Key failure factors of start-up women owned SMEs in service sector in Kigali: a principal component analysis approach

Purpose This study aims to develop and test a framework for studying the failure of new women entrepreneurs in the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of 114 unsuccessful entrepreneurs in Kigali, Rwanda, this study aimed to identify key failure factors of women-owned SMEs. This study used mixed methods where quantitative data were analysed using the principal component approach with Varimax rotation to reduce the variables to only three clusters. Findings The study findings revealed that the failure of women-owned SMEs results from the entrepreneur’s inability followed by the enterprise incompetence, which are both internally controllable factors and the inauspicious business environment. These findings contribute to the validity of the dynamic capability theory by explaining how well internal and external factors must stay glued together to avoid failure among women-owned SMEs, something that was not yet previously well documented so far. Originality/value New SMEs are considered a noteworthy constituent of Rwandan development. Unfortunately, most new SMEs, in general, do not grow; their failure rate is high (70%), which raised many worries for both researchers and policymakers as to why this occurs at this stage of business growth. Therefore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge this paper is the first to analyse the reasons for the failure of Rwandan women-owned SMEs in the service sector. These findings are important because they suggest that policies designed to reduce the incidence of SMEs’ failure should take account of the two main factors influencing failure among women entrepreneurs.

The New Versus True Woman in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper and Ellen Glasgow’s Dare’s Gift

Given their opposition to Victorian conceptions of womanhood and domesticity, the literary works of Gilman and Glasgow have been a rallying point for women's emancipation and empowerment. Though the article touches upon several works by Gilman and Glasgow, it focuses particularly on the feminist viewpoints underpinning the transformation of female characters in Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper and Glasgow’s Dare’s Gift from true to new women. The purpose of both tales, the article contends, is to question and deconstruct the dominant Victorian patriarchal cult of true womanhood, which has confined women to the domestic sphere and constrained their freedoms and liberties The theoretical foundation for the examination of the two stories is laid out in the Introduction, which contrastively explores the conflicting paradigms of new and true womanhoods. The Discussion delves into the many reactions to the characters' defiant behavior, as well as the phallocentric interpretation of it.

Visualizing Disease and ‘Depravity’ in the Weimar Republic: The Film Roles and Dance Performances of Anita Berber and Otto Dix’s Bildnis der Tänzerin Anita Berber

During Germany’s Weimar Republic (1918–33), women who did not conform to conventional expectations for “proper” female behaviour were met with suspicion and criticism. Due to their embrace of sexual liberation and economic independence, interwar New Women were often unfairly associated with prostitutes and cultural degeneration. Anita Berber, a drug-addicted nude dancer and actress in multiple Aufklärungsfilme, was regarded as the embodiment of debauched modern womanhood. However, her persona intrigued Neue Sachlichkeit artist, Otto Dix, who enjoyed offending bourgeois sensibilities. Dix captured her likeness in the painting Bildnis der Tänzerin Anita Berber (1925) but altered her features to make her look aged and sickly. Amid growing bourgeois fears about postwar societal decay, Dix utilized Berber’s painted body to engage Weimar discourses about the threat of the sexually liberated Neue Frau, the pervasiveness of the so-called depravity of metropolitan life, and the fear of the loosening grip of patriarchal social control.

Later Life

This final chapter focuses on Fawwaz’s later adult life and a few late publications. It returns to the mid-1890s, and the death of her brother, possibly an impetus for her decision to marry, sight unseen, a Damascus journalist-bureaucrat. It was a short marriage. Insisting on a divorce, Fawwaz returned to Cairo. Engaged once again with the publishing scene, it was in this period that she wrote in Mustafa Kamil’s al-Liwa’ and contributed briefly to new women-centred magazines. The chapter focuses especially on her intriguing, at times disturbing, political engagements at this time, which ranged from informing for the khedive to publicly mourning Mustafa Kamil with a eulogy (1908). Some late correspondence tells us that for the last several years of her life, she suffered from an eye condition and was unable to complete a late project. She died in January 1914.

Forced Empowerment and the Paradox of Mobile Dating Apps

New women-focused mobile dating apps purport to empower women by having them “make the first move” and disrupt traditional male-dominated dating norms. Drawing on feminist approaches and technological affordances, we examine how heterosexual cisgender women and men experience this “empowerment” and contrast it to other mobile dating app use. We used a multimethod approach to conducting app walkthroughs, focus groups, and interviews to contrast the mobile dating apps, Tinder and Bumble. The findings reveal that perceptions of free choice and action determine empowerment experiences. Our study reveals that the “forced empowerment” on Bumble was still strongly shaped by heterosexual gender norms that encouraged “good” girls and guys to use the app to look for long-term relationships but continue to use Tinder to hook up, despite the popular misogyny on Tinder identified by both men and women in our study. We conclude by discussing the empowerment paradox of dating apps through popular feminism and misogyny.

Metaphor of Cigarettes: Feminism in Kate Chopin’s An Egyptian Cigarette

Objectives: Kate Chopin is regarded as one of the pioneers of the feminist literature in the United States. Her works mainly express her caring for women. Since the 1960s, the western academic circle has set off a long overdue upsurge in the study of Kate Chopin and her works, repositioning and giving Chopin a classic status in the history of American literature.This paper aims to analyze the revival and awakening of the heroine’s self-consciousness and reveal the inner world of a “new woman” at the turn of the century through the heroine’s behavior of taking the initiative to smoke and eventually giving up.Cigarettes, which appear repeatedly in this short novel with symbolic meanings, have a special metaphorical function. Through analyzing the social and historical environment of the emergence of “new women” in American society and the “new women” in An Egyptian Cigarette, this paper attempts to explore the multiple political and cultural connotations reflected by cigarettes and reveal Chopin’s feminist consciousness through the novella.

A STUDY ON FUNDING AND FINANCIAL STRATEGY FOLLOWED BY WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS: A NEW WAY TO ENTREPRENEURIAL GROWTH OF BANGLADESH

Managing funds for venturing into a new business is a very challenging task for women. The goal of the study is to recognize congenial sources from where they can easily get funds to start their business and after starting a business which financial strategy they follow to expand their enterprise. To perform this task, primary data collection was carried out through a well-designed questionnaire and a total of 180 women entrepreneurs from different parts of the country took part in this program spontaneously. It is observed that usually women do not get bank loans easily, but they discovered that semiformal and informal sources of funds are available for their business and these loans help them to achieve the entrepreneurial goal. Although the interest rate is much higher, to be self-employed women must collect funds from these sources. 77 percent of women withdraw profit and their business follows the start small and stay small characteristics, but others save and re-invest their profit to expand the business operation. Despite the great loss caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is a light of hope that some women are doing very well by using the digital platform and providing home delivery services. From this paper, the new women entrepreneur can perceive what should be done and they will go through the right way. By following former entrepreneurs, they should take the right decision and bring success assuredly.

The California Perfume Company

David McConnell built the California Perfume Company to sell perfumes, toiletries, extracts, and household products through a system of direct house-to-house sales. To overcome the seedy reputation of itinerant peddlers, common at the turn of the twentieth century, McConnell relied on women. Door-to-door sales representatives sold the products to their family, friends, and neighbors in their hometowns. Traveling Agents were women who travelled the countryside recruiting and training new women to sell. The company managed all of its agents remotely, relying on newsletters, prize offerings, and regular sales reports to motivate representatives to sell. While a relatively small company, the CPC was the only one of its kind to exclusively hire women.