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The glass ceiling is a well-recognized phenomenon in the corporate sector thwarting aspirant women to gain senior management positions. It is an indiscernible barrier and a strong ceiling blocking women moving up in the management hierarchy. This paper, however, explores the existence of the second glass ceiling for women entrepreneurs who escaped the corporate world to start their businesses but are trapped by another glass ceiling. This research mainly explores the existence of a second glass ceiling for women entrepreneurs and the ways they used to get through it. This study is conducted for an in-depth understanding and uses the phenomenological approach. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with women entrepreneurs of Lahore. This paper apart from explaining the second glass ceiling also finds solutions to break it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the impact of financial exclusion on financial and human poverty amongst women in Pakistan. The findings suggest that persistent financial exclusion, gender discrimination and conservative religious values adversely impact women's empowerment. There is an inverse correlation between the size of microcredit and women's financial poverty, which is not the case for human poverty. Larger families experienced higher rates of poverty reduction than smaller families. The study offers evidence and supports theories on the impact of microcredit upon poverty alleviation. These findings inform policy makers, women entrepreneurs and microfinance institutions. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates and analyzes the prevailing environment of Women Entrepreneurships in Pakistan with a view to analyze the impact of psychological and social factors on entrepreneurial performance. The paper further identifies the problems being encountered by women entrepreneurs of Pakistan and suggests measures for their improvement that shall lead to their performance in competitive global business environment. For this reason registered women entrepreneurs of Pakistan were selected and a total of 253 were sampled for the study and data was collected through a questionnaire. The study reveals that psychological and social factors affect the women entrepreneurial performance. Suggestions have been given to improve the prevailing environment of women entrepreneurship in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women entrepreneurship is getting an ever increased attention in the recent era. Women entrepreneurs are appearing as potential players in Pakistan's economy. Women are more than 50% of the national population and are economically utilizing their potential that not only leads to individual growth but household wellbeing. Literature has mostly documented the gender bias, the opportunities and constraints faced by women entrepreneurs. However, how significantly these women entrepreneurs contribute to the wellbeing of their households have not been explored yet. Therefore, the current paper attempts to explore the role of women owned entrepreneurial ventures in their household wellbeing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A Qualitative approach is adopted to conduct the research study. Primary data is collected through face to face in-depth interviews with 30 women entrepreneurs through purposive sampling technique. The research study explored that women entrepreneurs are making significant contributions towards the education, health and raising living standards of their households thereby, increasing the overall wellbeing of their households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: While there are many studies on the impacts of formal institutions such as government financial supporting and tax preferential policies on women entrepreneurial entry, few attempted to explore how informal institutions causes cross-country differences in women entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether countries (Pakistan and Malaysia) with similar religious belief, political system and government policies exhibits similar level of women entrepreneurial activity from an informal institutional perspective. Design/methodology/approach: This study used Global entrepreneurship monitor (GEM) data for the years 2010–2012 and employed probit regression analysis to examine the impacts of cultural-cognitive and social-normative institutions on women entrepreneurial activity. Findings: The findings reveal profound differences of women's entrepreneurial activities between Pakistan and Malaysia. While cultural-cognitive dimension shows substantial impact for both nations, social-normative dimension explains the main differences in women's entrepreneurial activity. Practical implications: This study proposes that policymakers may craft policies to enhance women skills, knowledge and networking as well as positive societal attitudes to foster women entrepreneurial activities. Originality/value: This study shows that countries with the same religion and similar formal institutions can also exhibit different level of women entrepreneurial activity. In Pakistan, the negative societal attitudes in the form of deep rooted traditional beliefs as well as misinterpreted religious concepts for women role create formidable challenges and inhibit business opportunities for them. By contrast, favorable social perception and societal attitudes in Malaysia encourage women to pursue their entrepreneurial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are emerging as important players in Pakistan's economy. Despite an increasing presence in the micro, small, and medium enterprise sectors, women's lack of access to finance remains one of the key constraints for enterprise growth. This paper highlights the benefits of greater access to finance for women in Pakistan and provides an overview of the constraints and opportunities for increasing access. In addition to financial and nonfinancial recommendations for microfinance institutions, the paper provides suggestions for how the government can promote women's access to finance and, in so doing, support women's social and economic empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates and explores the influence of financial resources on the performance of women owned small and medium enterprises of Pakistan. The prevailing economic environment of Pakistan with regard to women entrepreneurship has been discussed. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the impact of financial resources on two groups i.e. registered and nonregistered Pakistani women entrepreneurs using a self-administered questionnaire. Data was collected from a sample of 506 women entrepreneurs which was obtained through stratified sampling method. The study reveals that financial resources have a positive impact on women's entrepreneurial performance on the registered entrepreneurs but not on the non-registered group. Suggestions have been given for creating environment of providing access to financial resources for both registered as well as non-registered women entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, focus on women entrepreneurship has increased and women are encouraged to perform an active economic role in the modern societies. However, it has been argued that women owned and operated entrepreneurial ventures exhibit poor performance, raising questions on the entrepreneurial potential of the women. Another line of argument highlight that women are different than men, leading them to have different entrepreneurial aspirations. Considering this theoretical premise, this study adopts a social role perspective to explain differences of entrepreneurial performance of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. By employing a qualitative research design and collecting data from 19 male and female entrepreneurs in Pakistan, this study finds indications that social roles influence the performance orientation of male and female entrepreneurs. It was also found that male entrepreneurs have a more material and financial approach to relate to their entrepreneurial performance as they stressed more on profitability, cash flows, and material growth. On the other hand, female entrepreneurs exhibit a more peoples-oriented approach. They seemed to focus more on their stakeholders like customers, family, employees, and society at large. The study concludes that both male and female entrepreneurs have different performance orientations, and a unidimensional performance comparison of entrepreneurial performance of male and female is futile. Therefore, future practice and research on women entrepreneurship should consider a feminist perspective of entrepreneurial performance, where women entrepreneurs might be interested in self-fulfillment and empowerment and not in material growth or financial outcomes. The scope of this study is delimited to educated women entrepreneurs, living in metropolitan areas of Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the challenges and motivations for women entrepreneurs in the service sector of Pakistan. Women's business ownership is widely recognized as a critical component of a healthy economy because it plays a significant role in the production of new jobs and services and contributes to overall economic development. Due to the many challenges that are present in the business world, the percentage of women in Pakistan who start their businesses is extremely low. Nevertheless, some motivators keep people from creating new enterprises. This research is qualitative; it adheres to the interpretivism paradigm. A case study approach has been utilized to investigate the individual motivators and hurdles that affect business ventures in Pakistan. The findings uncovered many significant themes that centered on two different dimensions, motivations and challenges. This study is helpful for policymakers in formulating policies and strategies to remove barriers, address challenges, and give opportunities for women to start their businesses. Additionally, this study will provide direction to entrepreneurs, especially those working in the service sector industry. A further finding of the studies will be useful for women's empowerment, poverty reduction, and the attainment of sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fundamental requirement for a competent and successful entrepreneur is knowledge and practice of entrepreneurial skills, particularly in the commercial context. This study investigates the impact of several entrepreneurial skill development programs in Pakistan, including the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Human Resource Research Development Board (BBSHRRDB) and the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC). The population of this study consists of 255 entrepreneurs. The broad objective of the study is to examine the impact of the Skill Development Program on producing Women Entrepreneurs in Pakistan. The sample size of this study is 280 female entrepreneurs. A systematic random sampling technique was used to analyse the data. Using Araoye's (2004) sampling procedure, a sample of female business owners is selected for the study. The data were received by distributing a questionnaire to all respondents. For analysing the data, descriptive statistics were used, and the regression test was performed to test the hypotheses. It was determined that BBSHRRDB and NAVTTC have an impact on the development and performance of female entrepreneurs across all evaluated metrics. The study also concluded that social factors such as formal/ business networks, informal networks, and social acceptance have a significant impact on the success of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent debates-like agenda 2030-emphasize that women are not just the potential beneficiaries of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), yet they are also active change agents in achieving them. This study used non-parametric techniques to investigate and compare the impact of three entrepreneur-supporting interventions-interest-free start-up credit, skill-development short courses, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) use-in lowering the impediments defying women entrepreneurs in Punjab-Pakistan. We identified 33 barriers and three groups of respondents based on intervention(s) availed. Mean score ranking analysis reveals 25 out of 33 barriers as critical in affecting women entrepreneurs in category one, whereas women entrepreneurs in category two and three are found to face 20 and 14 critical barriers, respectively. Furthermore, we used factor analysis to group these 25 critical barriers into five principal groups: (1) business management & marketing barriers, (2) gender & social barriers, (3) client and customer-related barriers, (4) public policy and governance barriers, and (5) innovation & knowledge-management barriers. Moreover, the study advances a comprehensive understanding of underlying grouped barriers to devise coherent plans and collaborative actions-involving local institutions, stakeholders, academia, and industry-for containing these snags and to better harvest the impacts of development initiatives. The study extends the existing literature on techno-economic disclosure, digital transformation and entrepreneurship, and sustainable knowledge management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women entrepreneurs generally have to face plenty of challenges. This study provides deeper insights into the challenges that the women entrepreneurs in textile industry face in Pakistan and the kind of support that is required by the women entrepreneurs in order to grow their businesses through a shared workspace (SWW). In order to achieve the objectives of the study, qualitative research has been carried out and a total of 14 interviews have been conducted from women entrepreneurs operating in the textile industry. The study concludes that women entrepreneurs in the textile industry have to face challenges in various forms which include financial challenge, loans related challenges, registration challenges, external challenges, internal business challenges, social challenges and networking challenges with external challenges being the most dominant amongst these. These challenges act as a hurdle in the pathway of success of these entrepreneurs and hampers their growth in the competitive market. A shared workspace in this regard tends to be a suitable option for the women entrepreneurs which provides support to the women entrepreneurs in the form of financial support, non-financial support (trainings, business growth support, workshops, mentoring, technological support, networking, marketing, and advertisement support), and has all the basic suitable facilities including business center, prayer room, day care, and a safe and healthy environment. Moreover, flexible, or multiple payment options should be available for the women entrepreneurs from which they can opt for. Results indicate that non-financial support is the most integral form of support that needs to be offered by SWWs which reflects that SWWs should have a keen focus on it for enhancing women participation in SWWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An equitable distribution of economic benefits from the recent growth of e‐commerce in Pakistan requires inclusive adoption of formal digital marketplaces. The available literature and focused discussions reveal that most women‐led businesses rely on informal e‐commerce managed through social media applications and have incomplete and often incorrect information on the benefits and choices related to the formal platforms. To inform and motivate women‐led micro, small and medium enterprises, this study deploys an information treatment through a randomised control trial of 300 women entrepreneurs in large urban centres of Pakistan. Results show that women entrepreneurs were responsive to the information, as the treated businesses were 10 percentage points more likely to opt for formal e‐commerce than the control group. The study is policy relevant as the methodology allows simple and inexpensive replication to scale up the treatment for better business growth for women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship is one of the growing trends, and studies are focusing on it generally. However, this study is mainly focused on women's entrepreneurship. This study intends to measure the impact of work-family interference, socio-cultural support, access to finance entrepreneurial skills, and legal constraints on women's entrepreneurial involvement through the mediation of self-leadership in the hospitality and tourism sector. This study has chosen a quantitative approach, collecting data through surveys. The snowball sampling method was used for data collection from women of Pakistan, and data was analyzed through the PLS-SEM method. The result of the present study affirms that work-family interference, social and cultural support, and entrepreneurial skills are significantly associated with women's entrepreneurial involvement other than access to finance and legal constraints. Moreover, self-leadership significantly mediates between (work-family interference, socio-cultural support, and access to finance) and women's entrepreneurial involvement except for entrepreneurial skills and legal constraints. The present study's findings affirm that formal or informal institutions influence women's entrepreneurial involvement. This study may help women entrepreneurs understand the factors and policymakers to make policies for women entrepreneurs in the hospitality sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is undertaken to investigate the perception of women entrepreneurs about Islamic banking in Quetta city. The researchers used qualitative approach for the purpose of better and in-depth understanding of women entrepreneurs about Islamic banking. For data collection, the semistructured interviews were conducted from 10 women entrepreneurs who were highly aware about Islamic banking. The data was analyzed by using thematic analysis. The study identified various themes such as Islamic, Shariah, modes of finance, Islamic values, Riba, uncertainty, gambling, Shariah board, Halal, social welfare, Zakat, and Charity. From the in-depth analysis of data, the study found that women entrepreneurs developed their understanding from newspaper, TV commercials, billboards, and some of them studied Islamic banking as a course work during their studies. They have clear understating regarding the all aspects of Islamic banking such as Islamic principles, Shariah board and its role, Islamic banking products, Islamic modes of finance, and Islamic banking contribution towards social welfare. The study suggested that Islamic banks should arrange various workshops, seminars and invite religious scholars and Islamic banking experts to create the awareness and to provide the better understanding about Islamic banking and its products in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the challenges of female business graduate entrepreneurs; we have developed a modified conceptual framework in which willingness to become an entrepreneur has been taken as a dependent variable. However, financial, cultural, marketing, and technological challenges are independent variables. Additionally, we incorporated competitiveness as a mediation variable between independent and dependent variables. The competitiveness could be beneficial to the female business graduates' entrepreneurs and might be reduced by their financial, marketing, cultural, and technological challenges. The data was collected through a modified structured questionnaire from the entrepreneurs of female business graduates. The information was collected from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka; we have collected 386 responses for the period from February 2021 to July 2021. We employed a structural equation modelingbased (SEM-based) multivariate approach and conditional process modeling for the data analysis. The findings of this research exhibit that the financial challenges, cultural challenges, marketing challenges, and technological challenges have a significant negative impact on female business entrepreneurs. These are the constraints that restrict female business graduates' entrepreneurial opportunities. On the other hand, the mediation analysis showed that competitiveness has a positive and significant impact between financial challenges, cultural challenges, marketing challenges, & technological challenges, and willingness to become an entrepreneur. The perfect mediation of competitiveness established that the business success of SMEs does not rely on the individuals' competencies and success factors only, but organizational competitiveness is equally essential for organizational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship is considered as one of the strategies for economic and regional development. In particular, women entrepreneurs engaged in different geographic locations, where their characteristics and business factors are different in each location. This study examines home-based women entrepreneurs in Pakistan in relation to their place of residence, specifically rural or urban context. Very few studies have considered place of residence as a variable affecting women's businesses at the household level. This is critical since the business context can exert a major influence on available resources and constraints that affect business viability and sustainability. Data were collected from 504 women entrepreneurs using a survey questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and binary logistics regression were used to achieve the objectives of the study. The findings revealed important and significant differences based on the rural versus urban context of women entrepreneurs including home ownership, household size, the number of adult family members in the household, family financial position, business record keeping, having a bank account, and type of business. While the binary logistic regression analysis reported adult family members, family financial position, business record keeping, bank account, and beautician business were the significant predictors of the women entrepreneurs' rural–urban model. The findings offer implications for policymakers, funders, bank/financial institutions, and non-governmental organizations for increasing women's entrepreneurship, empowerment, and income equality in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notions of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise have been the emerging trends in the world today, specifically in developing countries. We draw on social network theory to explore causes and situations that encourage individuals to engage in social activities in an entrepreneurial manner. This article investigates the impact of business ties and political ties on SEIs and how gender influences the casual relationships. Linear regression is used to analyze the responses obtained from 300 general populations across three developing countries including Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. The findings show that business ties positively affect SEIs, but political ties are negatively related to SEIs. Furthermore, our results indicate that the gender influences both the positive impact of business ties on SEIs, which is greater for males, and the negative impact of political ties, which is stronger for females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women's empowerment is related to women's decision-making power, easy access to information, and resource control. Women entrepreneurship is in the initial stage in Pakistan. The present study primarily focused on the challenge of women empowerment through entrepreneurship in Pakistan. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data through the survey method. The target population of the study was 120 women of the main cities of Pakistan. The target population was divided into two categories (housewife/ entrepreneur cum housewife). The results highlight that entrepreneurship played a significant role and increased the decision-making power of women entrepreneurs as compared to the housewife. However, women entrepreneurs are facing various obstacles such as less governmental support, complicated bank loan procedures, lack of entrepreneurial education, and market awareness. The governmental support in place of smooth and easily accessible bank loans for women requires enhancing their confidence and control over resources similar to the men. The result highlights that women entrepreneurs have strong decision-making power, fewer mobility issues, autonomy, financial independence, and empowerment. This study will help policymakers to formulate strategies to overcome the obstacles of women entrepreneurship to attain empowerment through entrepreneurship. A women empowerment model is proposed to be followed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only created significant havoc in the world but has also opened doors to new opportunities for women entrepreneurs. The objective of this study is to examine case studies of women entrepreneurs to determine how they have taken advantage of the circumstances offered by COVID-19 to expand their businesses. To gain deeper insights about lived experiences of women entrepreneurs, the study uses semistructured interviews to identify the strategies women entrepreneurs have adopted during times of social and economic upheaval. The findings indicate that women entrepreneurs responded to this crisis by accessing finance and using their innovative and creative skills to leverage e-commerce, often in the face of economic hardship. This study aims to contribute to policymakers' and practitioners' development of appropriate response strategies that focus on strengthening women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The research study aims to assess the women's Business education and leadership training program at a higher institutional level in order to examine how the program impacts and contributes to women's empowerment. Further, this research sought to explore women's leadership training aspect that has not explicitly elucidated. Besides, this study looks upon women's self-perception by empowering them with skills and leadership capabilities to change hard-core gender stereotypes in society. Research methodology -- The sample size comprised of 82 enrolled female students in the training program. The qualitative statistics (i.e., three focus groups) evaluated with the Kirkpatrick model. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was applied to compare pre-and post-training quantitative data (i.e., questionnaire). Effect size is measured to check the effectiveness of the training program. Findings -- The post-training evaluation revealed higher scores in knowledge, tools, and leadership skills. The training program encouraged women to bring change in self-perception and gain confidence for transformative changes in society. Findings support the effectiveness of leadership education and training programs. Research limitations -- This research conducted in a Pakistani patriarchal cultural context and one region of Pakistan (Punjab). Hence the results are carefully generalised. The long term outcomes of this leadership training program and women's performance in the job market are not studied. Practical implications -- Findings suggest that a training program positively affects women's learning, knowledge, and behaviour. Training programs empower women with practical tools for self and business development. The program encouraged women to gain better insight into work-life challenges and enhance personal competencies to gain equal rights. Originality/Value -- This research will significantly contribute to the relatively scarce literature on the effectiveness of women's business education and leadership training programs at a higher institutional level in the Pakistani context for women empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facebook has become popular tool amongst women entrepreneurs in Pakistan and is a good source to earn their livelihood, while staying at home. This study was aimed to enlighten the role of potential women entrepreneurship, who are successfully running their businesses on Facebook. According to the World Bank report (2019) 48.5 percent population in Pakistan is women. Due to the unavoidable reasons majority of them are only allowed to work at home therefore the easy access of Facebook has become a reasonable platform to earn their livelihood. However, their success stories are not being highlighted as they deserve. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 female entrepreneurs actively involved in web-based activities during a three-month time frame of this study by using Snowball sampling Technique. The questionnaire was adapted and inspired from Ajjan et al.'s (2014) Conceptual model. The findings showed that Facebook has an overall positive impact on the lives of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Due to the user-friendly nature, customized options and monetary incentives, Facebook is transforming from just social networking site to business platform for women in Pakistan. Due to the unique, innovative and novel characteristics of Facebook, more and more women are getting motivated to run their businesses through Facebook. It is expected that this could further imitate strategies directed to improve entrepreneurial movements among women of emerging economies and conclusively increasing female leadership around the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the social capital of women entrepreneurs in contexts characterized by gender segregation between men's and women's trading spaces is underdeveloped. The literature on women's entrepreneurship and the marketplace in Pakistan is one such example. This article contributes to the literature on the social capital of female entrepreneurs from a critical perspective by drawing on an exploratory case study of women's entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial networks in the Malakand District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Women's social capital was found to play a crucial role in the survival and expansion of their business activities by facilitating access to the men's trading sphere of the marketplace. It was also found that women exercise active agency in developing cross‐gender economic networks but do so in ways that do not overtly challenge social norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores the contextual Embeddedness of entrepreneurial phenomenon, particularly experienced by women of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It attempts to identity modes of networking activities being practiced by women and also to highlight effects of "push and pull factors" on their social networking. Women entrepreneurship have been conceptualized through the lens of Western theory and there is no research on contextually embedded perspective in the region. Data from 17 women entrepreneurs were collected by using face to face semi structured interviews. Analysis was conducted using "constructivist grounded theory approach". Qualitative analysis reveals that social networks are embedded in entrepreneur's context which effects women orientations towards exploring possible opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intertwinement of gender, entrepreneurship and household context highlights the importance of understanding female entrepreneurship in its entirety. Current research study attempts to explicate the growth aspirations of the Pukhtoon women entrepreneurs in Peshawar, Pakistan through a qualitative lens. Data was collected through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis was carried out. The results show that contextual forces at play within the household have significant impact on the growth aspirations of women entrepreneurs. The regulative pillar of the household shapes the overall resource structure for the Pukhtoon women entrepreneurs however; the functioning of normative/cognitive pillar limits their growth aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the constraints on women entrepreneurs running SMEs in conflict zones. The research is carried out in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), a conflict affected province in Pakistan close to the border of Afghanistan. The findings reveal that women in the region are in a complex family situation exacerbated by terrorism, which has created stress, depression and fear of failure. Better understanding of their circumstances may aid those seeking to help such businesses in Pakistan and other regions beset by conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crucial aspect of successful venturing is social capital. In contrast to traditional Western-oriented research where social capital is construed positively, we found that in the traditional, patriarchal society of Pakistan, social capital puts high restrictions on women micro entrepreneurs – where social capital prevents or slows venturing efforts. Results also show that although women do getsomeselective access to resources from family members, they are restricted by limited access to social capital outside of family members. As women entrepreneurs have the potential to play an important role in the development of any society, and especially so in developing countries, based on the insights derived from this qualitative study, we propose suggestions for further research on women micro entrepreneurs in non-Western contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the rural areas of Pakistan, women have limited access to credit, property, education, skill, paid job and land. There are many hindrances in women empowerment in the rural areas such as socio-economic and cultural values, norms, and patriarchal structure of society etc. In this context, this research was planned to analyze different determinants of empowerment of rural women for poverty reduction in agrarian communities by taking the case study of rural Faisalabad. Multistage random sampling technique was used for data collection at different stages. Two tehsils from district Faisalabad were selected through simple random sampling technique and four rural union councils and then eight villages were selected randomly. Twenty five (25) from each village were selected through convenient sampling technique thereby making total sample size of 200 women. Most important finding of the study is that the households where women have higher decision making authority are better-off and in other words women empowerment is likely to reduce poverty and increase household wellbeing. The results also revealed significantly positive relationship between women age, education, decision making authority and paid work involvement with empowerment and poverty reduction. It is also concluded that education is the most important factor in empowerment but majority (64.5%) of respondents had only up to 5 year education. In the study area most respondents had very limited decision making authority and control over economic resources mostly significant and important decisions and resources are controlled by the male members. Similarly majority of the respondents (65%) said that decisions regarding family size were taken by both husband and wife. Freedom of mobility is one of the pillars of empowerment and helpful in poverty reduction but the results showed that very small percentage of respondents had full freedom of mobility to go outside the house and more than 80% of the respondents needed permission from their family to go to the local market. Though rural women have great contribution in poverty reduction but majority of them were facing the problems of low education, wages, less control over resources, freedom of mobility and lack of decision making authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate factors that negatively influence the entrepreneurial capacity of women pieceworker in Tehsil Katlong, District Mardan of Pakistan. For this purpose, three villages including Hodigram, Mayaar and Katigarhai were purposively selected as our study locale. A total of 75 home based women pieceworker who were actively engaged in sewing garments, blanket making and carpet weaving were identified and accessed at different time and places. This study was tailored to investigate the sociocultural, economic and administrative hardships of women in the production and marketing process of their hand craft business. Result was drawn on the basis of 14 in-depth interviews of our key informants where their narratives were properly documented and subsequently quoted in the discussion. It is concluded that socio-cultural norms such as mobility restriction, safety concern, illiteracy and social acceptability are negatively affecting women's entrepreneurial productivity. Lack of capital, titled assets, access to market and non availability of credit facility were frequently reported by the study participants. Besides, some administrative factors such as training facility, assistantship and isolation from the mainstream business network were also reported as potential factors. This study contributes to the existing literature that how the potential and skills of women have been structurally obstructed through deeply imbedded patriarchal norms and values in Pakistani society. The findings of the study are useful in mainstreaming the role of women pieceworker as a potential contributor to domestic and national economies of Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze the impact of microfinance and enterprise development on women's empowerment in Skardu (Gilgit-Baltistan, Northern Pakistan). The aim of this study is to examine the effect on women's social and economic conditions as a result of Hawa Project, by Agha Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) in Skardu. Feminist theory argued and helped to analyze in this research that women are suppressed in the society mostly because of their economic interdependence and this exploitation further extended to economic, political and social injustice for women. The data was collected from 20 women entrepreneurs through questionnaire, who are having shops in Hawa market. Data analysis has shown that this Hawa project has a very positive impact on the socio-economic conditions of the local women in Skardu as capacity to be economically self-sufficient and having their own personal income help to empower the women on their own. Thus the women entrepreneurs providing a platform to household stability become a fundamental premise of the microfinance business model and ensure the success of microfinance as a strong poverty alleviation tool of the modern world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to explore the variables contributing to the growth of women-owned enterprises in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Based on a previously established multivariate model, it uses two econometric approaches: first classifying variables into predetermined blocks; and second, using the general to specific approach. Statistical analyses and in-depth interviews confirm that women entrepreneurs’ personal resources and social capital have a significant role in their business growth. Further, it reveals that the moral support of immediate family, independent mobility and being allowed to meet with men play a decisive role in the sales and employment growth of women-owned enterprises in an Islamic country such as Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study was intended to explore the psycho-social factors effecting female entrepreneurs, involved in various activities, belonging to different rural and urban areas of Dist. Attock Punjab. The research based on both qualitative and quantitative approach. The data was collected from two hundred female entrepreneurs by using non-probability purposive sampling technique. The data was collected with three Test of Achievement Motivation to measure need achievement and Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Questionnaire for measuring perceived social support. There was negative co-relation between social support and work motivation. Case studies showed that female entrepreneurs were initiative taking and have courage to muster up the hindrances to attain the goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1990, microfinance has gained universal recognition as an essential and useful tool to address the economically productive poor and provide them with a way to come out of the vicious circle of poverty, by delivering loans and credit on flexible terms in contrast to commercial banks. Many studies from different parts of the world have shown significant economic and social uplift of recipients (both men and women) of microfinance programs. However, in recent years, some studies argue against the positive influence of microfinance and stresses that microfinance is commercialized, and it has become more of a profit generation activity than uplifting of the economically productive poor, which is one of many core objective of microfinance organizations. Many empirical studies have been done to know the effects of microfinance on the welfare of households. They are well documented, e.g., in Bangladesh and India, but only a few studies assess the microfinance effect on rural female entrepreneurs of Pakistan. The present study was carried out to empirically analyze the outcome of microfinance on Pakistan's female entrepreneurs. Women's empowerment is gauged using income and consumption as welfare indicators. The difference in difference method is applied to investigate the effects of microfinance on its recipients, which is considered a useful tool to tackle the selection bias problem. Our study result shows that microfinance programs that target women not just only increase income and consumption of female borrowers, making them financially stable, but in fact, many local stakeholders also get benefited from it, and in turn, it creates opportunities for the whole local community. However, our results also show that it does not reach to the poorest of poor women (extremely poor) and thus does not serve the purpose of many of its core objectives, i.e., poverty reduction of extremely poor and henceforth should not be relied upon in this perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of work life balance becomes more severe and is considered a women issue in traditional societies. In such societies woman has the prime responsibility for smooth running of daily household operations. Considering that, the current study explores the factors which influence work life balance of women entrepreneurs from perspective of a traditional society that is Quetta, Pakistan. The researchers used the qualitative phenomenological approach for the purpose of better and deeper understanding of women entrepreneurs' work life balance issues. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate the factors that have an effect on the work life balance of women entrepreneurs. The researchers used purposive sampling technique to select 20 women entrepreneurs from Quetta city and applied thematic analysis to analyze their interview transcripts. The findings of this study revealed that the multiple roles, time management, social and family support, family responsibilities, mental and physical issues, dependent care and other challenges are the major factors which affect work and family life balance of women entrepreneurs in Quetta. Additionally, it has been found that the majority of women entrepreneurs who participated in this study suffer from work and life balance issues and these issues vary based on demographic attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]