Nurfika Osman – While some would argue that Indonesia is still a male-dominated society, recent economic data suggest that women are playing a larger and increasingly more important role in Indonesia.

Recent data from the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) concluded that there were 46 million to 49 million women running some form of small or medium enterprise (SMEs) here, roughly equal to 70 percent of the women in the country. That number includes everything from women going door to door selling homemade cakes to women who own bakeries.

It is estimated that these businesses contribute up to 55.6 percent of the country's gross domestic product, which in 2009 stood at roughly Rp 4,700 trillion ($540 billion), according to World Bank data.

Based on a MasterCard study released in October, titled "Women-Owned SMEs in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa: An Assessment of Business Environment," Indonesia saw an 8.1 percent jump in women engaging in SMEs.

"The research shows that women are quiet powerful economic players in this country," said Petty S. Fatimah, editor in chief of Femina magazine, one of Indonesia's leading women's magazines.

One woman who exemplifies the rising prominence of female business owners is Martha Tilaar, the well-known owner of a chain of beauty salons bearing her name, as well as cosmetic brands such as Sariayu, Biokos and Belia.

"When I started my business 40 years ago, people called me crazy when I went from one village to another examining the health benefits of Indonesian traditional herbs," Martha said.

The intrepid entrepreneur turned what began as a small salon in her garage into a highly successful company. Her beauty centers, which specialize in traditional Indonesian treatments, can be found all across the country.

"It didn't matter what negative things people said to me. I stayed focused, kept working on building up my business and suddenly, one day, I realized that I had become wealthy," she said.

Martha said it was a struggle to get where she is today, a struggle made greater by a male-oriented society that isn't always ready to support female business owners.

"There are many women in Indonesia who have extraordinary business skills. Unfortunately, since the system of patriarchy is still very strong in Indonesia, businesswomen still do not got enough support from their families," she said.

Santi Mia Sipan said it was her family situation that drove her to start her own company, sustainable teak producer Jaty Arthamas Soegih.

She had just quit a secretarial job that she had held for about 12 years, was recently divorced and was raising two children, including an autistic daughter, when she struck out on her own.

"It was hard, but I was passionate about giving my family a better life, so I never gave up," Santi said. "My daughter has been my greatest best teacher. I've become like this because of her."

Santi said one of the things that helped her was working in similar companies before, which gave her a network and taught her the realities of the business.

"I used to work as a secretary at companies run by the likes of Bob Hasan [former minister of trade and industry] and Abdul Latief [former labor minister]," she said. "Working with them meant I could not say 'I can't' or 'I don't know.' It taught me a lot about the determination it takes to run a business."

Santi added that, as a woman, a lot of running a business was simply having the willpower to keep going. "You have to awaken the giant within, that is what I keep telling myself. Do not deny your power," she said.

Things are becoming easier for female business owners in some ways. For one, banks are now much more willing to give them loans.

Sari Wulandari, head of the small-business division at Bank Negara Indonesia, said the number of female entrepreneurs who took out loans from the bank had risen by 40 percent in the past four years.

"Women are better for us than men because their non-performing loan rate is lower than with men. Sometimes it can even be zero," Sari said. "Women, in general, are smarter about taking out loans because they will only do it when their business is already quite stable. That is why we are happy to work with them."

Despite all of their great strides, women still face a number of hurdles to starting their own businesses.

Petty, from Femina magazine, said key obstacles for female business owners were a lack of entrepreneurial knowledge, business contacts, support from family and a shortage of funds.

To help alleviate these problems, Femina and BNI have been running the Wanita Wirausaha Program [Women Entrepreneurs Program] since 2008.

"We have workshops, seminars and a national competition in the middle of the year that has helped 8,000 women network in 12 cities in Indonesia," Petty said.

"Networking is very important in setting up a business. Oftentimes, businesswomen who live in the same city meet for the very first time in our seminars or workshops," she said.

Based on research conducted by Femina in 12 cities last year, including Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Pekanbaru, Palembang, Manado and Banjarmasin, more and more women are pursuing higher education to improve their business skills.

"Many of them are now university graduates or hold master's, so they are better educated and we hope that they can run their business better too," she said.

Hermawan Kartajaya, an expert in management and marketing from MarkPlus consulting firm, said that women were inherently better at certain aspects of running a business.

"Women are by nature multitaskers. They are better at using both logic and intuition in running their business," he said. "Plus, they are better at balancing family life and business. Women never forget their families."