Developing Women Leaders through Entrepreneurship Education and Training

Abstract

Based on extensive firsthand experience with entrepreneurship education and training programs for women and a thorough review of the literature on women’s entrepreneurship and leadership as it relates to entrepreneurship education and training, the authors present a framework for designing and implementing effective programs for women. The framework provides the core factors that need to be considered to effectively achieve a program’s goals: the elements of the program, human factors, the contextual environment, and funding. While the framework is applicable for entrepreneurship education and training programs in general, the authors demonstrate its specific utility by sharing firsthand examples from their work with women entrepreneurs from more than 20 developing countries throughout the past 10 years. This paper provides guidelines that can be used by scholars researching entrepreneurship, leadership, women in business, and developing economies, as well as by program directors offering entrepreneurship education and training programs.