Challenges of Female Entrepreneurship Pre-, During- and Post-Covid-19 Prospects in South Africa

Abstract

Purpose: Female entrepreneurship discourse continues to receive heightened attention owing to various factors including the value of their contribution to national socioeconomic development. While the patriarchal nature of African societies remains one of the major issues impacting female entrepreneurs, the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the situation, therefore necessitating research that addresses interventions. This study examined the challenges of female entrepreneurship before, during, and the post-Covid-19 prospects in South Africa. By examining these challenges, the study aimed to shed light on factors militating against the success of female entrepreneurship, including the Covid-19 era and proposed solutions to overcome some of the challenges.
 Design/methodology/approach: A descriptive literature review methodology was used to conduct this study.
 Findings: The findings indicate that numerous cultural, economic, and institutional factors militate against productive female entrepreneurship. In addition, the results show that while Covid-19 affected all types of firms, and female-led enterprises suffered the most. Female-owned enterprises suffered the most in terms of lost revenues, business closures, and women retreating to traditionally assigned roles as family caregivers.
 Research limitations/implications: Given that the pandemic resulted in some cases of business closures and scaling down operations, there is a need for targeted support efforts to resuscitate female entrepreneurs in the post-Covid-19 era. Thus, extensive government and institutional financial and non-financial support are needed for female entrepreneurs.
 Practical implications: The study contributes to the overall discourse on supporting women’s participation in economic activities through entrepreneurship.
 Originality/value: This paper is original
 Paper type: a Research Paper

Entrepreneurial Coaching for the Development of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy in Women Entrepreneurs

“…Moreover, the study demonstrated that using EC as a system of support for women entrepreneurs can increase their ESE (Yusuff, et al, 2019). The key results are that, despite the difficulties faced by women entrepreneurs, the South African governments have over the years prioritized the growth of those deemed to have previously been disadvantaged, particularly women entrepreneurs and that customised EC provided opportunities for women entrepreneurs to advance their knowledge and technical skills (Rudhumbu, et al, 2020;Iwu et al, 2022). Considering the importance of entrepreneurship coaching as a learning technique and support function once more about the difficulties and opportunities facing women entrepreneurs (Rudhumbu, et al, 2020;Iwu et al, 2022).…”

“…This is a methodical approach to finding, gathering, and analysing literature regarding a specific topic to better identify any trends that could be interpreted about the phenomenon (Kazumi & Kawai, 2017). The strength of this strategy is that the author may carefully select publications that communicate different points of view from a body of literature (Iwu, Sibanda & Makwara, 2022). To carefully find, evaluate, and analyze relevant studies on entrepreneurial coaching and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, particularly in the context of women's entrepreneurship, the author employed the descriptive literature review technique for this study.…”