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

This paper uses conditional mixed process (CMP) estimation to analyse the importance of unpaid housework as a determinant of non-agricultural entrepreneurship among rural women in Burkina Faso. The CMP procedure allows us to estimate 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 percentage 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.