Female entrepreneurship, Entreprenuerial education, Perception, Interest, Attributes, Attitude, Business challenges

Globally, female entrepreneurship is acknowledged as a major force behind innovation, social progress, and economic success. But to launch and expand successful businesses, women in South Africa face many obstacles. Considering the significance of inclusive participation in the mainstream economy, it is necessary to understand the factors that may inspire or impede the intention of women in becoming entrepreneurial. The population consisted of students of a private higher education institution. Data was collected from female students of postgraduate certificate in education. An online system was designed for data collection using a questionnaire. This allowed for a wider audience to participate, but it also prevented the participants' identities from being revealed because they were not in contact with the researchers. IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used to analyze the data. Every student's response was examined, and the analysis was used to categorize the responses. Results reveal intriguing patterns in the participants’ perceptions of entrepreneurship. Doubt about oneself when starting a business is strongly correlated with pessimism about success, which implies a lack of faith in entrepreneurship. Furthermore, although there is a desire for entrepreneurial fulfilment, developing business concepts is difficult and presents a significant barrier. A major contribution of this paper is that it responds to the call by National Development Plan (NDP) (2030) of South Africa, which seeks ways to increase inclusivity, improve equity, and diversity in mainstream economy.

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