Gender-barriers faced by women entrepreneurs in the South African mining industry

Abstract

Literature and the economic environment have emphasized the need for women to venture into entrepreneurial activities to promote the growth of the country's economy and thus alleviate poverty through reduction of unemployment. However, women’s participation is limited due to gender barriers further to entrepreneurship being embedded as a masculine concept. Furthermore, entrepreneurship studies have not included the aspect of gender as a sociocultural construct. Hence gender behaviours shaped by sociocultural norms are not considered in entrepreneurial studies. Therefore, the study explored gender-specific barriers faced by women entrepreneurs in mining, established gender barriers due to sociocultural norms and approaches to overcoming barriers thereof. The study explored the barriers by conducting a qualitative study. Sixteen (16) in-depth interviews with women entrepreneurs running businesses in the mining industry offering technical services which are regarded as male-dominated, were conducted. The findings indicated that women entrepreneurs face gender barriers and highlighted the following key barriers affecting women entrepreneurs in mining as a non-traditional industry: Patriarchy, stereotyping, discrimination, lack of networking skills, lack of access to finance, and lack of experience and skills. On the other hand, it has been established that both mining companies and government continue with efforts to promote small enterprise development and promote gender equality. However, efforts have yet to appear effective for women entrepreneurs. Therefore, women entrepreneurs should first undertake techniques that can strengthen their agency and legitimacy in order to gain access to even the most basic resources. A conceptual model was developed based on the findings of research questions anchored in the empirical study.