Factors Influencing Women’s Non‑Agricultural Entrepreneurship in Rural Burkina Faso: Does Unpaid Housework Matter?

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Résumé

This paper uses conditional mixed process (CMP) estimation to analyse the impor
tance of unpaid housework as a determinant of non-agricultural entrepreneur
ship among rural women in Burkina Faso. The CMP procedure allows us to esti
mate both the intensity of work in non-agricultural activities relative to agricultural
activities and the decision of rural women to participate in specific categories of
non-agricultural activities. The results show that unpaid domestic work increases
the volume of hours worked by rural women by 11 percentage points and reduces
the probability of their participation in non-agricultural activities by 15 percent
age points. Conversely, the level of secondary education, the level of wealth, the
possession of a bank account and access to the Internet have a positive impact on
rural women’s non-agricultural entrepreneurship. To increase women’s participation
in non-agricultural entrepreneurial activities, it is essential to reduce the burden of
unpaid domestic work on women, facilitate rural women’s access to banking and the
Internet and improve their skills through training.

Mots-clés

Non-agricultural entrepreneurship · Unpaid domestic work · CMP · Burkina Faso