Abstract:
In South Africa, women entrepreneurs do not enjoy the same opportunities
as men in accessing start-up capital due to a number of
discriminatory practices embedded in lending models. This study seeks
to understand the gender-specific barriers to raising start-up capital, and
adopts a mixed methods approach that includes semi-structured interviews
with experts and a survey of women entrepreneurs. All participants
were from the small business sector in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal,
South Africa. The findings revealed the gendered nature of start-up
capital for women entrepreneurs in South Africa, and the difficulty
women face in venturing into non-traditional industries. The findings build
on previous research by focusing on the intersection between women’s
contribution to the economy and their production activities in the informal
and domestic context. This study calls for the activities of women
entrepreneurs in these sectors of the economy to be recognised within
lending models, and as constituting a valuable area of economic growth
