Low self-esteem is a significant barrier to student women participation in entrepreneurship at universities, according to findings of the study titled Barriers Faced by student women in Higher Education Institutions in South Africa to Participate in Entrepreneurship and Business, and Challenges Experienced During Participation (2024).
The recently published study was commissioned under the auspices of the Student Women Economic Empowerment Project (SWEEP), an initiative of the Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) programme of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), being implemented and administered from Universities South Africa (USAf). SWEEP, established in October 2021, is a programme within the EDHE programme. It is a sisterhood aimed at promoting the economic empowerment of student women and equipping them for full participation in the economy.
The Barriers Study, sponsored from the DHET’s Universities Development Capacity Programme (UCDP) grant, was administered in a sample of 75 undergraduate and postgraduate female students aged 18-35 across university types, who had proven to be interested in entrepreneurship at their institutions but had not started a business, or were already involved in one type of business hustle or another. The study participants were essentially SWEEP members.