2.3 Women
entrepreneurship
2.3.1 Women entrepreneurship in
the global economy
"Entrepreneurship offers tremendous opportunities for women
across the world by opening doors to greater self-sufficiency, self-esteem,
education, and growth - not only for the women themselves, but also for their
families and their employees. And women are changing the face of business
ownership internationally; between one-quarter and one-third of the world's
businesses are owned by women. As their numbers grow and as their businesses
prosper, they will change the way the world does business."(Julie R. Weeks
2001).
Worldwide, many women are entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship
emerges from an individual's creative spirit into long-term business ownership,
job creation, and economic security. Women bring commitment and integrity
because they care about economic empowerment, entrepreneurial development and
innovation. Female entrepreneurs seek the professional and personal support
that is found in business associations. Economic globalization has encouraged
the expansion of female business ownership. «.. . The growing economic
power and influence of women-owned businesses are changing the shape of the
global economy,» Susanne E, (Jalbert 2000).
A study (Cooper, as quoted in Das, 2000) of women
entrepreneurs in the western world «proposed that three factors influence
entrepreneurship - antecedent influences (i.e., background factors such as
family influences and genetic factors that affect motivation, skills and
knowledge), the «incubator organization» (i.e., the nature of the
organization where the entrepreneur was employed just prior to starting a
business; the skills learned there) and environmental factors (e.g., economic
conditions, access to venture capital and support services, role models) and
the study indicates the challenges faced by women entrepreneurship such as
access to finance, Access to markets, Access to training, Access to networks,
Access to policy markers, Statistical invisibility».
Female entrepreneurs have demonstrated the ability to build
and maintain long-term relationships and networks, to communicate effectively,
to organize efficiently, to be fiscally conservative, to be aware of the needs
of their environment, and to promote sensitivity to cultural differences. The
global impact of women entrepreneurs is just beginning to gain intensity.
Worldwide, the number of female business owners continues to increase steadily,
women in advanced market economies own more than 25% of all businesses1 and
women-owned businesses in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America are
growing rapidly (OECD 1998).
2.3.2 Women entrepreneurship in
Africa
The inability of African's economy to turn the tide of
underdevelopment -low food production levels, balance of payment difficulties,
inflation, rapid population growth, low or negative GDP growth rates, high cost
of borrowing declines in social services and standards, etc, have brought to
the fore discussions on the role of women entrepreneurs and the development of
the informal productive sector in Africa (LUCIA Quachey 2005).
Lately, attention has begun to fall on the use and benefits of
alternative approaches' to development. It is this new policy setting that
brings about the need to explore the potential contribution of women
entrepreneurs in the informal and small scale industrial sector to Africa's
economic recovery and development.
Entrepreneurship in all its diversity in Africa provides a
dynamic and potentially efficient means of meeting many of the emerging
challenges of the development and debt crisis in Africa.
However Entrepreneurship in the African context remains
concerned with the graduation of informal sector ventures with a realistic
business prospectus to better established and endowed enterprise, as well as
promotion of economic diversification, export to niche market, future growth
and higher living standards .
The World Bank Enterprise surveys (2002-2006) confirm that
women entrepreneurs are a minority compared with their male counterparts.
However, there is large variation across countries. Including only
manufacturing enterprises with at least 10 employees, women own fewer than 10
percent of firms in Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania, but up to
40 percent or more in Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, and Mozambique.
Increasing entrepreneurship among women and providing needed
capital to women entrepreneurs is decisive components in Africa's long-term
struggle for prosperity. Pro-active measures to build the assets of women and
to connect women to markets are essential if Africa is to succeed in meeting
the challenges of shared growth. A distinguishing characteristic of African
economies is that gender differences lead to men and women playing
substantially different economic roles (African Development Bank 1994-2000).
Although the research on African women entrepreneurs is
limited, anecdotal evidence supports the belief that the creation of SMEs and
the income generated by business operations and wages paid to employees help to
alleviate poverty and empower women. Despite the growing recognition of the
importance of African women's contributions to economic growth and their
dominance of certain sectors, particularly agriculture and textiles, women
generally remain marginalized, shut out of the formal economy, or constrained
due to lack of access to capital (Africa Development Bank1994-2000).
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