The Gender Gap in Morocco’s Entrepreneurial Process: Towards a Typology of Female Entrepreneurs

Abstract

The gender gap in entrepreneurship persists across the globe. Although many governments are making significant efforts to change the landscape, there is still much work to close this gap, especially in developing countries. Morocco, a Muslim and patriarchal society, does not escape this reality. It has one of the lowest rates of gender equality in entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurial gender gap in Morocco is alarming since it is manifested throughout the entrepreneurial process (from the intention to action), and female TEA has been far below male TEA for many years now (GEM, 2021). By analyzing the paths of Moroccan entrepreneurs, this paper proposes exploring the characteristics of the entrepreneurial process from a gendered perspective. Through semi-structured interviews among nineteen entrepreneurs, this study explores the entrepreneurial process in its complexity and diversity of contexts. The aim is to deeply understand how female and male entrepreneurs live their entrepreneurial adventures in a patriarchal and Islamic context. The results show that the entrepreneur's gender is not the relevant factor to analyze gender gap in entrepreneurship but rather context which justifies the emergence of new typology of female entrepreneurs.