A more effective mobilization of women’s labour capacity and skills is often viewed as a source of additional household income. Accordingly, most rural development projects include components to support the creation of better possibilities for women to start small enterprises. However, due to issues related to gender inequity, some of these endeavours are still marred by shortcomings.

Obstacles to the growth of female small business

One major obstacle to the growth and diversification of small businesses started by women and supported by development projects is that they generally originate from activities that are related to women’s domestic roles, such as preparing and selling food and drinks, hairdressing, tailoring, sewing, knitting, embroidering and similar activities. Due to their nature and the environment in which they are developed, often such activities prove to be of little competitive value and of limited profitability. To this may be added the often poor quality of the products, the lack of a marketing plan, women’s limited access to credit and capacity building, and their lack of education.

Other constraints that impede the growth of women’s businesses are related to the unequal power relations within the household, which are manifested through the gendered division of labour and men’s control of intra-household cash flow. Because it is a widespread cultural practice for men to leave the domestic chores and duties to women, women have to divide their time between these duties and their business activities. Often, they organize their entrepreneurial activities around their domestic chores, which means that the time they can spend on their businesses is limited. Their domestic duties also limit their mobility and subsequently their possibilities to invest time in seeking profitable markets. The ideological construct that women should not leave the house too often but should stay in and around the house may also play a role in limiting women’s mobility.

The other constraint concerns men’s domination of the intra-household cash flows. A woman entrepreneur has to deal with the fact that at times her husband may appropriate her income for his own goals. It may also happen that her husband withdraws his own financial contribution to the household with the argument that it is no longer necessary because his wife now has her own income. The result may be that women have to use all the income generated through their businesses for the daily maintenance of their children and may not be able to reinvest sufficiently. The working capital of their business may thus disappear. When men and women work together in a business, it is often the man who dominates the activities by appropriating the income from the business. In several IFAD-supported projects, it has been noticed that even if women are involved throughout the production process, it is often their male companion who markets the products and receives the benefits.

These remarks should not be taken as a generalization about women entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, these restrictions contribute to the fact that women’s businesses tend to be smaller than men’s businesses. They circumscribe women’s choice of location, the nature of their businesses and their access to high-quality raw materials, information, markets and opportunities to learn effective management skills.

Lesson learned

To maximize the impact small enterprises may have on the well-being of rural families and communities, barriers to the equal participation of men and women have to be eliminated. This can be done by providing credit on equal conditions and establishing affirmative actions aimed at women in the form of education and other measures to increase their competitive skills. If men and women are offered opportunities to participate in income generating activities on an equal footing, not only might the self-esteem of both men and women increase in pace with rising incomes, but also a mutual respect might develop.

Focus on promoting equal opportunities for men and women through micro-enterprise can opt for two main strategies.

The first strategy is to ensure an effective participation of all beneficiaries, regardless of sex, in all activities. This needs close control and monitoring to ensure that there are no barriers to equitable participation. The benefits of this approach can be summarized as follows:

• the incorporation of men and women in activities that have traditionally been dominated by one or the other;
• a more effective incorporation of women at decision-making levels;
• a more effective incorporation of socio-political themes such as health, education and social conflict on the agenda of community organizations, a result of the fact that women and men share information and responsibilities in a more efficient way than they would were they separated;
• a shared control of income distribution; and
• an increased appreciation of the contributions of both men and women.