Enterprising Women in Urban Zimbabwe: Gender, Microbusiness, and Globalization
Written by
Mary Johnson Osirim
Copub.: Indiana University Press
Based on a series of interviews conducted throughout the 1990s, Enterprising Women in Urban Zimbabwe discusses the business and personal experiences of women entrepreneurs in the cities of Harare and Bulawayo, who worked in the market trade, crocheting, sewing, and hairdressing professions of the microenterprise sector.
What Mary Johnson Osirim discovers is a remarkable resilience in the face of major challenges, in particular those brought on by the 1991 Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP). These women managed to maintain both their businesses and their households, while at the same time contributing to community and national development. Osirim’s study also explores the impact of state and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on small business operations. In the end, she offers a comprehensive view of women’s perseverance, their ingenuity as entrepreneurs, and the critical role they played in shaping economic development.
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Mary Johnson Osirim is Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Co-Director of the Center for International Studies at Bryn Mawr College. She was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2002-3.
More Information about Mary Johnson
Osirim can be found here.
Comments on this book
"The comparative nature of Dr. Osirim's work constitutes a major contribution in the field of women's entrepreneurship in Africa." —Nancy Horn, independent consultant in African development
“Enterprising Women in Urban Zimbabwe is a welcome addition to the literature. These are really fascinating women, as anyone who has ever encountered them can attest, and their story deserves to be told.”—Michael West, Binghamton University
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