CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Understanding the role played by the social, cultural and economic factors in entrepreneurship is the key to comprehend how to encourage culture and entrepreneurial behavior. A first explanation for this stems from Sociology. From this perspective, it is stated that women are less entrepreneurial than men due to stereotypes and roles that are attributed according to their gender and move away from attitudes of domain or achievement, placing them in roles near housework, childcare and their elders (Eagly, 1987). Also, within this perspective other researchers say how men are positioned in society today, through certain patterns, ideologies and speeches reinforce its dominant position in the labor market and relegate women to the background (Connell, 1990). Secondly and closely related to the above, understanding the national culture is essential to analyze how each country values and rewards the behaviors that promote entrepreneurial behavior. In this sense, in those countries where social roles are closer to competitiveness, ambition and achievement, that is to say, where highlight the roles attributed to the male group would be expected lower rates of female entrepreneurship (McGrath, Macmillan, & Scheinberg, 1992; Shane, 1992, 1991).
The influence of culture on economic growth and entrepreneurship was first recognized by Max Weber at the beginning of this century. Marx Weber posited that Protestantism encouraged a culture that emphasized individualism, achievement motivation; legitimating entrepreneurial vocations, rationality, asceticism, and self-reliance. Thus, it has been shown that the Protestant ethic was a fundamental drive for the spirit of entrepreneurship, modern capitalism and growth of western economies (Kayed and Hassan, 2011).
People have different motives and intentions of going into entrepreneurship. The economic reform introduced by the various government in the developing countries that begins in the 1980s leading to loss of employment and reduction in income pushed many people to become entrepreneurs in developing countries. Eijdenberg and Masurel (2013) opined that people in developing countries are more driven by poverty and lack job to become an self reliant while in the developed countries, entrepreneurial activities springs up of desire to seize an opportunity and innovation to start a business. The harsh environmental factors together with high rate of poverty and unemployment bring about a high rate of entrepreneurial activities in developing countries. Gender and cultural beliefs have indeed continued to hamper development and growth of women entrepreneurs in developing nation. Halkias, Nwajiuba, Harkiolakis and Caracatsanis (2011) in their work also posited that gender and cultural belief usually block the economic capacity of women as entrepreneurs and affects negatively on enterprise development, productivity, competitiveness and reduce the growth of the economy. This study seeks to address the challenge of gender and cultural beliefs by examining how they block the growth of women entrepreneurs in developing countries and suggestions are made on how to overcome the problems.
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