SOCIALSCI JOURNAL

Understanding female motivation for entrepreneurship in Mena region: the case of Algeria

Abstract

Boufeldja Ghiat

Algerian women have opened up to entrepreneurship, to challenge traditional attitudes and environmental constraints. Female entrepreneurship is part of women's struggle to achieve their freedom anddignity against the culture of arginalization.Thiscanberegardedasaninsurgencyactionagainstthecultureofsubmission.In order to be able to help the movement of female entrepreneurship in the countries of the South, the understanding of their socio-cultural characteristics is necessary.These socio-cultural attitudes are the result of the socialization of women in theirocieties.Salmanetal.(2012) concluded that "the socialization of girls in Morocco does not contribute to developing their self-confidence, their autonomy, their sense of risk and their taste for innovation: the skills yet necessary in every individual who wishes to develop and manage his own”.Despite the socio-cultural changes that have been experienced by the Algerian society, and MINA Region in general, there are always resistance and clashes with traditions.In order to study the manifestations of socio-cultural attitudes, the resistance against the emancipation of women, the insurrection of female entrepreneurs and the desire to liberate themselves from the social traditions that limit their ambitions, the results of a Questionnaires are being exploited, as well as interviews conducted with women entrepreneurs in Algeria.The aim of this communication is to clarify the motivations behind the participation of Algerian women in the entrepreneurial fields, which is often expressedasthe rejection of a socio-cultural reality, more than an economic need.