Women Entrepreneurship in Tanzania: Entry and Performance Barriers
Lettice Kinunda Rutashobya
ABSTRACT: The study sets to identify social, cultural and economic factors that hinder or limit women’s entry into entrepreneurship in Tanzania and those that adversely affect their performance. A survey of 43 women entrepreneurs was conducted through questionnaires. A case study on the business start-up history of one successful woman entrepreneur is also included in the study. The findings of the study reveal that women participated in low demand and in service-oriented activities that were often prone to horizontal expansion. Their choice of activities, growth strategies, recruitment practices and reinvestment policies were all household-centred rather than business-cantered. The result is that most of the activities were gender typed. The author concludes that any interventions geared toward promoting female entrepreneurship should address both strategic and practical needs. Structural needs that would encompass a re-orientation of economic policy and the industrial policy should also be addressed. A successful way of identifying the strategic and practical needs of women should focus on the various entrepreneurial behaviours of women.