Gender differences in the motivations and barriers of entrepreneurs: evidence from a survey in Mitchell's plain
The central premise of this study is that entrepreneurs and the services they provide can fulfil a significant role in the attempts by the South African government to achieve sustainable economic growth and counter unemployment simultaneously. 1 The former is further supported by the assertion that the employment rate at any given moment is an indicator of the state of the economy, and for this reason, sustained employment creation should be a by-product of economic growth (Nieman, Hough & Nieuwenhuizen, 2003). Therefore, if it is generally accepted and acknowledged by the government that entrepreneurs have a critical role to play in developing the economy, efforts need to be made to ensure that they (entrepreneurs) have inter-alia the necessary and appropriate governmental support to initiate, sustain and grow their businesses. Moreover, this study broadly argues that maximising the pool of potential entrepreneurs requires firstly, that barriers to business entry are understood, and then accordingly lowered for both females and males. More specifically, the study addresses whether females and males experience shared motivations and barriers in their entrepreneurial endeavours and whether gender impacts on the manner in which the term 'entrepreneur' is constructed and applied. It should also be noted that this study argues that entrepreneurs face a range of barriers in their quests to become and ultimately to remain an entrepreneur.
Barriers, Classic entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Female entrepreneur, Forced entrepreneur
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations