Women entrepreneurs in construction in a development context

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Background, demarcation, scope, limitations & author’s related experience

The Women in Construction (WiC) initiative was originally founded in 1997. WiC later developed into the South African Women in Construction (SAWiC) with some of its objectives to protect women entrepreneurs in construction against discrimination, to access construction contracts, to create and secure business opportunities, to enhance their business enterprises, to promote women in the industry, to identify problems, come up with solutions, to establish a competitive edge and to showcase their successes in order to survive in the male dominated construction industry. The linkage through affiliation with the National Association of Women in Construction in the USA, namely NAWIC, provides access to information from Canada, UK, Australia, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Moreover it provides the opportunity to share experiences and t reach out to developing countries to learn about similarities and differences.
This research was initiated by the SAWiC secretariat as part of a capacity building programme within the Knowledge Management Cluster (KMC) of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). It presents a window of opportunity and a challenge for the author, as a specialist in the DBSA KMC and as Founder of SAWiC, to apply her skills and expertise to a worthy cause such as to obtain new knowledge during a time when ‘learning institutions’ and ‘knowledge management’ are important aspects.
Constitutionally in South Africa (SA) there is a will to help previously disadvantaged individuals, especially women, but client bodies do not know how to reach out to them. This study is aimed at addressing this need.
This thesis mainly focuses on a comparative study between the associations, SAWiC in South Africa and NAWIC in America. South Africa is a developing country while the USA is a developed country and useful lessons of experience can be obtained through studying information from these two organisations that are dealing with women entrepreneurs in construction. Only members, service providers and stakeholders of these associations were targeted to ensure that respondents are knowledgeable as well as give relevant and informed inputs to this research study. Thus respondents include a limited number of men as service providers and stakeholders. This will assist SAWiC with future strategic planning, maximising development impact of women in construction interventions through enabling measures to achieve that goal. As founder of SAWiC the author initiated the research programme to streamline the activities, output, outcome and impact of SAWiC to uphold their slogan « Constructing a brighter future ».

Chapter 1: Introduction and research design
1.1 Research orientation
1.2 Background, demarcation, scope, limitations & author’s related experience
1.3 Problem statement
1.4 Research objectives: Aim, purpose, beneficiaries and benefits
1.5 Research questions
1.6 Research design, methodology, information management & deliverables
1.7 Descriptors and classification of research design
1.8 Hypotheses and proposition formulation
1.8.1 The thesis hypothesis design
1.8.2 The thesis design flow chart
1.8.3 The propositions of SA versus USA on the constructs regarding Yourself, Men and Women in general are as follows
1.8.4 The propositions of SA’s nine provinces versus USA on the constructs regarding Yourself, Men and Women in general are as follows
1.8.5 Proposition summary of SA – USA combined on the constructs regarding Yourselves, Men, and Women in general 1
1.9 Schematic layout of the research design
1.10 Definitions setting the scene
Chapter 2: Women entrepreneurs in construction in a development context
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Entrepreneurship: America’s secret weapon
2.3 Uniqueness of women entrepreneurs
2.4 Women in non-traditional work (What?)
2.4.1 International scene
2.4.2 USA scene
2.4.3 African scene
2.4.4 South African scene
2.5 International and USA tendencies of women in the construction industry
2.5.1 International tendencies
2.5.2 USA tendencies
2.6 SA tendencies of women in the construction industry
2.7 Women’s niches as construction entrepreneurs
2.8 Comparison of women and men entrepreneurs
2.9 Comparative summary table between women and men entrepreneurs
2.10 Conclusions
Chapter 3: Initiating factors: Why are women involved i construction?
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Procurement in South Africa: A window of opportunity
3.3 Exploratory research on the question ‘why involved in construction?’
3.4 Triggering events
3.5 Distinguishing between pull and push factors
3.6 Positive pull factors (+)
3.7 Need for achievement (nAch) and motivation as positive pull factors
3.7.1 Economic growth, nAch and entrepreneurial behaviour as positive pull factors
3.7.2 The notion of entrepreneurship, nAch and role models as positive pull
3.7.3 Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) assessing nAch as a positive drive
3.7.4 Entrepreneurial behaviour and nAch as positive pull factors
3.7.5 The need to do things better as a positive motivating drive
3.8 Other sources of positive pull factors
3.9 Negative push factors (-)
3.10 Conclusion 52
Chapter 4: Factors that influence performance; Barriers(-) and success (+)
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Barriers (-) and discrimination against women defined
4.2.1 The ‘glass ceiling’ as an entrepreneurial barrier for women
4.2.2 Discrimination, gender neutrality and democracy
4.2.3 Women, gender, sex, breadwinners and human rights
4.2.4 Uniqueness of women vs. business barriers
4.2.5 Historical discrimination, trends and challenges over millenniums
4.2.6 Violence against women limiting their entrepreneurial performance
4.2.7 Women entrepreneurs and the poverty trap
4.2.8 The misuse of religion in discriminating against women
4.2.9 Marital practices inhibiting women’s entrepreneurial performance
4.2.10 Traditional and ethnical related discriminatory practices inhibiting women’ entrepreneurial performance
4.2.11 Social and societal discrimination against women women entrepreneurs
4.2.12 The economics of gender discrimination and oppression
4.3 Success (+) of women entrepreneurs in construction
4.4 Conclusion
Chapter 5: Case studies and the entrepreneurial process
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Case studies and how it links tothe entrepreneurial process
5.3 Mentoring as it impacts on growth of women-owned businesses
5.4 Growth, Gender and Business Size: Does one size fit all?
5.5 Gender differences in the value placed on growth
5.6 South African Case Studies
5.7 USA Case Studies
5.8 Findings and Conclusions
Chapter 6: Empirical analysis: Instrument design and testing
Chapter 7: Empirical analysis: Comparison between SA USA and the nine SA
provinces regarding the constructs formulated in
Chapters 3, 4 and 6
Chapter 8: Findings, conclusions, recommendations and future research
Web Pages
Annexures