Abstract
This research investigates the ineffectiveness of entrepreneurship financing policy for Jua Kali women entrepreneurs rural Kenya. Current research is dominated by functionalist notions of entrepreneurship which emphasise the importance of economic growth and the role of entrepreneurship in securing it (Gartner, 1990: Shane and Ventakaraman, 2000; Lafuente et al 2020). Although entrepreneurship has usually been considered as a masculine domain, recent studies emphasize women’s contribution, yet their businesses are labelled as feminine, ‘lifestyle’, of low growth potential and largely situated in informal economy (Welter et al., 2015). Consequently, as the concept of women’s entrepreneurship is increasingly regarded as a matter of global importance (De Vita et al., 2014, Marlow, 2020) a proliferation of numerous entrepreneurship policies financing its agenda continues to be witnessed globally (for example The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) cascading down to continental and national levels. However, despite the presence of these policies, women entrepreneurs have not been on the same footing as men entrepreneurs in accessing opportunities and financial resources. The analysis shows poor governance and rural marginalisation as the main institutional political constraint to policy implementation in Kenya. Thus, this study’s objective and context can be justified as timely to investigate the ineffectiveness of enterprise policies for rural women Jua Kali entrepreneurs in Kenya