Enterprise Surveys allow us to identify certain characteristics of a business, such as the sector in which it operates, the size of the enterprise, the number of years it has been in operation, whether it is an individual or family enterprise, and, in many cases, the sex of the business owner.5 This chapter examines some of these characteristics differentiated by the sex of the business owner.
Entrepreneurs, whether they are men or women, are a small, select sample of the population. Since the Enterprise Surveys necessarily focus on entrepreneurs operating businesses, it is important to bear in mind that these entrepreneurs have already overcome whatever barriers exist to entry into business, including any gender-based barriers.
It is likely that gender differences in access to entrepreneurship may well exist, but such barriers cannot be analyzed in these datasets. Moreover, and related to the previous point about selection, women and men entrepreneurs are likely to differ not only with respect to observable characteristics but also with respect to unobservable characteristics that make a good entrepreneur, such as motivation, innate ability, persistence, and intuition.
The Enterprise Survey data confirm that women entrepreneurs are a minority compared with their male counterparts.6 However, there is large variation across countries. Including only manufacturing enterprises with at least 10 employees, women own fewer than 10
percent of firms in Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania, but up to 40 percent or more in Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, and Mozambique (Figure 1).7 These percentages are very similar if one looks at a subsample of enterprises run by a stakeholder with more han 50 percent of the firm’s shares—the percentage of female-owned enterprises decreases in Cameroon and Egypt, and particularly in Mozambique and Cape Verde, but remains very similar in all the other countries. If it is reasonable to assume that a majority stakeholder also runs the business, these percentages can be interpreted as approximately reflecting the share of female owners who manage their own enterprise.
Research conducted in other regions indicates that women are less likely than their male counterparts to own businesses.8 In the 40 countries included in this study, the percentage of women entrepreneurs ranges from a low of 1.9 percent of adult women in Belgium to 49.9 percent in the Philippines.While overall entrepreneurship rates for both men and women are higher in low/middle-income countries than in high-income countries, in all of the countries studied entrepreneurship rates for men are higher than those for women.
The data for African countries also distinguish between individual and family enterprises.The percentage of entrepreneurs in family enterprises (as distinct from individual enterprises) is higher—sometimes much higher—for female-owned enterprises than for maleowned enterprises in almost all countries. As shown in Figure 2, only in Kenya and Lesotho are men entrepreneurs more likely than women entrepreneurs to be in a family enterprise.
Overall, women are more likely than men to own (and possibly manage) their enterprise together with other family members, rather than on their own.The predominance of women in family enterprises is also significant in two other respects.
First, it may be that family enterprises are a way for women to combine their business activities with their domestic or household tasks, which are disproportionately women’s responsibility.
Second, other factors affecting family members—such as their legal status and their marital and property rights—are likely to affect the type of constraints that the firm may face and the performance of the business as well.
Unfortunately, the Enterprise Survey data do not include much information on the personal characteristics of the entrepreneur.To build a profile of men and women entrepreneurs, we have therefore analyzed household survey data9 that allow us to distinguish between several categories of workers, including “employers” (defined as self-employed people who hire employees), whom we believe to be a reasonable proxy for the category of “entrepreneurs” in the Enterprise Surveys.
The analysis of household survey data indicates that women entrepreneurs tend to be younger than men (by two to six years), an encouraging sign that access into entrepreneurship may be easier for younger cohorts of women. In almost all countries, a much lower share of female than male entrepreneurs is married.This is a particularly significant finding in that it suggests that women may not find it easy to combine both family and enterprise responsibilities. Case studies confirm this finding, as it is rare to find women entrepreneurs whose husbands support their enterprises.10
Finally, these data confirm that women entrepreneurs are much more likely than men to live in a household with other entrepreneurs—suggesting that women are more likely to own and manage the enterprise together with family members rather than independently (for example, they may be likely to work in the enterprise of their family of origin).This reinforces the findings of the Enterprise Survey data presented above.
Table 1 summarizes key characteristics of male- and female-owned enterprises in Africa.These include the sector, the size, and the number of years in business.
Female-owned enterprises are more likely found in some sectors than in others, although the sector with more women entrepreneurs varies depending on the country. For example, women are more likely found in the textile sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Madagascar, Mauritius, and South Africa; in agro-food in Angola, Malawi, and Mali; and in services in The Gambia, Mauritania, Namibia, and Uganda. As the table shows, there is no unambiguous pattern, either in terms of sector or business size, that differentiates male-owned from female-owned enterprises.
Contrary to a priori expectations, female-owned enterprises in the formal manufacturing sector are not disproportionately small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).Women are as likely to own large firms as they are to own small ones. In fact, in five of seven countries for which data are available, the percentage of femaleowned enterprises is higher among large firms than among small firms.11 Although the Enterprise Survey data do not tell us how long the woman herself has owned the enterprise, there is information about the age of the enterprise.Table 1 shows that women are not systematically more likely than men to own new firms.
While in some countries (Benin, DRC, Eritrea, Lesotho, Mali, and South Africa) the average age of the enterprises owned by women is lower than those owned by men, in other countries (Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Tanzania) the opposite is the case.With few exceptions, countries where businesses are on average younger (older) for both men and women tend to have a higher (lower) share of female-owned enterprises.This may indicate that a higher level of female entrepreneurship exists where it is easier altogether to start a business (that is, where obstacles at entry are lower) and there is a higher level of entrepreneurial activity.
The multivariate analysis confirms the patterns highlighted in Table 1. In several countries (DRC, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, South Africa, and Uganda), enterprises in the textiles sector are disproportionately more likely to be owned by women than enterprises in other sectors. In other countries (Angola, Cape Verde,The Gambia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal,Tanzania, and Uganda), manufacturing enterprises are less likely to be owned by women than enterprises in other sectors.
After controlling for sector, size is not correlated in any significant way with female ownership except in South Africa (where big firms are less likely to be owned by women) and in Angola (where medium-sized enterprises are more likely to be female-owned). Even after controlling for other characteristics, family enterprises are still two to seven times more likely to be owned by women than individual enterprises.This is the case in Egypt, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Zambia, and especially in South Africa.
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