Abstract Southern African Development Community (SADC) economies have tried to enable access for women and girls to finance and gender equality within their constitutional rights, yet the effort seems futile. Women in the SADC region are currently creating opportunities to claim their space through liberal models of solidifying collectives on economic fronts. However, SADC communities still have a long way to go to achieve sustainable development in gender equality, financial security, and economic rights. The article focuses explicitly on women entrepreneurs and the growth of SMEs which are women-led in South Africa, Namibia, and Lesotho, debating on how beneficial this has been in terms of financial inclusion for women across the SADC member countries. The study engaged an exploratory qualitative analysis from secondary data to project the findings in the study, specifying the contextual overview on financial sector development in SADC countries and its significance to gender financial inclusion. The results yield significant insights into the trajectories of Southern economies in terms of gender politics and the importance of further research into gender economic policies affecting these economies.

中文翻译：

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SADC 社区中的性别金融和经济机会：挑战和前景概述

摘要 南部非洲发展共同体 (SADC) 经济体试图让妇女和女孩能够在其宪法权利范围内获得资金和性别平等，但这种努力似乎是徒劳的。SADC 地区的妇女目前正在创造机会，通过在经济领域巩固集体的自由模式来占据自己的空间。然而，南共体社区在实现性别平等、金融安全和经济权利方面的可持续发展方面还有很长的路要走。本文明确关注南非、纳米比亚和莱索托的女性企业家和由女性领导的中小企业的发展，讨论了这对南部非洲发展共同体成员国的女性在金融包容性方面的益处。该研究对二手数据进行了探索性定性分析，以预测研究结果，具体说明了南共体国家金融部门发展的背景概述及其对性别金融包容性的重要性。结果对南方经济体在性别政治方面的轨迹以及进一步研究影响这些经济体的性别经济政策的重要性产生了重要的见解。