Turning Her into a Business Woman

Abstract: Poor rural women are among the most marginalised groups in the world today and entrepreneurship is by many presented as a possible solution for them to improve their situation. Business training is a popular tool and concept in entrepreneurship research and practice. Many microenterprise development programmes today include business training to improve the performance of entrepreneurs, increase start-up propensity or empower the participants, in order to reduce poverty or achieve gender equality. However, the results of business training are uncertain and theory on business training's effect on entrepreneurs without previous business experience is difficult to find.To investigate the effect of business training on a group of inexperienced female entrepreneurs a rural development programme in Peru was studied. Participants, coordinators and trainers in the five year long programme were interviewed during an eight-week stay in Peru. From the field study it was concluded that business training failed to create new microenterprises, but, it had effect on the empowerment of women. Plausible underlying causes are discussed. This study hence contributes with practical information about a specific case study as well as with findings relevant for the understanding of business training on microentrepreneurs without previous business experience for poverty alleviation.