Over the last twenty years female entrepreneurs have been increasing in numbers in economies of developing and developed nations across the world. But although female entrepreneurship participation rates have increased worldwide, it appears that economic and socio cultural patterns still prescribe whether a female can become or want to become an entrepreneur in her society. Some reasons are obvious such as lack of employment and opportunities; other are disguised in patriarchal culture that deters female entrepreneurship. Against this backdrop it appears that in less developed countries necessity and informal entrepreneurship are more prevalent than opportunity entrepreneurship. An explanation from economic nature for this phenomenon is perhaps the fact that with less job opportunities available in developing nations, the ‘need’ to become an entrepreneur seems to be the answer for females to make a living by creating their own jobs. At the socio cultural level, the motivation to become an entrepreneur out of need surfaces because of the socio cultural structure of certain nations that hinder females from finding work that brings them independence, self actualization and flexibility for work-life balance. This qualitative exploratory study investigates the phenomenon of female entrepreneurship comparing female entrepreneurship in two contexts: Brazil and the United States. The economic differences on a macro level between these two countries have been well documented and national socio cultural differences have been discussed. But very little has been focused at the individual level of the female entrepreneur per se, that is, how they perceive and experience the economic and the social cultural macro environment with their businesses. This research attempts to fill this gap. This was done by first reviewing the literature and then by analysing the responses from face to face and telephone interviews with 34 female entrepreneurs in Brazil and 26 in the United States. The findings indicated that female entrepreneurs in Brazil and the United States share similarities in motivation for starting the business in terms of pull factors, such as search for financial independence, want to be one’s own boss, need for autonomy, and self actualization. The women from both groups also identified customer satisfaction and recognition from society as key elements for their business success. But business informality was a phenomenon only found among the Brazilian enterprises (the informais) a factor found to be directly related to economic necessity and the scarcity of waged jobs and opportunities. The perception of gender barriers was shared by both groups of entrepreneurs but other factors such as religion and the importance of faith to succeed in business were emphasized only by the Americans. Higher education was perceived by both groups as an instrument to gain recognition from society, but not important to grow their businesses; vocational training was perceived as more important. Networking was perceived as important, but different patterns of networking emerged among the Brazilians and the Americans. Definitions of success also differ among the women independent from their nationality. Some were more inclined to define success in financial terms, others simply define success in terms of flexibility and the ‘got to be in control’ syndrome. This research contributed to an increased understanding of the processes of female entrepreneurship as it related to how economic and socio cultural forces influence these processes. The findings indicated that the female entrepreneurship process becomes a combination of two processes: a person driven process and a response to environment process. Mentoring and coaching programs that assist women finding their path to entrepreneurship along with their own passions should be emphasized by local agencies. Although policy development was not the specific objective of this study, a number of issues have arisen that have implications both for future research and female entrepreneurship policies. For instance, in Brazil, higher taxes and the high cost of starting a business were perceived by the women as barriers to their businesses. It is suggested that Brazilian authorities and legislators continue with their efforts to streamline the business start process by introducing innovative and cost effective ways to formalize a business.

Abstract Background: Female entrepreneurship in China is a practice which scholars have explored severally in recent years. Just as many Asian countries, the role of Chinese women has been undermined for a longer period. However, the 20 th century marked a positive turn in Chinese culture. The rate of discrimination and seclusion of women from economic empowerment started reducing significantly. Today, Chinese women are struggling to compete effectively with their male counterparts in entrepreneurial sector. The purpose of having women empowerment on the market economy is to generate more income to the country. Also, the practice lessens the rate of unemployment and high rate of dependency in China. Hence, it is apparent that the entrepreneurial actions in China are motivated by a number of factors that are presented in the paper. Purpose: The primary aim of the study is to determine influential and motivational factors for female entrepreneurs in China. Methods: The research has employed a qualitative research approach to determine influential factors and motivating aspects of female entrepreneurship in China. Random sampling tactic has been chosen as the methodology to discover data of women that have succeeded in the country. This approach can help to analyze a broader population of women entrepreneurs in China. Meanwhile, a semi-structured interview was involved in collecting data so that first-hand and unbiased information is obtained from interviewees. Findings: From the study of the influential factors and motivation for female entrepreneurs in China, it has been noted that the process of entrepreneurship among the current female entrepreneurs in the country can be categorized as either passive or initiative. While looking at the passive entrepreneurship among the female entrepreneurs, it is noted that those people are driven by the daily needs of their families. On the other hand, initiative entrepreneurship relies much more on human capital and social capital. The zeal and motivation that they possess lead them to developing far-sighted enterprises, hence contributing to the economic development of the country.

The significant contributions of female entrepreneurs to both the social and economic development of their various countries have been recognized over the past two decades. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found that between 17 and 41 percent of the female adult population set up new businesses in developing economies. However, these females owning businesses in developing economies generally exhibit limited aspirations for growth, with 84.6 percent of the female entrepreneurs indicating that they expect to add fewer than five employees in the coming five years. Moreover, most of the literature on female entrepreneurs in developing economies has focused on the business start-up phase; limited knowledge exists on the post start-up phase. This study addresses this gap by using institutional theory to investigate the development of businesses run by female entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Qualitative interviews were used to collect data from Nigerian female entrepreneurs. The data gathered was analysed using the thematic method. The finding reveal ways in which Nigerian female entrepreneurs transform their creative ideas into products and services that have potential for growth. Nigerian female businesses exhibit growth characteristics through the concern they have for quality and reputation, organizational design, earlier preparation for business growth, response to changes in technology and strong commitment to business success. The major factors facilitating the development of businesses run by Nigerian female entrepreneurs are membership of clubs and societies, a supportive husband, operating from home as well as their network affiliation with their relatives, friends, professionals, religious groups and NGOs. The factors inhibiting the development of businesses run by female entrepreneurs in Nigeria include poor savings culture, inappropriate business practice, lack of qualified artisan workers, lack of honest and reliable staff, balancing business and family, high-based thinking and fear of pseudo growth. The thesis contributes to the institutional theory framework through the addition of components in three key areas: funding barriers (such as female entrepreneurs in polygamous home, lack of ethical mortgage arrangements, lack of inheritance right by women and loan officers’ perception on women lifestyle), profitability (such as high import and export taxes on raw materials, high cost of transportation and illegal fees charges by government officials), and networking (such as support from NGOs and religious bodies). Methodologically, the present study adds to the growing body of qualitative research in entrepreneurship notably to our understanding of the issues that female small business owners in Nigeria face in sustaining and growing their businesses. The current study has practical implications for policy makers and female entrepreneurs. Areas for further research are also identified.

The last century has witnessed blooming achievements of females as rising workforce in modern society. With their active participation in business world recently, female entrepreneurship research has caught extensive attention globally, not only from academic field, but also from market entities, policy makers, social activists, as well as broad masses, concerning the social and economic contribution of female-started entreprises. Current studies within this topic concentrate on two issues: the difference between male and female entrepreneurs; demographic research for certain countries, regions, or industries. Following a qualitative research approach, this thesis applies implementations of actors view and grounded theory. With the purpose to create in-depth business knowledge, a well-structured empirical exploration is conducted mainly through theoretical sensibility acquisition, secondary data collection and face-to-face dialogues focusing on the issue of conditions for female entrepreneurs to start up and to develop a business.The researchers share their comprehensive (from both micro and macro perspective) understanding about this subject: There is no such a formula of necessary conditions existing. Female entrepreneurs need to define them according to the type of the ventures they establish and the demand for their projected growth, pursue them by taking actions instead of waiting for all conditions to be ready. The forthcoming female economy brings millions of opportunities that favor female entrepreneurs to start up enterprises, despite the current situation where they have not received effective supports that they deserve. In the end, the researchers create a new term „femesh‟ to conclude their findings and their anticipation for the future blossom of female entrepreneurs. Especially, the academic research process is described as an exploration adventure for searching orchids in the forest, together with the romantic writing style of the authors, bringing enjoyable readability without losing its preciseness, accuracy and logic as an academic research.

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¡§Half of the world¡¦s population is female;¡¨ ¡§Educating a man means educating an individual however, educating a woman equals educating the whole nation.¡¨ These common sayings underscore the critical roles women play in society. In sub-Saharan Africa, women are known to play crucial roles in difficult times such as wars and natural disasters. In economic crises, when children are at risk of malnourishment and many men lose their main sources of income, they tend to turn towards their wives and/or mothers for support. Therefore, the empowerment of women - by giving them the opportunity to start a business - goes beyond the intrinsic value this has for the women themselves. Such empowerment may have profound impacts on families, communities, and national economies. The aim of this research is to study female entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on Burkina Faso, which is a region of the world where female entrepreneurship has been increasing in recent years. Traditionally a male-dominated area with narrowly prescribed gender roles, entrepreneurship is becoming the domain of choice for an increasing number of women. What are the deep motivations of these women? What are their social and demographic characteristics? What are the main issues they are facing? The empirical study was conducted on a sample of 45 female entrepreneurs. Therefore, a self-administered questionnaire of 35 questions with 32 closed questions was used to measure the female entrepreneurs¡¦ profile in terms of characteristics, motivations, and difficulties encountered. The results indicated that the female entrepreneur in Burkina Faso is usually a young and married woman (30-39 years old) whose area of business evolves around commerce, hairdressing, decorations, seam stressing, and dyestuffs, activities that are similar to those women generally performed at home. Psychologically, the female entrepreneur possesses a strong internal locus of control concerning the success or failure of her business venturing. In fact, she believes that she is artisan of her own destiny, and usually does not associate the success or failure of her firm to destiny and chance. Concerning the motives, women are primarily motivated by the need for economic independence, the need to make a living, the need for self-accomplishment and self-realization. The study also indicated that the difficulties faced by these women are mainly financial, and then comes the difficulty to have access to adequate equipment.

Women around the world face various kinds of discrimination, which vary from country to country and from culture to culture. Socio-economic crises and global emergencies can accentuate such gender inequalities being particularly detrimental to women. During Covid-19 pandemic women have experienced significant hardships, disproportionately affecting 740 million women worldwide (Rivera, Hsu, Esbry & Dugarova, 2020). According to the United Nations, “across the globe, women earn less, save less, hold less secure jobs, are more likely to be employed in the informal sector. They have less access to social protection and are the majority of single-parent households. Their capacity to absorb economic shocks is, therefore, less than that of men.” Furthermore, the unfair treatment of women is also reinforced by derogatory female stereotypes spread around the media, making it extremely difficult for women to rebound after a crisis (Milford, 2020).  In the case of Greece, the pandemic aggravated the economic inequalities faced by women, which could be traced only after one meticulously delves into some formal documents and statistics provided by Greek open data or governmental institutions. Furthermore, the Greek mass media continue to maintain a stiff discriminative stance against women, feeding the Greek mindset with gender stereotypes affecting negatively the way females are evolving within the society, and in particular as entrepreneurs or employees. The outburst of the Covid-19 pandemic added to this, as the immediate reflexes of the Greek power and authority agents was to ‘protect‘ the existing dominant system with all its weaknesses and distortions that it may bear. Under this notion, Greek mass media, did not project the real repercussions of the pandemic, but it kept projecting the same distorted gender representations, as if the pandemic has had exclusively health repercussions. In fact, there is a large gap, with no clear conclusions regarding research on the impact the produced stereotypes by the Greek media have on women’s ability to contribute to any form of development. So, I aim to investigate how Greek women perceive their position and the way they are treated within the society and the working sector, and how the Greek mass media represent the female figure, especially after the pandemic outburst. I interviewed eight women and included extracted information from two magazines, two newspapers, and four television advertisements. I also used statistical data from governmental and other official sources investigating related data before and after the pandemic.  Although recent Greek official satistical data indicate that women have been more by the Covid- 19 pandemic compared to men, results have shown that not all women have experienced gender discrimination in the workplace, nor have they been exclusively socio-economically afflicted from the Covid-19 pandemic; they have been negatively affected, though, as everybody else has. Moreover, all participants recognize the extensive stereotyped representation of women on the Greek mass media, which is also evident from the provided media extracts in this study. Furthermore, Greek mothers seem to struggle to balance between family and career, as they are not on the top choices of employers, although female entrepreneurship in Greece is steadily evolving. Finally, the place of residence appears to play a role in the way women are treated, as in large cities, people are more open-minded and less stuck with the old-fashioned gender roles of the Greek culture.

Background The Middle East is a region that consists of 17 countries: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Cyprus, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia (Pariona, 2020). Due to the persistent presence of old social and cultural structures, inequality remains a problem within the region. Every day, females in the region are faced with discrimination in various forms - something which becomes evident in the existing statistics, which show that only 28 percent of all females in the MENA region are economically active (Hattab, 2012).    However, it has been possible to identify improvements within the development of society as well as in the work to counteract inequality. Hence, it becomes increasingly important to gain a greater understanding of the region as a whole as well as gain knowledge regarding the existing challenges that female entrepreneurs experience.    Purpose The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding of the different challenges that female entrepreneurs face when launching, managing, and developing a business in the Middle East region.    Method This research is a qualitative study in which an abductive approach has been used. Therefore, the conclusions will be drawn from the empirical findings in combination with the results in the existing literature. Furthermore, in order to obtain high-quality and truthful data, a case-study with a semi-structured interview technique was used. All six interviews were later analysed by all researchers individually as well as jointly in order to ensure that no important information was lost.    Conclusion Based on the empirical findings in combination with the existing literature, three contextual factors were identified as the main challenges of female entrepreneurs when operating in the Middle East region. The following contextual challenges were identified: 1) Lack of Finance, 2) Lack of Support, and 3) Discrimination.

Entrepreneurship is the key to a functioning society and global economy. To be entrepreneurial means not only to see and discover opportunities, but also to develop and refine these opportunities. There is evidence saying that entrepreneurship is not equal for men and women. Sweden is considered a strong and stable country with values that promote gender equality, but even in this country there are societal structures and phenomena that sometimes hinders female entrepreneurs from reaching the same success as male entrepreneurs. The aim of this thesis is therefore to explore Swedish female entrepreneurs and the challenges they face when conducting international business. Furthermore the thesis will try to explore what challenges they face in foreign market entry due to their gender as well as try to provide future female entrepreneurs with information on how to avoid or handle the challenges they might face due to their gender. There is a gap in literature regarding this subject.  The reviewed literature presents the international business environment and internationalization as well as entrepreneurship and the opportunities thereof. It also presents the occurrence of gender inequality in business. The conceptual framework is to illustrate how all parts are connected to the subject and to each other like a circular cycle. To ensure thorough research a qualitative method with an abductive approach is used. Both primary and secondary data have been used. The empirical data was collected through interviews with five Swedish international female entrepreneurs from different industries. The analysis was made by cross examination of the empirical data and the literature. Female entrepreneurs face challenges in international business but can often choose to use it as an advantage. There are social structures that need to change for the business environment to become more equal both in Sweden and internationally.

Background: Despite the societal progress made in recent decades, a gender gap in entrepreneurship persists. In Europe, there are fewer female entrepreneurs than male entrepreneurs. This issue is significant as female entrepreneurship substantially impacts economic development and social well-being. In this paper, we will investigate how different socioeconomic and individual factors affect female total entrepreneurial activity in European countries. Through our research, we aim to provide recommendations to increase the number of female entrepreneurs, remove gender-based barriers, and foster societal progress and economic growth in Europe. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of socioeconomic and individual factors on total entrepreneurial activity for women in European countries. We will specifically analyze the impacts of government support, cultural approval, insufficient access to finance, networking, training & education, and fear of failure on female entrepreneurship. Method: Using publicly available GEM data, we use a panel data study of 31 European countries and seven years, from 2013 to 2019, to investigate how socioeconomic and individual factors influence female total entrepreneurial activity. By utilizing the Hausman test and LM test, we statistically determine that the Random Effects Model (REM) is the most appropriate model to predict our data. Conclusion: The results of the REM show that both Networking and Training & Education have significant positive effects on female total entrepreneurial activity in European countries. We recommend implementing entrepreneurship education in middle or high school curricula to expose students to entrepreneurship experiences and encourage young women to pursue entrepreneurship as a career. Additionally, we recommend tailoring government policies and programs specifically to women to support female entrepreneurial activities.