a gender equality success story?

In recent years Botswana has made impressive strides in the advancement of women in business. With a women’s labour force participation rate of 60%, Botswana leads globally in the percentage of business owners who are women; it was also ranked as the top African country in the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs in 2021.

According to the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law report in 2023 the country has made significant strides toward equal treatment of women under the law over the last twenty years.

How has the country managed to shift the dial on women’s empowerment, and what lessons might it hold for the rest of Africa?

What is Botswana doing right?

Award-winning Botswanan designer One Rapelana, the owner of specialist accessory brand Xita, credits government action and support with helping women to succeed. “The government is definitely trying. I mean, we do have the Ministry of Youth and Gender. There’s a grant that I received from the government, about five years ago when I first started. It was a grant/loan, so they’ve been really helpful.”

That financial support was disbursed from the Youth Development Fund (YDF), a socio-economic programme that aims to help start-ups expand their businesses in Botswana. First introduced in 2009 as an economic empowerment programme to assist aspiring young people in business, it offers cash support comprising 50% loan and 50% grant. Some of the eligibility requirements include being between the ages of 18 and 35 and having left school.

When One began in 2015 her activity was just a “hobby”. It became a business in 2018. Today, she oversees all parts of the company and her products have been showcased at the Brooklyn Museum store for the African Fashion Exhibition in 2023.

Pearl Tsheko, a graphic designer who owns Black Fabrick, agrees that the supportive policy framework offers a launching pad for ambitious female Botswanan entrepreneurs.

“Being a female entrepreneur in Botswana, it’s quite often an advantage to be honest. The government does most of the things in support of women, it even encourages the private companies to give priority to women.”

Education is key

The Mastercard Index report suggests that the main factors that drive the increase in female entrepreneurial activity rate are internal market openness; the availability of small and medium enterprises; the venture capital framework; and the ease of finding skilled employees.

But perhaps the most significant factor is education, a field in which Botswana performs strongly. According to World Bank data from 2022, 90.3% of girls in Botswana lower secondary school, compared to 86% of boys.

“Education is also helpful in terms of giving the women the courage to want to go out and create livelihoods for themselves through running businesses, giving them the confidence that they can make it,” says Keneilwe Sadie Mooketsane, a senior lecturer at the University of Botswana.

Society still tilted towards men

Less positively, Keneilwe also believes that female entrepreneurial activity is a function of women being excluded from the labour market. With unemployment of around 26% for women compared to 20% for men, and women less likely to be employed in lucrative areas of the economy, female entrepreneurs are more likely to attempt to create opportunities for themselves, she argues.

“Because of unemployment, people look for alternatives to make an income to sustain their livelihoods and for that reason women get into business,” she explains. “Even though there are many women in business and the environment is fairly conducive, women are found in the less profitable sectors and less profitable industries in comparison to men. You find men are more in construction, in IT and engineering; and you find women in personal care and catering, hairdressing; relatively low-profit industries.”

That is a function of a wider society which is still heavily tilted towards males. As of February 2024, only 11.1% of seats in Botswana’s parliament were held by women, according to UN Women. In 2018, 17.1% of women aged 15 to 49 years reported that they had been subject to physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months.

While Rapelana is keen that gender shouldn’t be used as “an excuse” for business challenges, arguing that male and female entrepreneurs face similar difficulties, she agrees that society still views men in business differently. “As women [we are] maybe not being taken too seriously – men do get taken seriously when it comes to running business. They are known to be assertive, but when we are certain, we are told that we’re too bossy.” Adversity, can, however, forge strong and successful entrepreneurs. The Mastercard Index report says that in Botswana and other African countries where female entrepreneurs have a strong stake, “women continue to outshine their peers as business owners due to an incredibly strong sense of optimism, drive, and self-belief despite being severely underrepresented in the political, leadership and professional landscape.”

What can be done to break down remaining barriers?

Despite the evident progress, there is a robust debate about what more can be done to ensure that women fully participate in the Botswanan economy. Keneilwe suggests that a more holistic policy approach could involve providing childcare support so that women have more free time to focus on their own projects and goals.

Furthermore, Keneilwe says that more still needs to be done in terms of making sure that women are supported and can access appropriate funding. A lot of women still do not have the capacity to go through the application process for government support. And although programmes like the YDF have been successful in helping numerous businesses, they are not specifically targeted towards women.

“It does not specifically speak to women per se, it speaks to women, youth, people living with disabilities” she specified.

Rapelana says that cash flow is a major problem for all Botswanan businesses, including those that are female-led. She says that a possible solution to this issue would be for the government to implement targeted initiatives to ease cash flow challenges at women-led businesses. Government regulations should also be “a bit more lenient,” she says, pointing to “bureaucracy” and “strict rules” that can sometimes hamper businesses.

Can Botswana’s lessons be applied elsewhere?

Rapelana says that Botswana’s relatively small population means that the lessons may not always be transferable. “It depends, sometimes when you try to implement a plan for a country, for a certain population, it might work for this country but might not work for another country. Our advantage is that we have a small population of only 2.3m, so it’s easier to manage.”

But Keneilwe believes Botswana’s tentative success offers lessons for other African countries if governments are proactive about their policy choices, and in particular, removing discriminatory legislation.

“Other countries can learn from Botswana by doing away with any discriminatory policies, any discriminatory laws that disadvantage women, because we already know women are already struggling with access to funding, access to resources, capacity, knowledge… doing away with such laws puts women in a better position,” says Keneilwe. If that happens, the lesson of Botswana is that business success offers an unparalleled opportunity to advance the status of women in society. “I see ours as an opportunity, and, as a beautiful one that I wish other women in other countries can have,” Tsheko says.