Influence of women entrepreneurs’ characteristics on personal well-being in Arumeru District in Tanzania

Abstract

This article tests the hypothesis that women entrepreneurs’ socio-economic and demographic characteristics have no significant influence on women’s personal well-being, using quantitative approach with a random sample of 180 women. The article adopts the cross-sectional research design using a structured questionnaire administered to women entrepreneurs. Non-entrepreneurs were also involved for comparison purposes of personal well-being. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A multiple linear regression was used to determine the influence of women entrepreneurs’ characteristics on personal well-being. The results show positive relationship between personal well-being and years of schooling, age, and wealth status. Household size and employment status showed negative influence and did not show significance at 5%. Being a women entrepreneur and age showed positive significant influence (P = 0.000), while marital status showed negative significant influence (P = 0.000). The article concludes that some women entrepreneurs’ characteristics influenced personal well-being. Due to the fact that women are not homogeneous, the efforts done by development actors including the government should focus on promoting women entrepreneurship with particular emphasis on socio-economic and demographic characteristics to improve women’s personal well-being.