Building Resilient Economies for All — Women’s Month Reflections

This Women’s Month (2025), the theme “Building Resilient Economies for All” calls on South Africa to move beyond compliance and unlock the full potential of women entrepreneurs.  

Despite strong representation in the workforce, women still face major barriers to funding, supply chain inclusion, and decision-making. Transcend helps corporates turn B-BBEE levers into strategic tools that support scalable, women-led businesses, driving real transformation and economic growth. 

The question is: Will it finally facilitate real access, or will it become another well-intended initiative that misses the mark?

Inclusive growth and economic resilience require fully engaging half the population.  In Africa, women already drive a large share of entrepreneurship – 58% of self-employed Africans are women – and they reinvest up to 90% of their income into family health, education and nutrition [link to GEM women’s report].  In South Africa specifically, women-led firms make up more than one-third of formal businesses and are key to job creation in high-unemployment areas.  Supporting women’s enterprises is thus a catalyst for broader growth: research shows female-led businesses spur innovation, create employment and help alleviate poverty as women plow earnings back into their communities.  As Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga noted at the 2025 Women’s Month launch (theme “Building resilient economies for all”), “we cannot speak of resilient economies if women are not able to access funding… or access markets”.  Unlocking this potential hinges on addressing the specific challenges South African women face in education, skills and entrepreneurship. 

Despite the promise, South African women encounter multiple barriers as they strive to educate themselves and build businesses.  They continue to bear a disproportionate share of unemployment and underemployment.  In mid-2024 nearly 40% of women with only a high-school qualification were jobless – rising from 28.8% in 2014 to 39.5% in 2024 – and women of all education levels face higher joblessness than men.  This limited labour-market opportunity often pushes women into informal or subsistence entrepreneurship.  Yet once they try to start businesses, structural hurdles multiply: 

• Access to finance and resources: Women entrepreneurs are frequently denied loans or investment due to lack of collateral and risk bias.  In a recent survey, 44% of South African women entrepreneurs cited lack of funding as a barrier, and 25% said simply not knowing how to set up a business was an obstacle. 

• Education and skills gaps: Many women lack business training or technical skills, especially in the digital economy.  The unequal education system means women often miss out on in-demand skills, and high data costs limit rural women’s online access.  Without mentorship or startup know-how, businesses struggle to grow. 

• Social norms and care burdens:  Deep-rooted gender roles assign women disproportionate care and domestic duties, restricting their time and mobility.  Traditional expectations and even safety concerns in male-dominated sectors further hamper women’s ability to network or expand. 

• Regulatory and market barriers: Women-led businesses often operate in low-margin, informal sectors with limited economies of scale.  Bureaucratic red tape, over-regulation of small business, and lack of maternity/family-friendly policies all weigh on women more heavily.  As one advocate put it, a truly “resilient economy” cannot emerge if women face barriers at the very start of building their small businesses. 

These obstacles add up: in South Africa far fewer women advance through the entrepreneurial pipeline than men.  Only 6.9% of women are nascent entrepreneurs versus 9.4% of men, and just 4.1% of women run established businesses compared to 7.9% of men.  Alarmingly, women also have a higher business exit rate (5.1% vs. 4.8% for men), often citing lack of profitability and financing as reasons.  Essentially, gender gaps persist at all stages – from schooling to startup – undermining both women’s own earnings and the broader economy’s resilience. 

Current Strategies and Policy Recommendations 

South African policymakers and partners are increasingly focused on closing these gaps.  At the national level, 2025 programming has underscored women’s entrepreneurship as a priority.  The Department of Women (DWYPD) and allies launched the “Women Trade Intervention Dialogue” in August 2025 to coincide with Women’s Month.  This event – under the “Building resilient economies for all” theme – brought informal women traders together with government and private sector partners to discuss support for key sectors (agriculture, manufacturing, green energy) and to “de-risk” women’s financial inclusion.  New initiatives were highlighted, including bank-led programs like ABSA’s “She’s Next”, Standard Bank’s Women in Business Award, and Nedbank’s WomanRise; a Department of Science & Tech scheme for women in tech; as well as regional efforts (a SADC Women’s Economic Empowerment plan and a G20 women’s working group). 

At the local and NGO level, public–private partnerships and training programs have reached thousands of women.  For example, the Coca-Cola/UN Women 5by20 initiative has provided business skills training to over 45,000 women in South Africa (and aimed to reach 5 million globally).  Similarly, entrepreneurial development centers and grants (such as the Department of Basic Education’s E3 programme) have been launched to bridge skill gaps in the entrepreneurial space.  These efforts reflect evidence that when women receive mentoring and support, they quickly scale their business: trainees often report better planning, bookkeeping and marketing skills, which translate into higher revenues and more jobs. 

Experts and recent studies emphasize how to scale these gains further.  A Stellenbosch Business School/GEM report (2024) offers clear policy guidance: South Africa has a progressive suite of gender-equality laws and enterprise support, but must improve their implementation and visibility.  Policymakers lack timely, sex-disaggregated data on women’s entrepreneurship, so the report urges targeted research and a focus on women’s participation.  Key recommendations from this and similar analyses include: 

• Boost access to finance and training. Designate grants and credit lines for women-run startups and expand mentorship programmes in underserved areas. For instance, targeting bank-backed funds or crowdfunding platforms at female entrepreneurs (as ABSA’s and Nedbank’s programs aim to do) can begin to close the existing funding gap. 

• Strengthen women-focused networks and resources.  Small, localized business associations or training cohorts for women can provide peer support and shared learning.  In practice, this means funding women-only incubators, cooperative schemes, and community outreach (especially in rural or township areas) to overcome isolation. 

• Raise visibility and role models.  Concerted media coverage of successful women entrepreneurs helps break stereotypes and inspires others.  The GEM report notes that when women’s successes are profiled, public perceptions shift, and more women are motivated to start businesses. 

• Invest in early and broad education. Entrepreneurship education in schools, especially for girls, should become more common – including in rural and township schools.  Basic business and financial literacy (from record-keeping to digital marketing) will make future entrepreneurs more resilient.  Improved STEM and vocational training for women also addresses long-term skills imbalances. 

• Promote leadership and digital inclusion.  Ensuring women have a seat at the table – in corporate management, investment decision-making, and government – helps shape policies in their favor.  Similarly, expanding women’s access to the internet, mobile banking and digital marketplaces (as outlined above) is vital, given how tech gaps currently limit rural and small-business owners. 

Together, these strategies – combining financial incentives, networks, role models, education and infrastructure – create an ecosystem where more women can succeed.  As one analysis concludes, entrepreneurship is “vital for alleviating poverty” and “generating employment opportunities”.  In a developing economy like South Africa’s, boosting women entrepreneurs directly feeds into these resilience goals. 

The evidence is clear: to build truly resilient economies for all, South Africa must continue and deepen its support for women’s education and entrepreneurship.  Efforts to date – from bank grants to entrepreneurship centres – have moved the needle, but gaps remain.  By expanding these programs, enforcing gender-focused policies and reducing remaining barriers (financial, educational and cultural), South Africa can harness the untapped talent of millions of women.  As the research shows, doing so will not only empower individual women and their families, but will also strengthen the nation as a whole.   

Promoting women’s inclusion in entrepreneurship is not just social justice – it is smart economics.  Entrepreneurship “generates employment opportunities, easing the country’s high levels of unemployment and poverty”.  Ensuring all women can participate fully is essential to that resilience – and to fulfilling the vision of an economy that works for everyone.