Gendered Entrepreneurship Contextualization in Egypt: An Empirical Study on Policies for Women Entrepreneurship Empowerment


Book Description

Abstract: The proportion of women entrepreneurs has increased dramatically over the past decade, not just in the developed world but also in developing countries. This led to a significant increase in the governments' attention towards designing and implementing female-focused policies to allocate adequate resources for empowering women entrepreneurs in Egypt. This paper examines one main question: How does the Egyptian government empower women entrepreneurs through key policy interventions? This is only possible through testing the proposed research hypotheses and investigating Egypt's publicized policies and governmental interventions. Based on a gender-lens perspective, this research tries to close the gaps in previous research and determine the impact of systematic gendered policies on empowering women entrepreneurship and, in return, aid in the overall economic growth and development nation-wide. This paper starts with foundational quantitative research that is later enriched with qualitative research by employing mixed methods research mode. The data was then triangulated, and the empirical results indicated the gender empowerment direction adopted by the Egyptian government, which is apparent in several reports addressing the SDGs and Egypt's cooperation with different international and national non-governmental organizations on gender fronts. Nonetheless, it was also indicated that the results have yet to be realized from such publicized efforts and policies. Finally, the findings highlight the main challenges that the government portrays for women entrepreneurs, including the gridlock where government reports publicize new programs and more support for women entrepreneurs, while results indicated the minimal resources provided to a little number of women entrepreneurs.




Contextual Embeddedness of Women's Entrepreneurship


Book Description

Contextual Embeddedness of Women’s Entrepreneurship brings together a range of research that provides powerful insights into the influences and restraints within a diverse set of gendered contexts including social, political, institutional, religious, patriarchal, cultural, family, and economic, in which female entrepreneurs around the world operate their businesses. In doing so, the contributing authors demonstrate not only the importance of studying the contexts in how they shape women’s entrepreneurial activities, but also how female entrepreneurs through their endeavours modify these contexts. Collectively, the edited collection’s studies make a substantial contribution to the contextual embeddedness of women’s entrepreneurial activity, provide numerous insights, and provoke fruitful directions for future research on the important role of the contexts in which women’s entrepreneurial activities take place. This innovative and wide-ranging research anthology seeks to reframe and redirect research on gender and entrepreneurship and will appeal to all those interested in learning more about female entrepreneurship.




The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Egypt


Book Description

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the Egyptian entrepreneurial ecosystem from a gendered perspective, focusing on women entrepreneurs and experts' views of the ecosystem and its effect on women entrepreneurs and their ventures. The study uses a qualitative approach incorporating semi-structured interviews with fourteen women entrepreneurs and experts with long experience in the field of entrepreneurship. The analysis shows that the pillars of the ecosystem namely policy, culture, finance, education and training, and networking have impactful influences on women entrepreneurs in Egypt, affecting their entrepreneurial journey across the different levels of venturing. Women entrepreneurs are at a disadvantage within the ecosystem due to the high prevalence of gendered stereotypes and prejudices surrounding them, lack of coordination among the players within the ecosystem, scarcity of information on available resources, and lack of understanding of the significance of women entrepreneurship and its benefits to the economic and social conditions of the country at large. The study highlights the paradox between an increasing number of available resources and services to entrepreneurs and the low number of women-owned businesses established and enhanced after receiving these services. Findings showed that these services lack quality and depth, and are not accommodating to women entrepreneurs' needs. Ultimately, the study concluded that women need more support within the ecosystem, where they are provided with the same range of opportunities and benefits, and allowed a fair business journey on par with their male counterparts. The study contributes to the available literature on women entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurship ecosystem alike, where it highlighted the main challenges and shortcomings of the ecosystem's pillars. It explains how it impacted women entrepreneurs' journeys and ventures and allows for recommendations that would create a healthier and more inclusive ecosystem for women entrepreneurs.




Environments For Women Entrepreneurship In North Africa


Book Description

This book provides scientific evidence, both theoretically and empirically, on the understudied field of women entrepreneurs across North Africa. It provides insights on the domain of women entrepreneurship, undertaking critical assessment of overall historical frameworks, ecosystems and future perspectives of the region.Women entrepreneurship is among the most important and unexploited sources of economic growth in the developing world. Yet, despite much progress in socioeconomic aspects such as health, life expectancy and education, the gender economic gap remains unchanged. More needs to be done to understand the underlying forces and factors in the region to challenge the current status quo.




Egyptian Women Workers and Entrepreneurs


Book Description

Over the past decade, Egyptian women have made significant progress in improving their economic and social status. The government s commitment to women s empowerment is strong at the highest political levels. Yet continued disparities remain in the country s labor market and in the business arena. 'Egyptian Women Workers and Entrepreneurs' analyzes these disparities and makes recommendations for needed change to ensure a level playing field. This groundbreaking book brings together data and extensive evidence on barriers to women s entry into business in Egypt and makes the case for actions to ensure gender equality. This book is based on a study that the Egyptian Ministry of Investment and Ministry of Manpower and Migration, and the National Council for Women requested to assist in analyzing the factors that influence women s low participation rate in economic activities, including the labor market and entrepreneurship. 'Egyptian Women Workers and Entrepreneurs' aims to fill the significant research gap on these subjects in Egypt as well as to provide suggestions to address continued gender inequalities. This book will be useful for donors, nongovernmental organizations, and researchers working to address gender barriers.




Enterprising Women


Book Description

This book brings together new household and enterprise data from 41 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to inform policy makers and practitioners about ways to expand women entrepreneurs' economic opportunities. Women's empowerment is recognized as the third millennium development goal; in 2012 the World Bank dedicated its annual flagship, the World Development Report, to gender equality and development (World Bank 2011); and the Nobel prize for peace was awarded to three pioneering women (two from Liberia) working for peace in their countries' fights for democracy and for greater opportunities for women. This book focuses attention on Sub-Saharan Africa, and specifically on entrepreneurship in the nonagricultural sector. The issue of gender disparities in economic opportunities in the region has been studied in terms of gaps in wage income and in job sorting in wage work (Arbache, Kolev, and Filipiak 2010; Fafchamps, Soderbom, and Benhassine 2009; Kolev and Sirven 2010). Other cross-country work has looked at entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa, but rarely with much attention paid to gender (Bigsten and Soderbom 2006; Tybout 2000; World Bank 2004). But entrepreneurship is where women in Sub-Saharan Africa are most active outside of agriculture. So it is critical to look at entrepreneurship to understand the extent of gender disparities in economic opportunities, determine the underlying reasons for these gender patterns, and develop an agenda to enable more women to realize their full potential.




Egyptian Female Labor Force Participation and the Future of Economic Empowerment


Book Description

This book sheds the light on the Egyptian females’ participation in labor force since 1960’s up to 2030. The main objective is to study trends of females’ participation in labor force and to predict the future participation. Egypt female participation in labor force has been increased slowly during the last fifty years since 1960’s, in spite of the encouragement polices that the government has adopted to empower women, particularly economic empowerment. Egypt's population size has rapidly increased during the past decades to about 90 million inhabitants in 2016. The working-age population (15-64) represents about 64% of the total population. Females represent about 49% of the working age population. However, they represent only about 24% of labor force in Egypt. Through its five chapters, this book will discuss the history of women's economic empowerment in Egypt, provide background on the trends of the most important female characteristics during the last decades, combines descriptive analysis with working life tables to break down the progression of the role of women in the Egyptian labor force, and presents a view of what could come in the time between now and 2030 in terms of the rights of women in this particular region.




The Environment for Women's Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa


Book Description

The commonly held perception is that businesses owned by women in the Middle East and North Africa are small and informal, that they're less sophisticated, and that they're huddled in low-value-added sectors. In fact, as The Environment for Women's Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa shows, there is very little difference between mail- and female-owned firms. Female-owned firms in the region are as well-established, productive, technologically savvy, and connected to global markets as male-owned firms. Although there are many similar characteristics and performance levels between male- and female-owned firms in the region, the book notes that women's entrepreneurship isn't reaching its potential, despite an investment climate that is much less gendered than suspected. With a significant increase in women's education level-in 11 out of 18 countries in the region women outnumber men in universities-and the strong economic rights women have in Islam, women's entrepreneurship can become a far greater engine for growth and diversification than expected in the past. This potential needs to be exploited vigorously. Reforming the investment climate to benefit all players is one important action. The second would be to remove or mitigate hurdles to their economic and social empowerment.




Women Entrepreneurs in Egypt


Book Description

Abstract: Although all entrepreneurs and business owners encounter obstacles and barriers, the challenges that female entrepreneurs face in Egypt are surmount. Female entrepreneurs in Egypt lack the requisite training and basic advising services that would keep them updated with new technological skills. Moreover, women are more likely to discontinue their businesses due to limited access to finance. Furthermore, women face restrictive legal and institutional burdens when establishing their business or when starting a new one. In addition, cultural constraints are another challenge that negatively influence women's credibility, their empowerment and self-confidence. The current study, intends to investigate the challenges that female entrepreneurs encounter, as business owners or start-up entrepreneurs in Egypt. The study contributes to the literature on women entrepreneurs by highlighting the challenges they face and presenting solutions that could help to promote their contribution in the economy. The results are based on semi-structured, face to face and phone interviews with seventeen female entrepreneurs from different business fields across different ages, ranging from 25 to 45 years old.




Women, Work And Welfare In The Middle East And North Africa: The Role Of Socio-demographics, Entrepreneurship And Public Policies


Book Description

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, and in light of socio-economic and geopolitical challenges facing governments old and new, women's rights and empowerment have gained new urgency and relevance. Groups in power, or groups contesting for power, are more conservative than expected, and there are serious threats to roll back some of the gains women had achieved over the past 20-30 years on economic and social fronts.The global gender debate has neglected the economic dimension of women's empowerment and a great deal of debate and interest among researchers is needed to push the topics further. This timely book brings together leading regional researchers to offer original research linking gender equality with economic policy, reinforcing the agenda from a broad-based perspective.