Emergence of women's entrepreneurship in rural local development processes

This chapter examines the factors that foster the emergence of women’s microenterprises in a local development process in a rural area from a territorial development perspective. To fulfil the chapter objective, we use a triangulation method based on the analysis of three focus groups of 36 women. These focus groups included 23 individual interviews in rural area in Ivory Coast and documentary research. First, we show that the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship in a local development process in a rural setting requires a combination of entrepreneurial competencies, an area that incubates women’s entrepreneurship, and the implementation of a planning strategy that favors women’s participation. Second, we show that the more women feel competent, the more they will participate in local development processes and create an area that incubates their microenterprises through economic interest groups. Finally, we show that the capacities of rural women to mobilize endogenous resources can enhance the financing of local development.