Women Entrepreneurship: A Tool of Women Empowerment, Policy and Issues

Abstract

Women entrepreneurship has been largely neglected both in society in general especially in developing economies. Not only women have lower participation rate in entrepreneurship than men but they also generally choose to start and manage firms in different industries than men tend to do. The industries chosen by women are often perceived as being less important to economic development and growth than high-technology and manufacturing. Furthermore, main stream research, policies and programmes tend to be "men streamed" and too often do not take into account the specific needs of women entrepreneurs and would-be women entrepreneurs. As a consequence, equal opportunity between men and women from the perspective of entrepreneurship is still not a reality. In this back ground the study is planned with the objectives: To portray a profile of women entrepreneurs and their enterprises in the small scale sector; To document existing policies, programmes, institutional networks and the involvement of support agencies in promoting women's entrepreneurship; To identify problems unique to women in setting up and running their enterprises. The paper will also highlight the links between women's entrepreneurship and economic development and the policy implications of those links.