ICTS for empowering women in SMEs in the Cape Metropolitan area, Western Cape

Abstract

Women, being important stakeholders of the community, are lagging behind in terms of economic empowerment. Their opportunity to participate actively in business in the past was hindered by various discriminatory policies that were in place. ICTs have the forte to empower and increase the knowledge base of the women in SMEs through information dissemination. The argument is that women in South Africa and indeed in many other developing countries have not embraced technology in their everyday businesses as much as their male counterparts. This study therefore explores how women in SMEs in the Cape Metropolitan, Western Cape are utilising ICTs to empower themselves to overcome the economic discrimination they have suffered in the past.In order to collect relevant data and obtain deep insights about the utilisation of ICTs by women in SMEs, a qualitative research method was applied enabling respondents to articulate their experiences concerning the use of ICTs in their businesses. Women of all races were selected using the snowball sampling method and were interviewed. The population involved women in SMEs from the five suburbs of Claremont, Rondebosch, Gardens, Pinelands and Mowbray.The findings of the study are that women in SMEs in the Cape Metropole are utilising various ICTs to empower themselves in their businesses. They are exchanging business documentation with other business resulting in marketing of their entities. Women in SMEs are taking advantage of the fast growing social and business networking technologies such Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Twitter, Skype and blogs to promote marketing of their various products and services, gaining mileage in publicity and also managing their expenditures.ICTs enable women to work anytime, anywhere affording them the opportunity to take care of their families which they could not do while they were employed in the corporate world. Some of the women in SMEs reported that they can now independently negotiate business deals due to increase in their self-esteem and also have access to available information in their areas of expertise.