Factors influencing women to adopt and sustain entrepreneurship in South Africa

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the factors influencing women to adopt and sustain entrepreneurship in South Africa. The current gender salary disparity, high female unemployment rate, and improving yet high female entrepreneurial inactivity ratio and failure rate compared to male counterparts in South Africa are perplexing.

Compared to men, women are more likely to experience extended periods of unemployment, reducing their odds of finding employment. In this regard, 80,6% of women experienced long- term unemployment in Q4:2022, compared to 76,1% of males (StatsSA, 2023). Women have generally had a higher long-term unemployment rate than the general population. Given women’s maternal instincts, one would assume that women's active involvement in entrepreneurial endeavours would circumvent the high unemployment rate. However, women's entrepreneurial activity ratio has been seen to be below that of men, despite the efforts by the government to bridge the gap between the two genders. Women face a double-edged sword: high unemployment and low entrepreneurial activity ratios.

This study focused on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across various industries in South Africa. To validate the overarching objective of this study, “Factors which influence women to adopt and sustain entrepreneurship”, the study also looked at the factors influencing a small sample of men to adopt and sustain entrepreneurship in South Africa to understand if the factors are at all different. Both male and female business owner perceptions of factors influencing women to start and maintain businesses were also explored