Challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in developing countries

Entrepreneurship plays a key role in the economic development of a country. Without doubt, entrepreneurship helps in enhancing people’s productivity and contributes to the wealth of the nations. Globally, governments, social service organizations and like-minded individuals endeavor to promote entrepreneurship through various entrepreneurial initiatives.

In fact, there are several schemes and initiatives focusing on establishing economic stability and independence among disadvantaged women. For example, setting up self-help groups is a very effective and popular initiative undertaken by governments for improving the financial status of disadvantaged women in many countries. Evidently, women from lower economic strata have the opportunity to become self-dependent through their participation in these self-help groups.

Certainly, women in many developing countries involve in various entrepreneurial activities contributing to the economic growth of their country. Moreover, this leads to an increase in the global economy as well. Most of these women become entrepreneurs due to unemployment, illiteracy, pressures of being a single parent, harassment by husband, or suppression due to financial dependency. 

Nevertheless, the women involved in entrepreneurial activities face several challenges that hamper their productivity and entrepreneurial performance. Some of the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in developing countries are listed below.

Challenges faced by women entrepreneurs

Although the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs are many and varied, some of the most common problems are:

• Lack of family and community support
• Limited knowledge and awareness on marketing strategies and lack of marketing skills
• Lack of networking knowledge and opportunities
• Poor leadership, decision-making and problem-solving abilities
• Low self-confidence
• Lack or insufficient knowledge and awareness on management of enterprise
• Lack of necessary and relevant training opportunities
• Limited knowledge on purchasing, advertising and promotion
• Poor public relations skill
• Social and cultural barriers
• Inability to maintain accounts and low awareness on bookkeeping
• Insufficient funds for business
• Pressures from money lenders
• Lack of support and cooperation from other women (group members in case of self-help groups)
• Lack of knowledge on technology usage and legal systems
• Lack of support and guidance from government

So, as seen above, the challenges are many and from different arenas. Obviously, this has encouraged many scholars and researchers to conduct studies from different perspectives among women entrepreneurs in developing countries. Likewise, if you are interested in conducting a research on the challenges of women entrepreneurs, here is a sample questionnaire covering the various aspects listed above. The questionnaire has 30 statements on a five-point scale. You may use it for your academic or research purpose. Also, feel free to modify or add more statements to suit your requirements. However, please do acknowledge this source.

For more sample questionnaires click http://questmeraki.com/category/questionnaires-samples/