Barriers and Enablers of Women in Business in Botswana

Makepe P.M; Okurut F.N; Montsi K and Oageng I Barriers and Enablers of Women in Business in Botswana Are Diamonds there forever? – Prospects for a Sustainable Development Model for Botswana. Lansmore Hotel, Masa Square, Gaborone Botswana 27th - 28th August, 2014

Outline • Introduction • Objectives • Literature Review • Method • Results • Possible solutions • Conclusion

Introduction • Women’s economic empowerment stands out in policy discourse at international and national levels currently • Empirical literature suggests gender inequalities in labour market outcomes which tend to constraint women’s economic empowerment (Polachek, 1981; Becker, 1971 and Folbre, 1994) • Gender division of labour in the household also contributes to labour market inequalities

Introduction . . . • Gender inequalities in labour market processes and outcomes are rational responses by households to pre-existing constraints • According to CSO (2008), women in Botswana were more likely to be unemployed (62.5%) as compared to their counterparts • Enhancement of the performance of women enterprises therefore critical for women empowerment and diversification

Motivation/Justification • Women’s ability to aspire to operate their own enterprises is limited by various socio-cultural and glass ceiling barriers

In particular, women are not able to operate large enterprises that can transform their socio-economic status, accelerate economic growth and diversification. • Only a few have managed to transcend these barriers and establish large corporations (PWC, 2007) due mostly to influence of government interventional policies and various socioeconomic enablers. • This study investigated factors that affect the performance of women enterprises in Botswana

THE ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT JOURNEY CURRENT FUTURE • ABILITY= skills + resources • POWER= possessing agency, decision making, control over profits

Objectives…. • The key objectives of the study were: • To identify the key barriers and enablers to women’s businesses in Botswana • To suggest possible solutions that can help to enhance the performance of women owned or managed businesses in Botswana

Literature Review • Different models have been used to investigate factors influencing women participation in business: • Evans and Leignton, (1989) studying determinants of women self employment used a logit model to assess how economic and demographic changes influence self employment in the US. • Bullough (2008) carried a multilevel, cross-country analysis of factors influencing women participation in business leadership. • The author concludes that factors affecting women participation in business leadership varies depending on the context of the environment in which they operate, implying that it is not enough to use few direct dependent variables to explain women participation in business leadership across distinct cultural, economical and social settings

Results • Descriptive results suggested that the key drivers of women business are access to credit and capacity building in business mgt/devt. • The regulatory environment (business reg & licensing req) did not pose any significant constraint to women businesses • Noted is competition which posed a major challenge and women in business do not have strong networks with other women • Econometric results also indicated a positive and significant influence of performance of women enterprises by labour productivity, access to credit and training

Determinants of Performance of Women Enterprises

Possible Solutions • Barriers to accessing credit and capacity building for women enterprises need to be removed to enhance their growth and promote economic growth in Botswana.

The end… THANK YOU!!!

Barriers and Enablers of Women in Business in Botswana