Social Entrepreneurship and the Involvement of Women in Microenterprise

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship represents a new paradigm of social value creation and reflects a dynamic revolution in the social sector. Social entrepreneurship and women micro entrepreneurs are a range of new concepts and paradigms which has been introduced to understand the development and issues in micro enterprise. Maimunah (2001), in her paper explains that women’s involvement in micro enterprise development is important for economic growth and is a growing phenomenon all over the world. Micro enterprise coupled with micro credit is considered as one of the most effective measures to overcome poverty and improve the living standards of the women’s. Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia through its micro credit program has enabled more than 67,000 poor women to venture into income generating activities. Since the beginning of the program, more and more women have been able to scale up their income generating projects to micro-enterprises and small-scale enterprises.This paper reviews the role of women’s involvement in micro enterprise, their internal/personal factors and the problems/challenges faced.