Paper short abstract:

We examine the nature and performance of women's firms in comparison to men's, in sub-Saharan Africa. We highlight empirical facts and expose myths that don't hold up to data.

Paper long abstract:

Women account for half of the population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and women entrepreneurs are increasingly playing an important role in the business sector. But, gender gaps in entrepreneurship are hardly studied in the SSA context, leaving gaps that have important policy implications. SSA lies beneath the global economic frontier, and in this context, female entrepreneurship is important because women entrepreneurs tend to have comparatively larger impact on household welfare than men. However, gender discrimination in education, access to finance, information and social network limit their participation in economic activities. Consequently, most female-owned businesses reside in low-profit and informal industry sectors such as retail. They are also comparatively smaller, less productive and less growth oriented. Some authors however, maintain that women's firms are not structurally different from men's. In this talk, I will summarise my recent research in SSA, which examines the structure and performance of women's and men's firms. I have found that women-owned firms are sometimes less productive than men's, but they are not necessarily systematically less productive. History and institutions play some roles in these findings. These insights extend the perimeter of discussions on gender equality and inclusiveness, which have hitherto centred on access to education, finance and social services rather than long-term issues like women's participation in productive economic activities particularly at the bottom of the pyramid.

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