Women Empowerment through Entrepreneurship Development: Bangladesh Perspective

Abstract

Half of the brainpower on Earth is in the heads of women. They provide an essential opportunity for economic and social development and progress. Women’s participation in any kind of economic activity is of a complementary nature to their family incomes; their participation in no way reduces their family duties. Women’s equal rights are now defined by women’s economic empowerment and the ultimate empowerment is through entrepreneurship. So, Government and private sector interventions have generally accelerated income-generating activities of women both in the urban and rural areas with entrepreneurship development. The ways in which women are involved in this sector are through selling labor (Wage labor), engaging in trading activities (self employment) and operating small industrial productions (enterprise owners).Working as labor may give them temporary employment but it does not improve their conditions or promote their advancement. Scope of trading activities especially in the rural areas, in view of extensive poverty and the large number of people who need to engage in income earning activities, is limited. Engaging in production or rural industrial activities seem to be the most viable avenue for which the women should be assisted to take up. Non-government organizations have equally joined hands with the government efforts for economic salvation and provided various forms of opportunities for women to help them earn living, paving the way for greater entrepreneurship development. Women have now become aware of their socio economic rights and have ventured to avail the opportunities initiated for them. Rural Bangladesh is now a changed scenario for the women who have gathered courage to break barriers and enter the off house working force as entrepreneurs and workers- a situation not appropriate for women or accepted by the society in the past. The urban areas have greater opportunities for business development but the areas where women lack assistance are in the access to credit, provision of skill training, and market facilities