Economic contribution and impact of small scale enterprise on women’s empowerment
Loading...
Date
2014
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
CCSHAU
Abstract
Female entrepreneurship and the formation of women business networks is steadily rising but
there are a number of challenges and obstacles that female entrepreneurs face. Women from low
income countries often seek an additional means of income to support themselves and their families.
The objectives of the study were to explore the nature of work and work pattern of urban women
running small scale enterprises in Hisar city, to study women’s economic contribution to family
expenditure and impact on their empowerment and to find out the benefits and problems faced by
women entrepreneurs and to suggest suitable measures. A sample of 100 urban women respondents
earning more than Rs. 10,000 per month were selected randomly from Hisar city by snow ball
technique. It was found that 48 percent women respondents were having beauty parlours, 32 percent
were running boutiques and 20 percent were having shops as the enterprise. 72 percent of the
respondents had family saving as the source of finance for starting the enterprise. Majority of the
respondents were working for about 8 hours which were equivalent to 310 man-days. Empowerment of
respondents was studied with the help of six different indicators. In majority of respondents, the six
indicators were found to be at low level before starting the enterprise and it increased to medium and
high level after starting the enterprise. So, it was concluded that women entrepreneurs are more
empowered now than they were before starting the enterprise. The results revealed that 100 percent of
all the respondents felt the benefits like better level of living, families spending more on different day
to day items due to increase in family income and families not have to think twice for purchasing small
things as earlier. The presence of personal traits of respondents after starting the enterprise was more
with respect to self confidence, independence, problem solving, managerial ability, communicability
and development of technical skills. They were facing some problems due to enterprise like problem of
too much fatigue due to over work/burden, lack of time for children, husband, in-laws and other family
members, family conflicts due to over work/hectic schedule, cervical, wrist or backache problem, lack
of time for social obligations/activities, lack of time for self care or self health and lack of time for
sufficient proper sleep/rest. Suitable measures were suggested so as to solve the problems to some
extent.
Description
Keywords
Manpower, Biological phenomena, Economics, Production factors, Self help, economic systems, Finance, Markets, Participation, Selection