Gudeta, Konjit Hailu; van Engen, Marloes L. (2017) Work-life boundary management styles of women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia: “choice” or imposition? Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development
The paper explores the work-life boundary management experiences and challenges women entrepreneurs face in combining their work-life responsibilities. A grounded theory approach was used to conduct in-depth interviews with 31 female entrepreneurs in Ethiopia to learn more about how they manage the boundaries between their professional and personal lives as well as the difficulties they encounter. The author states that, even in situations where live-in hired help is present, it was discovered that women still struggle to manage their work-life balance because of normative expectations that place the majority of the burden on them to care for their families and handle household duties. The challenges are further compounded by the women’s roles in caring for their husbands, attending social engagements and obligations, and treating their business as one of their children while bearing sole responsibility for its upkeep and success, which forces them to constantly balance their work and personal obligations.
The findings indicated that women are forced to integrate as a work-life boundary management strategy as a result of normative expectations placed on them to handle caregiving and household duties as well as fulfil societal roles and obligations. In addition, women are frequently forced to combine their roles in work and life due to difficulties with managing employees at home and at work, which further forces them to integrate. Women appear to have accepted the expectations placed on them by society; some of the women refer to their husbands’ support with household duties as something they do “for them” rather than as something that their husbands share with them. Despite having live-in hired helpers who they hired to lessen this burden, the women who took part in this study claimed that every domestic duty was “theirs.” These normative expectations give women little to no control over the methods they use to manage their boundaries.
The paper concludes that Ethiopian women entrepreneurs face numerous difficulties in juggling their responsibilities as business owners, members of their families, partners, daughters, mothers, sisters, and community members. The findings highlight the need to acknowledge the difficulties women entrepreneurs face in balancing their work and personal lives and to create programmes and practical training to assist them in doing so. Additionally, it is hoped that the results will influence the policies and programmes the government, development partners, and other stakeholders develop to support women’s entrepreneurship.