Book excerpt: The literature on female entrepreneurship inWest Africa is vast and still growing. Historical accounts of precolonial West Africa indicate that women played a critical role in the development of market trading in the region, particularly in local and near-distant markets. The literature on Ghanaian market women, in particular, portrays urban traders as forming a robust entrepreneurial class. Traders in Southern Ghana have developed elaborate systems of accumulating capital, and they have used their matrilineal kinship ties to secure long-lasting economic relationships that enable them to develop their businesses, withstand economic hardship more effectively, and plan for exit and retirement from the market. The picture presented of Ghanaian culture is one in which women, though subordinate to men, are still supported as entrepreneurs.