Women, the Economy and the State

Abstract

In this chapter I use the experiences of women entrepreneurs to show that, despite the existence of state machinery on women, very little is done by states to promote women’s economic activities. The existence of these mechanisms enable the state to publicize its attempts to deal with institutionalized inequities for women. As Chapter 4 proves, these mechanisms are weak and do not have the capacity to create programs to benefit women or monitor existing facilities to ensure that their benefits reach women. At this juncture in the social relations of gender, states are unwilling to provide the institutional strengths necessary to give women’s machineries decision-making and veto powers. In the meantime, an understanding of women’s economic activities exists in a vacuum from what is perceived as women’s economic activities. The cumulative effect is that the state is unaware and unappreciative of women’s contributions to the formal economy.

I am mother, father and daughter of this business. Being black and being a woman is a disadvantage. Some men and some narrow-minded women feel that women should be housekeepers. Because of that we have to strive three times as hard and could never relax.¹