Fostering Entrepreneurship Education among Women and Girls in South Africa: Destroying the Gendered and Encultured Patriachies

Abstract

Gender inequality has been in existence in as much as the humans themselves. The South African women and girls like many other societies around the world are also suffering from the lack of opportunities whilst men still receive favorable treatment. The government of South Africa engaged in the promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as part of empowerment projects for the Black people since the attainment of democratic rule in 1994. Entrepreneurship continues to play an integral role in the South African economy as well as the economies of many developing countries around the world. The creation of new Small and Medium businesses activities contributes to economic growth, job creation, better livelihood of people involved and the communities which surround them. However, there has been a lack of women participation in entrepreneurship businesses in South Africa. Women continue to shy away from starting SMEs. Research reveals that an approximately 6, 2 percent of South African adult women were involved in SMEs in 2015. This is an appalling situation if South Africa is going to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDG, goal number five encourages States to ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’. The aim of this paper is to identify challenges faced by female entrepreneurs in South Africa, which makes their survival difficult within a patriarchal society.The empirical analysis is based largely on data from information available from sources such as journals, dissertations, thesis, books, conference reports, internet sources, and policy briefs relating to women and entrepreneurship.

Girl bosses, punk poodles, and pink smoothies: Girlhood as Enterprising Femininity

“…Yet, considering the fervent organizing of and around girlhood, both as a market that services and employs women, and as a femininity that signals rebellion, girlhood has received surprisingly little attention in feminist organization and entrepreneurship studies. Existing research is predominantly based on an education and training perspective, focusing on how to foster entrepreneurship among girls (e.g., Johansen, Clausen, & Schanke, 2013;Tirivangasi, 2018), although there are exceptions which explore girlhood as a construct (e.g., Hunter & Kivinen, 2016;Russell & Tyler, 2002).…”