Women’s entrepreneurship in Africa

The report examines the state of women's entrepreneurship in Africa, contrasting the 'market women' in the informal sector with a small cadre of successful formal entrepreneurs. It criticizes South Africa's proposed Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill, arguing that enforced numerical parity is an ineffective approach to empowerment. Instead, the author advocates for improving general business environments, prioritizing girls' education, and reforming laws regarding property and inheritance rights to support all entrepreneurs.

• The author argues that laws enforcing a 50:50 gender ratio in business are counter-productive and lack empirical support, as demographic groups rarely distribute themselves proportionally across activities regardless of the environment.
• South Africa's draft Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill would allow a minister to designate companies that must fill half of their decision-making roles with women, with non-compliance penalties reaching up to 10% of turnover.
• Entrepreneurship rates in sub-Saharan Africa are higher than in other regions; 27% of the workforce operates early-stage businesses and 15% operate established firms, according to 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data.
• Women's entrepreneurship in Africa is split between 'market women' in the informal sector, who often work for survival and face gender-determined legal and social barriers, and a small group of educated women leading prosperous formal enterprises.
• Significant barriers to women's economic advancement include a lower adult literacy rate (75% of men's rate as of 2011), discriminatory customary laws regarding property and inheritance, and social expectations regarding domestic responsibilities.

APA

Corrigan, T. (2021). Women’s entrepreneurship in Africa. Good Governance Africa. https://gga.org/skirting-the-real-issue/

Chicago

Corrigan, Terence. Women’s entrepreneurship in Africa. Good Governance Africa, 2021. https://gga.org/skirting-the-real-issue/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Corrigan |first1=Terence |title=Women’s entrepreneurship in Africa |publisher=Good Governance Africa |date=10 June 2021 |url=https://gga.org/skirting-the-real-issue/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{corrigan2021womens, author = {Corrigan, Terence}, title = {{Women’s entrepreneurship in Africa}}, institution = {Good Governance Africa}, year = {2021}, month = jun, url = {https://gga.org/skirting-the-real-issue/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }