Worldwide, women entrepreneurs play a major role in the economic growth and development of any nation, yet women are still facing a multiplicity of challenges in the small business sector. Women entrepreneurs could play a more significant role in the small business sector given all the necessary support. The main objective of this study was to review the South African government initiatives that were designed to stimulate women entrepreneurship during 1995 to 2009. This topic is exploratory as well as descriptive in nature. As a result of this, qualitative and quantitative data was collected in order to address the research objectives of the study. A non probability sampling technique, known as snowballing was used to identify the research participants. The sample for the study was made up of two different groups of participants; namely women entrepreneurs and experts from the field of entrepreneurship. Data was analysed using content analysis. Although content analysis is often used for analysing qualitative data, it has a limitation in that it sometimes fails to interpret delicate and intricate texts (Denscombe, 2003:221). Because of this limitation, Kruskal Wallis and Chi square tests were used in order to complement content analysis. These two data analysis tools were adopted because of the non parametric nature of the research data. The main limitation of the study was that primary data was collected in Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu Natal due to limited resources. In addition to this, the sampling technique used has a disadvantage in that the results of the research cannot be generalized to the population at large. However, the empirical results in conjunction with the literature review could assist in policy evaluation of the initiatives that could stimulate the development of women entrepreneurs in this country to a higher level. The empirical findings of the study revealed that women entrepreneurs are still experiencing a lot of barriers to entry into the small business sector such as access to finance, lack of entrepreneurial training and lack of information, just to mention a few. The results also revealed that the government support programmes are failing to address the barriers to entry that women are experiencing in the small business sector. In as much as the government is making progress in providing support programmes towards women entrepreneurship, the empirical findings also revealed that the majority of women entrepreneurs are not aware of the available support programmes that are targeting them. Lack of awareness of the available government initiatives was cited as the major reason why women are not benefiting fully from the government support programmes. Based on the research findings, it could be recommended that the government should review the current policies and programmes that are designed to assist women entrepreneurs in this country in order to evaluate the weaknesses and strengths that are inherent in the system. Future programmes should be designed based on empirical research in order to match the actual needs of women entrepreneurs in relation to the challenges that they encounter. This is crucial because women in the small business sector are a heterogeneous group with different needs and challenges. For this reason, a small business research foundation should be established with the core mandate of carrying out on-going research on the small business sector in this country. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

Research investigating women-owned businesses has developed considerably over the past two decades. There are, however, few British studies that have specifically focussed on growth oriented women-owned businesses. The current study aims to fill this gap. Its purpose is to explore the effect of social capital and human capital on the growth of women-owned enterprises in the UK. The research contributes to the knowledge of women's entrepreneurship as the first to study the moderating role of human capital in building and using social capital in the UK. It develops the theoretical premise that women entrepreneurs with higher human capital gain credibility and centrality in networks, accumulating social capital based on their importance for other network members and their business stakeholders. This mixed method study involves both collecting and analysing quantitative and qualitative data. Statistical analysis using SPSS was applied to analyse quantitative data collected through 517 on-line completed questionnaires from three different regions. The qualitative data collected through face to face interviews with 42 women entrepreneurs were also analysed and interpreted. The findings suggest that the social capital possessed by women entrepreneurs plays an important role in the growth of enterprises. Women entrepreneurs use different sources to build and use their social capital at different stages of growth and in different industry sectors such as manufacturing or services. Women entrepreneurs with higher human capital are more likely to identify opportunities, generate ideas and show creative thinking in introducing novel products, services, location, processes or systems, which makes their growth path exponential. There are implications of this study for women entrepreneurs to build and use their social and human capital for the growth of their enterprises. And there are also implications for politicians and business organisations, who must devise policies to develop opportunities for existing or potential women entrepreneurs for building their human based capital.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the emerging characteristics of Asian women entrepreneurs in South Australia. This research also aims to improve current understanding of the existing literature of ethnic entrepreneurship and female entrepreneurship, especially as Asian women are rising in entrepreneurship. Business ownership is a significant opportunity for women in the business world. While there have been studies of ethnic entrepreneurship with partial concentration on women's participation in their family businesses, the majority of studies assume that ethnic women are a homogeneous group. Asian women entrepreneurs appear to bring together not only ethnic opportunities but also personal characteristics to enhance their business performance. It is, therefore, important to examine what contributes to the success of Asian women entrepreneurs in South Australia and understand how these Asian women entrepreneurs balance Australian and Asian business and personal values. This research is designed to be a simple and descriptive study using the experiences of 16 Asian women entrepreneurs, while not comparing the samples with anyone else's. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2007.

Thesis (M.B.A.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-85). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universiteit Leiden, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [323]-339).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universiteit Leiden, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [323]-339).

Agentic women continue to be penalized for success in male-dominated industries, resulting in gender discrimination and differing opportunity structures (Foschi, 2000). The purpose of the proposed study is to see how an employee’s gender and status in male-dominated corporate settings influence participants’ perceptions of competency, liking, and consequences after the employee makes a mistake. These dependent variables will also be examined in relationship to participants’ level of sexism. Approximately 132 participants will be recruited from high technology companies, and will read a vignette about a male or female and entry-level or executive employee who makes a mistake. They will then answer competency, liking, and firing questions, as well as Glick & Fiske’s (1996) Ambivalent Sexism Inventory. Participants are expected to perceive females more negatively than males, and executives more negatively than entry-level employees. Additionally, female executives will be perceived as the least competent, and will be the least well liked. It is also predicted that they will be most likely fired. This study may add important information on gender stereotyping in the workplace, and further explore how an employee’s status in the company influences perceptions of the employee. The implications of the proposed study for future research are also discussed.

This study examines female self-employment in British Columbia from 1901 to 1971. Entrepreneurial women comprised a small proportion of the total female labour force but they exhibited differences from the rest of the labour force that deserve attention. The study relies on the Census of Canada to gain perspective on trends in female self-employment over a broad time period; qualitative sources are also utilized, including Business and Professional Women’s Club records, to illustrate how individual businesswomen reflected patterns of age, marital status, and family observed at a broad level. The role of gender in women’s decisions to run their own enterprises and in their choice of enterprise is also explored. While the research focus is British Columbia, this study is comparative: self-employed women in the province are compared to their counterparts in the rest of Canada, but also to self-employed men, and to other working women, in both regions. Regionally, women in British Columbia had higher rates of self-employment than women in the rest of the country between 1901 and 1971. Self-employed women in both British Columbia and Canada were, like wage-earning women, limited to a narrow range of occupational types, but they were more likely to work in male-dominated occupations. Self employed women were also older and more likely to be married, widowed or divorced than wage-earning women; in these aspects, they resembled self-employed men. But there were gender differences: whether women worked in female or male-dominated enterprises, they stressed their femininity. The need to take care of their families, particularly if they had lost a spouse through death or desertion, provided additional rationale for women’s presence in the business world. Family, marital status, age, gender and region all played a role in women’s decisions to enter into self-employment between 1901 and 1971. / Graduate

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Business Administration (Entrepreneurship) in the Faculty of Business at the CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY / The South African government, to accelerate economic growth and development, has identified the Small Medium Micro Enterprises (SMME) sector, and female entrepreneurs, as vehicles capable of bringing about this change. Unfortunately, this growth has been stifled due to the high failure rate of entrepreneurial businesses in the SMME sector. A possible solution for female entrepreneurs is the introduction of start-up support services to empower them to be successful. Empowering entrepreneurs is the function of nurturing and supporting entrepreneurs by providing them with professional skills development and moral support, to impact positively on the business’s sustainability. There is a clear need to widen access to business start-up training and advice to encourage larger numbers of women to embrace self-employment. This implies offering a wide range of start-up support services which encourage women to go into business. Women enter business from a variety of backgrounds and with a wide range of experience. The provision of business start-up training and advice needs to accommodate these very different experiences. Women attending entrepreneurship programmes have often criticised these programmes as being male-orientated and prescriptive. Women are expected to conform to male models and standards of behaviour. While this study relates specifically to female entrepreneurs in the Western Cape, it is set in the context of female entrepreneurship in South Africa. The target population for the research was 150 female entrepreneurs in the Tourism industry in the Western Cape. The study is quantitative in nature, using the survey method for better understanding of the research problem. The study aimed to understand the needs of female entrepreneurs, and to underscore the significance of skills and knowledge transfer from the government to female entrepreneurs. The research explored the role of government in empowering female entrepreneurs in the Tourism industry in Western Cape, and identified support services that can be used to promote the growth and development of female entrepreneurs. Possible solutions to failure rates of female entrepreneurship are also addressed, with specific models for improved business support services for all female entrepreneurs in the Tourism industry in the Western Cape. This will help them to run sustainable businesses as well as provide more jobs. This research recommends that management capability and financial management acumen be regarded as key to success for funding by the entrepreneurs themselves, and the parties involved in supporting and promoting them.

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