Female entrepreneurship in a society in transitions : analysis of three profiles of women entrepreneurs in Morocco
Entrepreneurship represents an opportunity to gain access to income-generating activities for Moroccan women. Our aim is to understand these women’s entrepreneurial process, distinguishing between three different realities : women owning a commercial venture, women professionals and women in a cooperative. Targeting three groups allows us to go beyond the generalities of female entrepreneurship and show its complexity and diversity. The analysis of the entrepreneurial process of these women will mobilize individual and family variables, but also the specificities related to the characteristics of their company and their sector of activity as well as the socio-economic, cultural, legal and political characteristics of Morocco. Based on a qualitative study with 60 women entrepreneurs, we highlight the paradoxes in which Moroccan female entrepreneurs operate, attempting to reconcile a desire for autonomy and emancipation with respect for traditional patterns of thought that condition, or even handicap, their entrepreneurial exercise.