An Empirical Insight into the Factors Affecting the Oscillation of Women Between Self- and Paid Employment in South Africa

Abstract

Discourse in entrepreneurship has highlighted the importance of understanding the entrepreneurial motivation of women. Although prior literature documents significant similarity in women motivations there is limited understanding of what motivates South African women to oscillate between self-employment and paid employment. Therefore, this study aims to highlight these factors by exploring the career mobility perspective with expectancy, motivational and work-life balance perspectives. The study utilizes the interpretive phenomenological approach (IPA) to understand the influencing factors of women's oscillation from self to paid employment in the South African socio-economic and cultural context.Sample was drawn from a population of women entrepreneurs in South Africa via interviews and focus group discussions. The results show that a major factor influencing women decision to engage in entrepreneurship is the need to achieve work-life balance. The inability to secure financial capital, gender bias, social and cultural norms are the most significant challenges women face in South Africa, thus leaving them with no option than to seek sustenance in paid employment while maintaining their businesses by the side.

The Role of Education in Increasing Market and New Product Development Performance in the Context of Female Entrepreneurship: The Case of Croatia

“…Literature states that women are more likely to enter into entrepreneurial endeavors and start their own businesses due to their strong desire for flexibility and to achieve a work-family balance (Hummer, 2021;Matysiak & Mynarska, 2020). Therefore, parenthood is one of the main factors determining women's' desire for becoming an entrepreneur (Irene, Abdullah & Murithi, 2022;. This also presents challenges to acquiring the same amounts of experience in entrepreneurship.…”