Global Journal of Management and Business Research, A: Administration and Management, Volume 23 Issue 9

Challenges and Prospects for Women Entrepreneurs in Tunisia Nizar Mtibaa α & Sami Boudabbous σ Author α : Enseignant chercheur Université de Sfax, Tunisie. Faculté des Sciences Economiques et de Gestion. Lab: Gouvernance, Finance et comptabilité. e-mail: nizar.mtibaa@isgis.usf.tn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4427-0680 Author σ : Professeur de l’université, Université de Sfax, Tunisie. Faculté des Sciences Economiques et de Gestion. Lab: Gouvernance, Finance et comptabilité. e-mail: samiboudabbous2002@yahoo.fr ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7709-2343 Summary- Women who do not have a salaried employment contract have the opportunity to work on a self-employed basis to generate an income. Under self-employed status, these women take on, alone or perhaps in partnership, all the financial, administrative and social risks involved in developing their activities. In this approach, we will focus on the reality of these women who are self-employed. The aim of this research is to understand the entrepreneurial process of women, by distinguishing three different realities: women entrepreneurs, women in the professions and women involved in cooperatives. This shows how complex and diverse the notion of female entrepreneurship is. Through this research, we defend the idea that we need to approach the situation of these women entrepreneurs from a systemic angle, since their daily lives are the result of an interaction between their professional lives and their family lives. Their choices are guided by their positions in society and by the infrastructure that society makes available to them. Finally, understanding these women entrepreneurs, and what motivates and guides their choice, cannot be done without a diversion through the reality of the labour market, and without cross-referencing other variables such as level of qualification, age or origin. Thus, we will mobilize their individual and family variables, the specific features linked to the characteristics of their companies and the sector of activity, and the socio-economic, cultural, political and legal characteristics of Tunisia. We are planning a qualitative study of 45 women entrepreneurs, to show the paradoxes in which these women operate and try to reconcile their desire for autonomy with respect for the traditional ways of thinking that still predominate in Tunisia. We therefore take a naturalistic view of the differences between men and women, taking account of the country's socio-economic and cultural realities, and their effects on the trajectories they have built around the differentiation of the social roles of men and women. I. I ntroduction he term entrepreneurship is ambiguous and often leads to confusion (Glidja, 2019; Lacle, 2020). For some, entrepreneurship means the process of setting up a business; others consider an entrepreneur to be a person who is a shareholder in a company or the head of a business (Sarr and Fall, 2021; Berabez and Beztout, 2022; Tijari and Smouni, 2023). For a third group, this term refers to all people who have launched an activity, regardless of the status chosen, the life cycle of the business or the number of employees. With regard to female entrepreneurship, Rachdi (2006) considers that it represents a significant potential that is largely underestimated. In Tunisia, 23.6% of businesses are run by women, while only 11% own their own businesses 1 A number of reforms aimed at economic restructuring have been undertaken by the public authorities in Tunisia, focusing on developing the private . Women also represent more than 51% of the population (Alomar, 2023). According to the ranking of the "TOP 100 women entrepreneurs in Tunisia", published in July 2021, 46% of women entrepreneurs in Tunisia are managing shareholders of companies, 34% are founders and 20% are co-founders. According to "Entreprises Magazine" in collaboration with "The Next Women Tunisia", 27% of women entrepreneurs in Tunisia work in the health and pharmaceutical industries, 11% in the tourism sector, 10% in the distribution sector, 9% in the finance and technology sector, 9% in the education sector, 7% in the agri-food sector, 7% in the cosmetics sector, 6% in the plastics sector, 6% in the automotive sector and 4% in other activities. According to the same sources, 61% of companies are based in Tunis, 12% in Sfax, 7% in Nabeul, 5% in Ben Arous, 4% in Sousse and 2% in Monastir. According to the World Bank (2005), businesses run by women are generally SMEs, which are generally structured around three themes: the profile of the woman entrepreneur, the profile of businesses run by women and their sector of activity, and, finally, their attitudes towards various issues, such as growth, financing, training and their management style (Hobad et al., 2023; Zogning, 2021; Mohammed, 2019). For our purposes, we will seek to determine whether women entrepreneurs have specific characteristics and behaviours compared to men, and whether these specificities require the implementation of specific entrepreneurship support systems. 1 According to the International Council of Women Entrepreneurs T Global Journal of Management and Business Research ( A ) XXIII Issue IX Version I Year 2023 39 © 2023 Global Journals