Historically, the world of business has been a fairly hostile one to women. Katharine Graham, the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, wasn’t appointed to the position until 1972, and before that female entrepreneurs and business leaders were very thin on the ground indeed. Today, things are a tiny bit more amenable, with 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs being women. That low number suggests that there’s still a lot of work to be done in this area, though.
That being the case, there are still plenty of areas in which it’s possible for women to excel as entrepreneurs and high-level executives. For the most part, there are no industries in which men can excel where women won’t do just as well, but there are areas which have historically been kinder to the idea of female entrepreneurs. Here are 10 areas women can excel as entrepreneurs.
- Trading
If you’re a woman and you have a strong head for mathematics, then you’re a sure fit for the trading lifestyle. Numbers dominate this high-speed, high-intensity industry; traders must keep track of charts, fluctuating figures and the relationships between currencies and stocks in real time. Foreign exchange trading has really taken off in recent years around the world; American and British Forex companies are doing roaring business, while many of the top Aussie Forex firms keep growing at an astonishing rate. This is the perfect area for a woman with a serious business plan to make her mark.
- Technology
Traditionally held as the domain of men, the technology sphere is (slowly) opening up to women, with more powerful female figures taking the space they deserve as dominant figures within tech. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, has a net worth of over $1.5 billion, and was the first woman to serve on Facebook’s board of directors back in 2012. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki overcame sexism and a demanding family life to handle some of Google’s most prominent and costly acquisitions. Tech is a strong industry for women right now, but its potential is enormous.
- Fashion
Fashion is perhaps a more conventional province for women to become entrepreneurs, but that doesn’t make it any less valid (or its position within the wider world any less powerful). Women account for around 66% of the world’s clothing industry, so the fashion world is crying out for CEOs and entrepreneurs who understand the core demographic. Notable female figures within fashion include Chanel global CEO Maureen Chiquet, Vera Wang, and Balenciaga CEO Isabel Guichot.
- Journalism
In the modern age, there are few forces more powerful than journalism. Many feared that the Internet would put paid to traditional journalism, but websites like the Huffington Post and online presences for newspapers like the UK’s Telegraph and the US’s New York Times show that the appetite for news and opinion is still alive and well. Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post is a strong example of a female journalism entrepreneur whose business is going from strength to strength; in 2013, international editions of the site came into existence, with Huffington Post Japan marking the first Asian outlet for the site.
- Skincare and makeup
Again, there might be some of you who associate this industry with women, but you’d be surprised how male-dominated the space of skincare and makeup in business can be. Nevertheless, it’s a great place for women to set up shop thanks to a more realistic understanding of what’s required by the core demographic. That’s not to say men don’t want to take advantage of good skincare and makeup products; the male makeup industry is expanding, best setting powder for dry skin making this the perfect time to seize the day where skincare entrepreneurial ventures are concerned.
- Media
By media, we mean things like TV, radio and other consumer media rather than journalism, although journalism can certainly be one of the pillars of a channel’s remit. Notable figures in this area include presenter-come-business magnate Oprah Winfrey, as well as Yang Lan, the cofounder of China’s massive media conglomerate Sun Media. They’ve interviewed seminal figures like Bill Clinton, their reach spans the entirety of China (a massive market in itself), and their success and presence has earned Yang Lan the nickname of “the Chinese Oprah”.
- Healthcare and medicine
There are few areas more important to humanity as a whole than healthcare. We all need to look after ourselves and understand our bodies better, so this is an area ripe for women to claim. There are already a number of notable women within the healthcare industry; Nancy Howell Agee served as the COO of Canadian medical clinic Carilion between 2001 and 2011, while Henry Ford Health System in the US has a female CEO in Nancy Schlichting, who has worked hard to enhance her country’s healthcare system.
- Retail
With all this behind-the-scenes work, it can be hard to keep the customer in mind, but that’s exactly what the retail industry is for. In the end, all products and services have an end user, and that’s exemplified perfectly in retail. Clothing company Under Armour have a female Senior Vice President of Global Brand Marketing in Adrienne Lofton, as well as a Senior Vice President in Global Retail in Susie McCabe. Female retail CEOs include Chico’s President and CEO Shelley Broader, as well as Mariah Chase, the CEO of Eloquii. Chase cites the most enjoyable factor of retail as “the merchandise and the connection to the customer”, so if these are things you desire, look no further than retail.
- Literature
Before Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling was a single mother suffering from serious depression and struggling with her finances. Thanks to a single idea which blossomed into an entire fictional universe, she’s now a seriously powerful woman with a net worth of around £700 million. If you’ve got an idea for the next big thing buzzing around your head, don’t wait; write it down now and it could be a huge bestseller. History is absolutely replete with successful, well-loved female writers, including (arguably) the writer of the first true science-fiction novel.
- Real estate
Zhang Xin is the Chinese co-founder of SOHO China, a huge real estate company based within Beijing. She co-founded the company with her husband, and the two of them are now worth around $3.6 billion between them. That’s how much women can excel in the real estate industry. You’ll need a strong head for sales, a deep understanding of land and property development, and a kinship with your business’s clients, but once you’re there, the sky is the limit where female entrepreneurs in real estate are concerned.
