There has been an increase in women-owned
businesses across the world. In the USA
In 2006, this had increased to 7.7 million
women-owned firms, employing more than 7.16 million people Between
1991 and 2001, the rate of self-employment amongst Canadian women grew by 43
percent .
In
2005, approximately 866,000 Canadian women were self-employed, accounting for
about one third of self-employed persons. Similarly, there has been a growth in
the number of self-employed women in the UK, from 899,000 in 1992 to 1,013,000
in 2006, an increase of 10%
Despite the increase in the number of
women-owned enterprises and their increasing impact on the economy, most
women-owned businesses have been concentrated in micro and small enterprises.
This is especially true in developing countries.
GEM South African Report (2006) found that
for a period of five years (2002-2006), most of the women who engaged in
entrepreneurial activities were not graduating to higher levels of
entrepreneurship.
In Tanzania , although there
are no comprehensive data on the number of women in SMEs, the University of Dar es salaam
In order to improve
the contribution of these small businesses in the development process, a larger
proportion of these informal and micro enterprises need to grow.
There are several advantages
associated with growing firms:
First, as group, growing businesses generate
most of the new jobs in an economy, and increase productivity (Storey, 1994).
Second, growing firms
are more likely to innovate, since they may have access to greater financial
and technological resources (Rothwell, 1989).
Third, as firms grow,
they become more formalized and therefore bound by tax and labour laws. This broadens the economy’s viable tax base
(Storey, 1994).
Source: Dr Hawa Petro (2011)
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