in housework of female entrepreneurs is also naturally reduced, but not so much as for male entrepreneurs. Still, in half of families observed, businesswomen continue to carry the whole burden of the housework.