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Yallingup, Western Australia
Email:
viti@bearfruit.com.au
Website:
http://www.bearfruit.com.au
Shared Experiences of Rural Business Women 2003 – 2005
Overview
When I overlay my fieldwork activities and reflective practice from the 2003 – 2005 Australasia
study with my 2011 HwH microfinance fieldwork — intriguing parallels can be drawn. When I
combine these parallels with Moss et all (2005) concept of ‘
scaffolding’
the similarities between
rural businesswomen’s ‘shared experiences’ become visible.
According to Ife (2006), “Community development and bridge building are alike in that they need
both local and universal knowledge...”
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HwH operations clearly reflect this community
development model. And as their name suggests, ‘local’ and ‘universal’ hands work hand-in-hand
for the greater good of the community. Fundamentally, the ‘shared experiences’ among rural
women in an Australasia and Nepalese village women was similar. Contextually, both groups
needed local and universal knowledge to bridge business information gaps in order to make their
business ideas viable.
By using reflection, integration and the interweaving of a range of material (as listed below) I
plan to further elaborate on the ‘shared experiences’ without diluting the purpose or
authenticity of the 2011 HwH project.
Following is a list of material from which such parallels were drawn. (The material has been
colour coded to help you better identify the source.)
HwH
2011 fieldwork responses (and Questionnaire template).
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The Author’s
Australasian fieldwork publication and field tapes. Women ranged in age
from 21 to 65 years. Only 16% of the women were childless the remaining family sizes
ranged from 1 – 8 children. A third of the women had completed some form of higher
education. The business provided the majority of financial support for only half the
women. 52% of the businesses had operated for less than 3 years. There were not strong
motivations to be self-employed. The main reasons given were: opportunities to be
creative, earn a living, balance between with family. This is a vignette of those findings.
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Reka Szalay
2008 visit to HwH microfinance projects. (Notably, in the ensuring three
years, those who established ‘a new business idea’ were better placed than those who
opened shops offering similar goods to those close-by —especially when the businesses
were competing for the same local market share.
o
Reka Szalay’s overall findings as received from Ramchandra KC.
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Ife, J., (2006), p. 102, Community Development: Community based alternatives in an age of globalisation,
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HwH Questionnaire Appendices (1)
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Still & Simmons, (2006), p.86
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Appendices (2)