Women Entrepreneurs on the African Continent and Beyond

The existing research on women in entrepreneurship has improved our understanding of structural inequalities in markets. However, this research focusses on women entrepreneurs in the North, including the United States and Europe (Edoho 2015; Sheriff & Muffatto 2015). There is a lack of information on challenges and obstacles of women in Africa (both North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa) to manage and start a new business (Diop Thiam 2015; Mbodji Diop 2019). Our session’s research question is: how do female entrepreneurs perceive and describe the experience of running a successful formal business in Africa and beyond? This session intends to understand how women entrepreneurs make meaning from their lived experiences. Empirical case studies from the African continent and the African diaspora and beyond are invited for this session.