Socio-economic Development of Women Entrepreneurs: An Anthropological Study

Abstract

Small and midlevel scale enterprises are essential to the general financial growth. Both job creation and national income growth could be swiftly accelerated by enterprises sector for Bangladesh. Concern over the socioeconomic status of female entrepreneurs has grown as a result of the ongoing gender gap and obstacles they encounter when launching, running and growing their businesses. At present the development of entrepreneurship process for women is a crucial issue which help them to hold empower for both society and country. Women also play vital role in both family and enterprise work. Although the women involvement in different financial activities is not fulfill the satisfaction level but it increases day by day. Now they are engage in different economic activities both online and offline platform business and play crucial role for the national economic sector. The objective of the study is to understand the existing scenario of women entrepreneurs in Dhaka city through the relationship between entrepreneurship development and empowerment. The study sought to identify the factors that motivate women to pursue entrepreneurship, such as their contributions to the family and society, their ability to make decisions about how to spend their earnings, access to skill development opportunities, and the main obstacles that face female entrepreneurs. The study was conducted with small and medium-scale women entrepreneurs to understand their existing situations in Dhaka city. The study was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Data has been collected from both primary and secondary sources. There were 50 questionnaire surveys, 10 in-depth interviews, 5 key informant interviews, 5 focused group discussions, and 10 case study interviews conducted during the fieldwork. For quantitative data, statistical methods of SPSS were utilized to code and analyze. Descriptive and narrative analyses were used to qualitative data for an in-depth understanding of the conditions of small-scale women entrepreneurs. The fieldwork of this study has been conducted in Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, Uttara, and Mirpur areas in Dhaka city. According to the Marxist perspective, there is a relationship between economic power and social status and between position and prestige. Marx’s idea shows that, in the production system people are entering the social system and the relation of production makes the relations between classes. While the economic structure makes up the whole political structure. The superstructure is the social form of thought, religion, and behavior based on the base structure. The base structure consists of the terms and conditions of production. However, in this research work, the social structure is centered on the involvement of females in the production system. It is also true that the system-based structure is guiding the position of those working women. The study showed that in the context of Bangladesh, working women are not as fully empowered as they were about to be. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels explained women's subordinate position in terms of property ownership. According to them, economic position determines the balance of power in society. The transition from a matriarchal to a patriarchal society has changed the situation of female in the family and society. Page | vi The economic position in the society, which is the base structure, does not let them overlook the social or superstructure. This study showed that economic power helps to improve social status, position and prestige. Inadequate family income, selfinterest, opportunity, availability of job, proper work schedule to manage household work, lack of job, dissatisfaction of salary from a job, the economic crisis of the family, etc. inspire women to participate in entrepreneurship. These are considered as the significant factors for women to become entrepreneurs. Study findings further showed that women's decision-making freedom is still limited in many cases. Women cannot fully decide on investing their earned money in business and economic freedom. Most of the times they need help from family members, friends, and husbands. However, women's decision-making capacity is gradually increasing through participation in the economic sector. Economic power helps them to make decisions and enhance social status, prestige, and respect. The push factors played a crucial role in changing their social and financial conditions. On the other hand, pull factors helped entrepreneurs to increase self-employment, financial solvency, and self-dependency, and generate economic empowerment. The study findings showed that when women try to do business, they do not have enough capital, family encouragement, and marketing facilities/mobility among others. These are the obstacles women faced over time and these also hindered their upward mobility. Additionally, they deal with societal issues that impede, discourage, and produce a variety of oppressive and discriminatory environments. Business is a competitive affair where women have to fall behind due to these barriers. They face lot of trouble to take loans from Bank and sometimes women entrepreneurs feel discouraged from taking loans and expanding their businesses due to prevailing social systems and ideologies. Women entrepreneurs are not experienced enough in business management. Thus, experience in business management, adequate training skills, and many obstacles come in the way of their business management and expansion. Social and cultural thinking are also hampering their access to financial investment. This will be possible only when access to investment becomes easier for them. Although the progress of their participation is increasing continuously in various fields but they need to do more hard work ahead of successful entrepreneurship. Women can also be successful as entrepreneurs and can make a special contribution to social progress and prosperity. Therefore, concerted efforts are needed from all sides to improve and empower the overall position of women.