This article aims to analyze the nature of South African entrepreneurship and to assess the extent
to which obstacles and especially liquidity constraints faced by women may differ from
those met by men during the phase of firm settlement. This study shows that women in the informal
sector who are less educated and more burdened by unemployment are more “necessity-based”
or “push” entrepreneurs than their male counterparts. They appear to have greater
difficulty in accumulating sufficient personal assets than their male counterparts. They thus
rely more often on stokvel or money lenders to access credit than men.