Female Entrepreneurship in Albania: State, Trends, and Challenges

This chapter aims to give an overview of female entrepreneurship in Albania. Female entrepreneurship is largely a new phenomenon in the Albanian economy. Only in the last two years has it become an increasingly attractive topic for policymakers to discuss. In this regard, the country suffers from a lack of detailed statistics and policies to address the challenges that female entrepreneurship have to face in the Albanian environment. This chapter is structured in five sections. In the first section, we have presented a summary of the existing literature on female entrepreneurship in Albania. In the second section, we have described briefly the overall macroeconomic environment that led to the development of small and medium enterprises over the last five years, with our special focus continuing to remain on female enterprises. Based on some indicators regarding gender issues, we have analyzed the current development of female entrepreneurship in Albania. In the third and fourth sections, we have elaborated upon the main challenges of female entrepreneurship and assessed policies aimed at encouraging female entrepreneurship in Albania, such as the business climate, access to finance, education and training, policy support, and networking. The chapter concludes with some findings and recommendations to be addressed in the future.