BARRIERS AND ENABLERS OF
WOMEN IN BUSINESS IN BOTSWANA
Makepe P.M; Okurut F.N; Montsi K and Oageng I
Are Diamonds there forever? – Prospects for a Sustainable Development Model for Botswana.
Lansmore Hotel, Masa Square, Gaborone Botswana
27th - 28th August, 2014
Outline
2







Introduction
Objectives
Literature Review
Method
Results
Possible solutions
Conclusion
Introduction
3



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 . . .
4



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

5
Women’s ability to aspire to operate their own enterprises is
limited by various socio-cultural and glass ceiling barriers
6



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:
8
 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:
9


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.
10



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
Dependent Variable: log of annual business earnings
11
Explanatory Variables
Coefficient
t-value
p-value
Log of experience
0.2485
1.47
Log of labour productivity
0.9367
26.62
Log of education level
0.1197
0.82
0.418
Network: dummy
0.1308
0.32
0.746
Credit access: dummy
0.6259
1.71
0.095 *
Training: dummy
0.7894
1.82
0.075 *
ICT: dummy
0.5960
1.36
0.182
Constant
0.8565
1.62
0.113
No. of observations
50
F(8,41)
132.94
Prob>F
0.0000
Significance level: ***= 1%, **=5%, *=10%
0.149
0.000 ***
Possible Solutions
12

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…
13
THANK YOU!!!