Challenges of women participation in self-employed jobs in sodo town, wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia

This study was designed to investigate the challenges and opportunities of women in self-employed jobs. A qualitative, descriptive study was employed by randomly selecting 97 women and three key informants from the three kifle-ketemas of Sodo Town. A survey questionnaire and checklists were used for sample respondents and focus group discussions, respectively. To analyze the quantitative data that was gathered through a questionnaire, descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency and percentages were used. The qualitative data was analyzed through case analysis and content analysis. The results indicate that the great number of respondents had middle age; demographic and socio-economic characteristics limit women’s economy in self-employed jobs and women begin their job for various reasons. Challenges, such as socio-cultural constraints, lack of enough capital for the job, shortage of working place, regular increment of rental house, lack of market information and market access, lack of saving habit, problem of benefit or wage, lack of business skill and lack of entrepreneurship training are the major challenges that affect self-employed women’s job Therefore the conerned bodies should give attention to solve the challenges that affect women's participation in self-employed jobs in the area.