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Women in food and beverages business in urban markets of Khartoum State.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

The study focused on Sudanese women working in food and beverages business in urban markets of Khartoum State. It aimed at identifying the reasons behind women's work, the constraining and enhancing factors that affect their performance as entrepreneurs, beside their attitude and strategies in dealing with marketing issues, and the socio-economic impact of their work on their families.

A sample of fifty business women working in thirteen urban markets in Khartoum State was interviewed. They were engaged in trading, production, processing and selling of food and beverages. In-depth interviews were carried out for collecting primary data as it provided enough room for getting rich information and allowed elaborated discussions.

The research validated the hypotheses that business women ate highly stimulated by their socio-economic conditions and that their work in the market has positively affected their familys life and their ability to survive.

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Introduction

The majority of females working in the informal sector in Africa tends to be concentrated in small-scale, under-capitalized, low productivity market trade and personal services activities (ILO, 1995). Yet, there ate some cultural and structural barriers that do not encourage them to behave in an entrepreneurial manner such as their marginalization from economic, political and social resources, as well as their heavy domestic duties and their reproductive role. Accordingly, they face unequal access to productive resources and services. Due to that they are largely dependent on self-employment for which land, capital, technology and labour are crucial (ILO, 1998).

In Sudan the informal sector has been tremendously increasing since the 1970s. A/Atti et al (1998) explained that the low employment opportunities, low salaries in comparison with the real wages, the increasing poverty and hard economic conditions forced a growing number of labour force (50% in 1996) to join this sector. However, a great portion of them are women engaged in various income generating activities such as petty trading, tea making, food processing and selling, beside others. Most of them are stimulated by the poor conditions their families live in, the consequences of the civil war, the environmental degradation and crisis, in addition to the high rates of men migration. These factors altogether forced women to play ensemble of roles in the domestic and productive spheres to support their families through the provision of additional income and in holding the whole responsibility alone on being the sole breadwinner of the family. In a previous study regarding women entrepreneurs in the informal sector in Sudan, Sonita (2000) concluded that the aim of survival generates a high need for achievement and a strong motivational drive, more than the drive of profit maximization. Thus, the conducted study aims at:

--identifying the reasons behind women's work in small-scale business in urban markets.

--figuring out the constraining and enhancing factors that affect women's performance as entrepreneurs.

--identifying women's attitude and strategies in dealing with marketing issues.

--finding out the socio-economic impact of working women on their families.

--coming up with some strategies that could empower women and minimize the obstacles they face in their business.

Besides, the study hypothesized that business women are highly stimulated by their socio-economic conditions, and that their work in the markets positively affects their families' life and their ability to survive.

Methodology

The study followed the descriptive and analytical approaches making use of both secondary and primary data. A preliminary survey was carried out in October--December 2002 to identify the types of food and beverages activities to be...

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