How do men and women entrepreneurs compare?
(extracted from Liedholm and Mead, GEMINI, 1995) From surveys conducted by GEMINI in Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi and the Dominican Republic, it emerged that in each country surveyed at least 45% of MSE entrepreneurs were women. In four of these countries the majority of MSEs were headed by women. Women’s enterprises are concentrated and dominant in more traditional manufacturing activities such as beer, brewing, knitting, dressmaking, crocheting, and grass and cane work, as well as in retail trading. Returns to female-dominated activities are lower than the average for the sector. In Kenya the overall average return for enterprises owned by women is only about a quarter of the level earned in enterprises owned by men (Daniels, Mead and Musinga 1995, K-Rep, p58). 45% of women-owned MSEs are home based compared to 19% for men. Female-owned MSEs show annual start rates more than 5% points higher than the male rate in each country examined. In Zimbabwe, the five s
