Women Entrepreneurship for Sustainability: Investigations on Status, Challenges, Drivers, and Potentials in Qatar

Economic diversification is vital in achieving sustainable economic development. This diversification is chiefly important for countries relying on natural resources for their economy, such as Qatar. Private enterprises, mainly through small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), have been recognized as crucial and effective means for healthy economic diversification, stimulating economic development, and ensuring equal sharing and distribution of wealth. Recognizing the vulnerabilities within the current economic model has motivated Qatar to relentlessly diversify away from its heavy reliance on natural gas exports. Such diversified and sustainable development cannot be achieved without the contribution of women, who make up a significant percentage of the educated and talented population in this country. However, despite the conspicuous support the state has been providing them with in an aim to promote for their active economic participation as part of Qatar National Vision 2030, women’s full potential to contribute both socially and economically is either hindered or not fully acknowledged due to several socio-economic factors. There is a dearth of studies reporting on the perceived status, challenges, and access to needed resources by women entrepreneurs in Qatar. To address such scarcity, this study builds, in a first step, on a systematic literature review (SLR) to unlock themes related to women and entrepreneurship by analyzing 23 peer-reviewed articles concentrating on the cases of Qatar and the MENA region. Subsequently, a qualitative approach is followed to investigate and examine current successes and obstacles by interviewing 25 actual and aspiring women entrepreneurs in Qatar as well as 5 incubators and government representatives. In a final stage, and based on a design thinking approach and applying the gender-aware framework (known as the 5Ms framework), the paper proposes a preliminary conceptual framework to address the pertaining barriers and pave the way for more progressive policies to cater to the needs of women entrepreneurs and to further promote for sustainable development.