Enterprising Women : Expanding Economic Opportunities in Africa

This book brings together new household and enterprise data from 41 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to inform policy makers and practitioners on ways to expand women entrepreneurs’ economic opportunities. Sub-Saharan Africa boasts the highest share of women entrepreneurs, but they are disproportiona...

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Main Author:	Hallward-Driemeier, Mary
Format:	Publication
Language:	en_US
Published:	Washington, DC: Agence Française de Développement and the World Bank 2013
Subjects:	Access to finance Empowerment Entrepreneurship Gender Informality Opportunities Property rights Public-Private Dialogue Women
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13785

id	okr-10986-13785
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-137852021-04-23T14:03:10Z Enterprising Women : Expanding Economic Opportunities in Africa Hallward-Driemeier, Mary Access to finance Empowerment Entrepreneurship Gender Informality Opportunities Property rights Public-Private Dialogue Women This book brings together new household and enterprise data from 41 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to inform policy makers and practitioners on ways to expand women entrepreneurs’ economic opportunities. Sub-Saharan Africa boasts the highest share of women entrepreneurs, but they are disproportionately concentrated among the self-employed rather than employers. Relative to men, women are pursuing lower opportunity activities, with their enterprises more likely to be smaller, informal, and in low value-added lines of business. The challenge in expanding opportunities is not helping more women become entrepreneurs but enabling them to shift to higher return activities. A central question addressed in the book is what explains the gender sorting in the types of enterprises that women and men run? The analysis shows that many Sub-Saharan countries present a challenging environment for women. Four key areas of the agenda for expanding women’s economic opportunities in Africa are analyzed: strengthening women’s property rights and their ability to control assets; improving women’s access to finance; building human capital in business skills and networks; and strengthening women’s voices in business environment reform. These areas are important both because they have wide gender gaps and because they help explain gender differences in entrepreneurial activities. It is particularly striking that while gender gaps in education tend to close with higher incomes, gaps in women’s property rights and in women’s participation in reform processes do not. As simply raising a country’s income is unlikely to be sufficient to give women equal ability to control assets or have greater voice, more proactive steps will be needed. Practical guidelines to move the agenda forward are discussed for each of these key areas. 2013-06-05T16:41:25Z 2013-06-05T16:41:25Z 2013-06-05 978-0-8213-9703-9 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13785 en_US Africa Development Forum; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: Agence Française de Développement and the World Bank Publications & Research :: Publication Publications & Research Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	Access to finance Empowerment Entrepreneurship Gender Informality Opportunities Property rights Public-Private Dialogue Women
spellingShingle	Access to finance Empowerment Entrepreneurship Gender Informality Opportunities Property rights Public-Private Dialogue Women Hallward-Driemeier, Mary Enterprising Women : Expanding Economic Opportunities in Africa
geographic_facet	Africa
relation	Africa Development Forum;
description	This book brings together new household and enterprise data from 41 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to inform policy makers and practitioners on ways to expand women entrepreneurs’ economic opportunities. Sub-Saharan Africa boasts the highest share of women entrepreneurs, but they are disproportionately concentrated among the self-employed rather than employers. Relative to men, women are pursuing lower opportunity activities, with their enterprises more likely to be smaller, informal, and in low value-added lines of business. The challenge in expanding opportunities is not helping more women become entrepreneurs but enabling them to shift to higher return activities. A central question addressed in the book is what explains the gender sorting in the types of enterprises that women and men run? The analysis shows that many Sub-Saharan countries present a challenging environment for women. Four key areas of the agenda for expanding women’s economic opportunities in Africa are analyzed: strengthening women’s property rights and their ability to control assets; improving women’s access to finance; building human capital in business skills and networks; and strengthening women’s voices in business environment reform. These areas are important both because they have wide gender gaps and because they help explain gender differences in entrepreneurial activities. It is particularly striking that while gender gaps in education tend to close with higher incomes, gaps in women’s property rights and in women’s participation in reform processes do not. As simply raising a country’s income is unlikely to be sufficient to give women equal ability to control assets or have greater voice, more proactive steps will be needed. Practical guidelines to move the agenda forward are discussed for each of these key areas.
format	Publications & Research :: Publication
author	Hallward-Driemeier, Mary
author_facet	Hallward-Driemeier, Mary
author_sort	Hallward-Driemeier, Mary
title	Enterprising Women : Expanding Economic Opportunities in Africa
title_short	Enterprising Women : Expanding Economic Opportunities in Africa
title_full	Enterprising Women : Expanding Economic Opportunities in Africa
title_fullStr	Enterprising Women : Expanding Economic Opportunities in Africa
title_full_unstemmed	Enterprising Women : Expanding Economic Opportunities in Africa
title_sort	enterprising women : expanding economic opportunities in africa
publisher	Washington, DC: Agence Française de Développement and the World Bank
publishDate	2013
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13785
_version_	1764424599435476992

Enterprising Women : Expanding Economic Opportunities in Africa

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