Women empowerment through women entrepreneurship: A comparison between women entrepreneurs and fulltime housewife in Pakistan

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.