Women’s Owned Home Based Enterprises: A Pathway to Women Empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan

Authors

1 Department of Economics, Faculty of Management Sciences, The Government Sadiq College Women University, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

2 Department of Computer Science and Information Technology Government Sadiq College Women University, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

Abstract

Women’s home-based enterprises not only improves the household livelihood but also serves as a major source to empower the women entrepreneur. The study examined the effectiveness of women owned home based enterprises in women empowerment in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Likewise, the study explored the socioeconomic barriers and motivational factors in their work engagements. Multistage sampling technique was employed to collect the information from the women entrepreneurs. For this purpose, the study selected three Divisions and 500 women entrepreneurs were interviewed from four Tehsils of three Districts in Southern Punjab. The research endeavor employed quantitative research methods supported by qualitative data. The study found that the major motivational factor was the income followed by job satisfaction while most common barriers to women entrepreneurs were the social norms, children of age less than 3 years, lack of finance, price discrimination and lack of space. The study estimated multidimensional women empowerment index and found that DG Khan region was the most deprived region in women empowerment. The regression results of multiple linear regression model showed that personnel income of the women entrepreneur and their age were the most important determinants of women empowerment in this region. The analysis also showed that the women fetching their income from beauty parlours were the most empowered in the Southern Punjab. Since, the study revealed that there is potential in women owned home based enterprises to raise economic activity and women empowerment in the region.

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