An empirical essay on the determinants of female entrepreneurship

If employment in the private or public sector appears to be a means of financial empowerment for women, some women in Burkina Faso have already or are thinking of taking the path of self-employment, i.e. entrepreneurship. The objective of this study is to capture the various contextual and behavioral factors that determine their decision to become entrepreneurs in order to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the National Economic and Social Development Plan (PNDES). This report uses data from a survey on female entrepreneurship conducted in the city of Ouagadougou on a sample of 150 women. For this purpose, classical estimation methods and latent variable structural equation modeling were used to test the influence of factors identified in the augmented psycho-social model of entrepreneurial behavior inspired by Azjen (1985). It was found that attitude towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms related to the close relations, self-confidence and the perception of difficulties related to entrepreneurship significantly determine the entrepreneurial intention of women in Ouagadougou.