Cambodian women are on unequal footing with men, and the government needs to do more to support their efforts to rise above poverty, officials at the country’s first inter-ministerial workshop on female business enterprise said Tuesday.
The three-day workshop, hosted by the Ministry of Women’s and Veterans’ Affairs, focused on overcoming problems for women who want to start small businesses, but who face weak infrastructure, high interest rates for loans and a traditional cultural that binds them to family and child-rearing responsibilities.
Women comprise more than half the country’s work force, but much of that labor goes unpaid or unaccredited. The workshop examined ways to both empower and enrich them.
“In Cambodia, it’s a pain to be born as a woman,” Minister of Women’s Affairs Mu Sochua said. “The starting lines for men and women are not the same.”
To encourage small business development—meaning businesses with fewer than 50 people—the government must first lower interest rates issued by the state-run Rural Development Bank, which loans money to “micro-financing” institutions, said Khek Ravy, secretary of state for the Ministry of Commerce.
Another priority for the Ministry of Commerce is to develop an “organizational structure” for national commerce, including better management of markets and wholesalers, which would improve the livelihoods of small business owners and farmers, Khek Ravy said.
Female entrepreneurs also face myriad daily problems, including harassment from police and extortion from market owners. “There is no justice. They ask for tax; they ask for money,” Mu Sochua said. “Injustice is a daily disease for poor people.”
Culture, too, can prevent women from becoming business owners, though many women find time to run businesses, manage the household and take care of the children, Mu Sochua said.
“I think the roles of women in society have changed,” she said. “Women have to leave the house to earn a living. This tradition cannot stop women.”
