5th Annual Conference Nice - European-microfinance.org

Table 1. Entrepreneurs’ characteristics
Entrepreneurs
(total)
8
Entrepreneurs
with microcredit
Women Men Women Men t-
Student
Sex 28.7% 71.3% 34.6% 65.4%
5 th Annual Conference Nice
Difference between
Women and Men
(with microcredit)
Prob.
Average age (years) 38.6 38.7 36.9 37.1 -0.632 0.527
Nationality
French
Other
Level of studies
University
Primary and
secondary school
Occupational status
Active
Unemployed < 1
year
Long term
unemployed
Inactive
Bank credit
Yes
No
Marital status
Single
Couple
Work experience
Yes
No
92%
8%
52.8%
47.2%
45.5%
17.1%
16.1%
21.3%
na
na
na
na
na
na
88%
12%
45.2%
54.8
57%
19.3%
14%
9.7%
na
na
na
na
na
na
83.9%
16.2%
50%
50%
13.4%
19.3%
11.2%
56.1%
20.1%
79.9%
60.8%
39.2%
49.4%
50.6%
81.1%
18.9%
39.2%
60.8%
17.3%
21.5%
10%
51.2%
23.6%
76.4%
42.2%
57.8%
*** Differences between men and women are significant at the .01 level.
* Differences between men and women are significant at the .1 level.
Sources: Our database and the Sine database of the Insee.
55%
45%
1.917
5.091
-2.769
-1.408
1.084
3.58
5.784
9.984
-3.016
0.055*
0,000***
0.006***
0.159
0.278
0.000***
0.000***
0.000***
0.003***
34.6% of microcredits reported in our survey were disbursed to women. This rate is
slightly above the percentage of women company creators in France (28.7% in 2002), but it is
lower than the European rates (respectively 39% and 30% in 2004). The percentage of
women in the MFIs portfolio is close to the Western European rate but is in contrast with the
East European (62%) and North American (59%) rates, as well as with those of developing
countries (84%).
As shown in Table 1, of all entrepreneurs, microfinance institutions tend to target
relatively more women, young people, foreign born populations, as well as people who are
excluded from the labour market. Because of their characteristics, these people are often the
ones that do not have much personal funding, which makes access to a classic bank credit
more difficult. Moreover the number of women who start their business alone is generally
higher than for men who are often helped by their partner (or by a family member). Thus
women, who are often single, will a priori have less income and less guarantees (single source
of income, fewer assets) to put forward in order to get external financing. Yet they have a