Women’s Entrepreneurship After Divorce: Navigating Social Norms and Reconstructing Livelihoods in The Gambia

Sammanfattning

Background. Women’s entrepreneurship in developing countries and Sub-Saharan Africa is often closely connected to economic vulnerability, household responsibilities, and livelihood sustainability. For divorced women, entrepreneurship may become more than a means of generating income. It can also function as a strategy for rebuilding livelihoods, supporting children and households, restoring social respectability, and negotiating community expectations. In The Gambia, these processes are shaped by religious, cultural, and patriarchal norms. Purpose. Although previous studies have examined women’s entrepreneurship, post-divorce vulnerability, and livelihood strategies, the entrepreneurial experiences of divorced women in The Gambia remain underexplored. This thesis aims to understand how divorced women use entrepreneurship to reconstruct their livelihoods after divorce and how they navigate religious, cultural, and patriarchal norms in this process, by drawing on the theoretical frameworks of sustainable livelihoods and patriarchal bargaining. Method. This study adopts a qualitative and exploratory research design. It is based on 15 semi- structured interviews, including 13 interviews with divorced women in The Gambia engaged in small-scale or informal income-generating activities and 2 interviews with stakeholders working with women entrepreneurs. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and the concept of patriarchal bargaining guided the theoretical interpretation of the findings. Conclusion. The findings show that entrepreneurship among divorced Gambian women cannot be understood only as an economic activity. Rather, it emerges as a livelihood reconstruction strategy through which women cope with post-divorce economic vulnerability, meet household needs, support their children, and regain social respectability. The findings also show that religious, cultural, and patriarchal norms both constrain and shape women’s entrepreneurial choices. However, women are not passive within these structures; they negotiate social expectations and create acceptable spaces for economic activity within their communities. Theoretically, this study contributes by showing that divorced women turn to entrepreneurship to sustain their livelihoods after divorce and negotiate norms and patriarchal structures in the process.