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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.

1.2   Statement of the Problem

A consistent empirical result emerging in the literature on female entrepreneurship is that gender matters. In particular, women exhibit a consistently lower likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur than their male counterparts. With African nations being dominantly patriarchal, the extent to which women are able to freely participate in entrepreneurship activities will largely be determined by the existing cultural atmosphere. Considering the various cultural and structural challenges and obstacles facing women, someone may quickly conclude that women are usually discouraged from venturing into enterprise development. First, early socialisation practices emphasise the primary role of women as mothers and wives, influencing girls’ total expectations for future participation in the labour force and the choice of career paths. Second, an African culture is mainly seen as a barrier to development because it perpetuates culturally sanctioned biases against women and provides excuses for men. This has resulted in lower participation of women in business activities.

1.3   Research Questions

The following are some of the questions which this study intends to answer:

i)what is the prevalence of gender culture and entrepreneurship development?

ii) what are the factors responsible for gender culture and entrepreneurship development?

iii) what the effects of gender culture and entrepreneurship development on the economy of Nigeria?