Women Empowerment through Entrepreneurship: A Study of Small and Medium Enterprises in Rajshahi City

Abstract

The study entitled ‘Women Empowerment through Entrepreneurship: A Study of Women SME in Rajshahi City’ was conducted in the Rajshahi Metropolitan area during a period of four years from 2012 to June 2016. The prime goal of this research work was to find out the impact of small and medium entrepreneurship on empowerment of women in the study area. It is a field based study and the researcher wanted to find out empowerment level of the respondents by measuring women’s income, women’s participation in the decision making process, access to family wealth, women’s mobility, ability to do things as they wish and the ability to set their own agenda. The study endeavored to find out the impact of women's entrepreneurship on their empowerment by comparing the level of empowerment of the respondents before becoming an entrepreneur and after. The methods used in order to achieve objectives of the study were both quantitative and qualitative in nature. The primary data were collected from the respondents with the help of in-depth interview by using a semi-structured questionnaire. The researcher herself interviewed all the respondents. Besides, two focus group discussion (FGD), and seven concerned person were also interviewed to explore the problems and prospects of women entrepreneurship in the study area. The impact of women entrepreneurship on the empowerment level of the respondents was revealed through comparing the situations of the respondents before engaging in an SME activity and after. The study result reveals that SME activities appeared as a positive factor for empowering the respondents. Data show that in most of the cases the 'after' situation was better than the 'before' situation. After starting SME activity every woman got the power to earn some money. Their percentage of taking part in decision making process was increased. The study results also reveal that the respondents’ access to family wealth, their mobility, their ability to do things as they wished and their ability to set their own agenda also increased.