In October’s entrepreneurship forum at the ihub led by professor Bitange Ndemo, we are discussing women in Entrepreneurship. To enhance the conversation on entrepreneurship, it is essential to look at the differences between how women and men do business. In the presentation titled ‘Women Entrepreneurship: What explains the gender gap in entrepreneurship and how to close it?/Research and Neglected Problem Areas‘ some statistics related to women in Entrepreneurship in Africa……

1. Did you know that 90% of the people who borrow from Mshwari are women and of those almost none are defaulters? I think that sends a strong message about the credibility of how women do business.
2. Research done in 2016 shows that men entrepreneurs tend to be successful between the age of 18 – 26 and women tend to be successful after the age of 35. Although it is not known the real reason behind this statistic, it is speculated that women in their natural multi-tasking ability can handle the pressures of raising a family while at the same time succeeding in enterprise. On the other hand, men tend to be successful before they get married.
3. 71% of the entrepreneurial ideas came through replication/modification of another person’s idea, the problem with this is that most business that is developed through replication never go above 20% margin yet the economic rule of thumb states that if a business opportunity cannot generate above 20% margin it is highly unlikely to grow in the long term.
4. In the United States, some insurance companies allow women to pay less for their insurance the argument is that women are less prone to risks as compared to men for example in most cases women with families tend to get home early compared to men who will tend to stay out late until for instance 9 pm. It is assumed that someone who is at home by 6 pm is less risk-prone as compared to someone who gets home at 9 pm. The point is policies fueled by organizations and government can enhance the way women do business. The Kenyan government has tried to improve this by creating opportunities such as women fund and the two-thirds gender rule but this like most problems with government policies is a ‘one size fits all implementation‘ which doesn’t seem to take into consideration that within the demographic of women there are challenges that affect different types of women differently. i.e a woman in Taita Taveta would have different challenges compared to a woman in Machakos.

Networks and Negotiations

An example is given to us in the form of a challenge during this forum where the men in the room were asked…’ Would you permit your wife to play golf with your friends as a form of the network?’. This question raised a lot of debate in the room so much so it became an over hour-long debate. Some felt that the word ‘permission’ and ‘allow’ is belittling to women and her ability to claim her space. Some felt it was the responsibility of the men and society, in general, to empower women through information and education. It was also raised that golf is traditionally a male networking space and just because women don’t generally use that as a form of networking is not mean the form of network is ‘powerless’. Women tend to use spaces such as a church, ‘chamas‘, alumni groups, etc. and they are just as significant.

Way-forward

We cannot have a conversation about women without involving the men and for me, the beauty of this is that men are now getting involved and they are positive and opinionated about this. The recommendation to address challenges facing women in Entrepreneurship is to create forums that give information to disadvantaged women about how they can better their lives, their business, and the society around them.