Female Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium-Size Enterprise Growth : Evidence From Congo

Female entrepreneurship depends both on the women’s situation and the place of entrepreneurship in a society. Firms under women management are actually increasing quickly in Congo. However, women entrepreneurs are still facing insufficient human and social capital, and limited access to adequate financial resources to grow their firms because of discrimination and gender issues. This study aims to analyze SME growth owned by women, and thus, raise the relationship between female entrepreneurship and SME growth. Data was collected empirically by using a structured questionnaire and treated using descriptive statistics and the Logistic Regression. The findings confirm that SMEs owned by women show a better sales growth and a low employment growth. It is because women usually use family workforce (labor). The logistic regression findings show a positive and significant relationship between firm’s age and sales growth, and a negative relationship between idea to create firm and employment growth. Thus, women entrepreneurs are still having insufficient social capital and financial resources needed to grow their firms. Keywords: Women entrepreneurs, SME growth, Bukavu town, Female entrepreneurship