FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN RURAL AREAS OF THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to incorporate new elements in the corpus of knowledge about female entrepreneurship in rural areas of the Republic of Macedonia. In that view a survey on 101 respondents owners of SMEs in rural areas was conducted, of which 79.2% were male, and 19.2% female respondents. They were offered three sets of statements that are relevant for comparison between male and female entrepreneurship and determining the characteristics of female entrepreneurship in rural areas of the Republic of Macedonia, valued at a five-degree scale from 1 – unimportant to 5 – priority. This research has shown that female entrepreneurs in rural areas by their entrepreneurial capacity do not lag behind male entrepreneurs but amazingly in some segments they show superiority. In order to enable women easier to decide on an independent path through the world of entrepreneurship legal directives should be introduced to encourage female entrepreneurship in rural areas, which would constitute the basis for implementing appropriate policy measures to support and enhance target policies that will be tailored to female participants. The law requires a holistic approach, shaping support measures and setting specific goals tailored to women. The publicpolitical responsibility in view of reducing and possibly overcoming the problems of gender inequality in general – especially in rural areas – including employment and self employment particularly of women remains with the national systems i.e. state authorities.