A Study on the Cultural Stereotype on Women Entrepreneurship Performance and Enterprise Sustainability: A Case Study of Moshi Municipality in Tanzania

Abstract

Many women practice entrepreneurship as an occupation for continuous growth and development. However, majority of women entrepreneurship ventures remain at a small scale. This paper investigates the cultural stereotype on women entrepreneurship performance and sustainability in Moshi Tanzania. The study is anchored on the stereotype activation theory, basing on improvement of the economic status of individual household. The study objectives were: to investigate the cultural stereotype on the performance of women entrepreneurship in Moshi Municipality, to assess the gender stereotype on the performance of women entrepreneurship in Moshi Municipality and to assess the performance of women entrepreneurs towards achieving sustainable businesses in Moshi Municipality. A case study design was used then data was collected through extensive qualitative data collection methods: The target population was women fundraising groups ‘Vikoba' obtained through the snowball sampling. The sample size for this study comprised 60 participants that were selected through stratified sampling technique. Both primary (focused groups) and secondary data were used. The data was analysed through descriptive statistics, and presented using percentages, frequencies, contextual themes and narrative methods to draw conclusions. The findings showed that culture allowed most women to be involved in business. However, some communities did not fully support women entrepreneurial activities, also, women had a desire to be involved in business but they experienced challenges like capital, loan accessibility and permission to do business from there families. Conclusions: the issue of stereotyping women on various issues was still a major stumbling block to the development and sustainability of enterprises. Women had a desire to run their own enterprises or be involved in the management of family businesses. Recommendations: women should be allowed to do business and also be given opportunity to wealth inheritance and creation for sustainability of life and business ventures. Women should also be given more opportunities to access education which contribute towards the entrepreneurial spirit and reduces women discrimination.