Insights to understanding women’s entrepreneurship Saskia Vossenberg Academic Expert Gender and Entrepreneurship Center for Frugal Innovations in Africa – Institute of Social Studies / Erasmus University Gender Resource Facility – the Netherlands

Women’s entrepreneurship Some of your questions may be answered from existing data and research and may be adapted to Uganda context. Benefit from alternative approaches - Institutional theory, multi level gender aware frameworks, feminist economics Recent theoretical insights and approaches that may be of use: -There is a strong link between overal levels of gender equality in society and the status of women’s entrepreneurship -In addition to understanding individual barriers experienced by women, we need to focus and unravel how systems of inequality produce and orgnize environments that shape and define women’s business practices and decisions -More is known about how to address constraints in regulatory systems or access to human and social capital; Less is known about the overcome gender inequalities in normative belief systems, gender stereotypes that poduce and organize constraints -Specifically in family and household context, the role of husband practical and emotional support, gendered work divisions.

Contextualized approach Women’s entrepreneuring Women’s role in unpaid care work Female entrepreneurs are not an identifiable group that share the same business aspirations, motivations or experience constraints: who are we serving? Gender inequality reproduced and organized in rule systems that are powerladen Patriarichal norms, regulations and culture that shape social and economic life and define available modes of action Identifying constraints women experience when constructing the life and business they want is an issue of uncovering gender inequalities  What or who is seen to hold the problem?

The gender aware framework: 5 Ms - Brush, C. G., De Bruin, A., & Welter, F. (2009). A gender-aware framework for women's entrepreneurship. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 1(1), Building a viable business requires: – Money – Markets – Management Inclusion of – “Motherhood” : care responsibilities and family context – “Macro-meso” : Institutional environment Meso – the normative context: expectations of society and cultural norms, media representation of women Macro – national policy frameworks and development strategies, private sector development programmes

Embeddedness

Commonly identified constraints o Access to markets o Access to information & knowledge o Access to credit & investors o Lack of entrepreneurial capacity & skills o Lack of opportunity recognition and fear of failure  From a gender perspective? It is not only about ACCESS but also about CONTROL

Constraints in daily practice…  Husband, family and community respect and support  Combining business and family: time  Mobility: local and international travel?  Gender-based violence and safety at the marketplace  Powerless business networks  Gender bias in rules and regulations  Technology and innovation  Social-economic postion: education and expertise

Rule systems that reproduce and organize gender inequalities Norms Deeply rooted values, routines, scripts and role expectations that are internalized through socialization (morally governed) Gender stereotypes Assigned roles to unpaid care and domestic work Religious belief systems Husband emotional support Household work divisions Regulations Explicitly documented laws and rules that enable or constrain behaviour and interaction (legally sanctioned) Inheritance laws Property rights Ownership of capital Tax regimes Labour laws Family policies Culture-cognitive Observable systems and discourse that shape function and meaning of resources (culturally supported) Education, training Technology Credit Business networks Social networks Time Mobility Freedom from violence and sexual harassment

Overcoming contextual constraints? More is known about overcoming constraints in regulatory and policy systems But what about normative systems? Scattered evidence Household composition and support at household, community and family level, but what practices work to engage men in women’s entrepreneuring? We need to evaluate an document POWER ISSUES in the value chain Are we serving differently situated entrepreneurs? There is no magic bullet HOW CAN WE BEST SUPPORT WOMEN IN THEIR STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME CONSTRAINTS Create systems and services specifically for female entrepreneurs (fix women) or make exisiting systems,routines, resources accesible and controleable for women? (fixing context) = a powerladen political question

Contextualized enabling environments see also DELL Gender GEDI Index Rules & RegulationsEco-systemsNorms & Values Equal rights, propety rights Access to local, national, regional and international markets Partner and family support: TIME Renegotiate household workdivision Gender equal tax systems Child-care facilities and support structures Representation of women in leadership positions (political & corporate) Provision of BDS Knowledge, education and training in divers sectors and industries Social acceptance of women’s succes Finance & collateralAccess to technologie and internet Entrepreneurial spirit, attitdues and belief Protection & safety regulationsAccess to powerfull networks and business relations Female role models

Readings Dell (2014) Gender GEDI Index dwen-gender-gedi-index ILO (2014) Effectiveness of Entrepreneurship Development interventions on Women Entrepreneurs wed/WCMS_329356/lang--en/index.htm Brush, C. G., De Bruin, A., & Welter, F. (2009). A gender-aware framework for women's entrepreneurship. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 1(1), 8-24.