Inclusion Financiere Des Femmes Entrepreneures Sud Africaines

The paper examines the subject of financial inclusion and women’s empowerment in South Africa. Apart fromthe technicalities and minutiae affecting financial inclusion for women, the study will analyse the existinggovernment measures on financial inclusion to determine if these contribute to the socio-economicempowerment of female entrepreneurs in South Africa. The study uses a feminist political economy perspectiveto understand the historical exclusion of the female gender in South Africa and the gender gaps regardingfinancial inclusion as a result. The effects of colonialism in South Africa on gender inequality, structural,psychological and cultural degradation and how these have affected women’s participation in social andeconomic relations in the finance sector in the country are part of the effort to understand financial inclusionand women’s empowerment. Resentment, exclusion and coercion are the inevitable consequences of povertyand inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. Although concerted efforts have been made by the state toaddress this problem, including ensuring that women and girls have access to finance and gender equalitywithin their constitutional rights (as contained in the national policy), the problem has remained unabated.Using the qualitative method approach, based on attitudinal research of an exploratory nature, the study hopedto gain insight, from the available literature as well as respondents’ responses, into financial inclusion/exclusionand how this impacts women’s empowerment in South Africa. Keywords: Financial Inclusion, Inclusive Development, Political Economy, Women’s Empowerment, SouthAfrica.