Husband’s Supports Behind Successful Malay Women Entrepreneurs in Kelantan

Women have always been praised for standing behind the successes of their men, but not the other way around. Due to various factors, including equal access to education, more and more women have an important and dominant role in socioeconomic activities and are more successful than their husbands. As a wife, a caring husband is essential to advancing a competitive woman, yet so little is being researched about his role. Against this background, this work investigates how husbands render the support and how do successful women entrepreneurs perceive the support as enhancing their success in their business. Altogether, five women entrepreneurs in Kelantan were selected for the study. The findings show that women entrepreneurs’ support from their husbands helped sustain the wives’ business aspirations. Data collected revealed that not much instrumental support was rendered other than occasionally helping to look after the shops. Emotional support was the main support provided by the husbands, and it came in the form of giving suggestions and options and sharing ideas about business. Egalitarianism, tradition, and culture of Kelantan influenced how the husbands rendered their support and how the wives perceived the support they received. Women entrepreneurs were grateful that their husbands allowed them to manage their businesses as they thought fit. In other words, their husbands’ noninterference in their daily business operations is a blessing.