Food for Thought? A Tale of Two African Women Businesses

This study highlights the challenges faced by women business owners (WBOs) in what is traditionally a woman dominated sector - i.e. catering. Drawing upon two cases, based on completed in-depth interviews from Anglophone Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, the study highlights some of the shared challenges of WBOs in SSA. While unpacking the WBOs' background (nationality, ethnicity, education, family etc.); prior motivations (why they chose to start-up); challenges (including start-up capital, government regulations, personal achievements), and plans for the future - the study seeks to spur further research enquiry on the subject and especially so in the context of SSA. Ultimately, it is hoped that future studies may begin to explore the gender compositions of ownership of catering businesses across SSA and whether there are any regional or sub-regional disparities.