Krish Giri

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study Nepal's historically evolved patriarchal tradition and cast based social structure are not letting women and weaker section to come in front of the mainstream of the society. This has affected not only the country's economy but also the process of development. They have been deprived of most of the opportunities including access to the business, trade, industry, gainful employment, entrepreneurial and skills development opportunities, education, health, etc. but the recent restoration of democracy and conflict settlement confirm the fact that the power of powerless is expressed fully through non-violent means of politics by solidarity. Hence, there is suitable social policy for socially, economically and physically weaker section of the society (Upreti, B. R., Bhattarai, R. & Wagle, G.S.,2013). The term entrepreneurship can be traced back to as early as the Middle Ages when the entrepreneur was simply someone who carried out tasks, such as buildings and construction projects by applying all the resources at his disposal. Throughout the theoretical history of entrepreneurship, different scholars have different views regarding the concept of entrepreneurship and they interpreted it differently. Originally, the term entrepreneurship has been derived from French word enterprendre, which means to undertake. In the early 16th century. French men who scientifically managed a mechanism for military expenditure was known to be an entrepreneur. Around 1700 A.D., the term was used for architects and contractors of public works (Drucker, 1985). Generally, entrepreneurs are found in almost all professions, such as, teaching, medicine, research, law, architecture, engineering, social work, etc. However, an economic definition of entrepreneurial behavior can be defined as: ‘Entrepreneurship is the process of creating something different with value by devoting the necessary time and effort, assuming the accompanying financial, psychic, and social risks, that gives the rewards of monetary and personal satisfaction. Of course entrepreneurship, known as mindset creativity, is based on creating new innovation, creating new ventures, exploring new product as well exploiting the available resources, where risks and rewards prevail. Therefore, an entrepreneur is a person, who is responsible for setting up a business or an enterprise, who has the initiative and who looks for the high achievements. Woman Entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically independent. A strong desire to do something positive is an inbuilt quality of entrepreneurial women, who is capable of contributing values in both family and social life. With the advent of media women are aware of their own traits, right and also the work situation (Rao, 2011) The number of women employers too has increased and unemployed women are gradually decreasing in number. Most of the women are employed in informal sectors and low wage activities. Though women's participation in industrial activities is increasing, their work is limited mostly in knitting, tailoring, textile weaving, wool threading, tea processing and food processing (Pant, 2013). Ganesamurthy (2007) defines women entrepreneur as a confident, innovative and creative women capable of achieving self-economic independence individually or in collaboration, generates employment opportunities for others though initiating, establishing and running the enterprise by keeping pace with her personal family and social life. The economists note that educating more women in developing countries is likely to raise the productive potential of an economy significantly. Thus, women entrepreneur’s means making the women self-reliant giving her the liberty to make choices in her life and providing her with information and knowledge to take decisions. Education and employment are the only two methods that can empower them. Women entrepreneurs face special problems of resources scarcity, low risk taking capacity and marketing access. Moreover, there is a severe dearth of information on women’s employment and earning patterns, problems, grievances and aspirations in the formal sector including tourism and other services. The recorded economic activity rates under reports women’s work and contributions to household survival (Bushell, 2008). Lancsweert (2013), a linkage coordination of Vocational Student Organization (VSO) educational livelihood, presented a report at a conclave on "Economic Growth in Nepal" among the many business leaders, executives, entrepreneurs of Nepal, where they found that there are only few women entrepreneurs in Nepal. Of the total population in Nepal (approximately 30 million), over 51 percent are female, yet the number of women entrepreneurs is estimated at 30,000 (Lancsweert, 2013). It is difficult to assess how many of these women are even real entrepreneurs, ‘undertaking the organization and management of an enterprise involving innovativeness, independence and risk, as well as the opportunity for profit’. Many of these women are simply self-employed and limit the scale of their enterprise to meet the requirements of house-hold consumption. Being compelled to start a business because of financial circumstances, without clear goals, will not lead to poverty alleviation or empowerment but will just subject women to the constraints of the market. While it is easy to see that starting a new business to exploit a perceived business opportunity would lead to economic development. Although women entrepreneurs have always been common in some ethnic groups, especially in Newar, Sherpa, and Gurung communities, the idea of women in business has only recently become more common across the country (Tuladhar, 1996). In Nepal, the enterprises run by women earn more than the enterprise owned by men. The working hours also tend to be at least three to four hours longer each day for women compared with men, due to the additional responsibilities women have in the home (Acharya, 2001). These factors severely limit women’s abilities to lead flourishing and profitable businesses. It can be noted that although statistics are lacking, the number of women entrepreneurs either in absolute or relative terms has not reached the critical mass necessary to make an impact on the economic system or to raise awareness in the country of the role women can take in the workplace and wider society. The subtle manifestation of the gender phenomenon is often reflected in the size of the businesses, product line, growth, composition, and management, which can be seen from the profiles of women entrepreneurs. A typical woman entrepreneur’s enterprise is very small, in traditional manufacturing, small shop or informal vending with low turnovers, a low number of employees and no professional assistance (Acharya, 2001). A recent World Bank estimate of a 5.3 percent growth in 2014 and 5.9 percent in 2015 in South Asia makes the region one of the fastest growing regions in the world (The World Bank, 2016a). Research indicates that challenges to women entrepreneurship persists at different levels and varies widely across the region (Kabeer, 2012). However, a number of research evidences show that there are some commonalities, for instance, one of the major challenge is that women have less access to the external sources of capital (e.g. from bank) than men when securing finances(Vossenberg, 2013). Constraints faced by women entrepreneurs are mainly low access to credit, limited marketing networks, lack of access to resources (land and property), low risk-taking capacity, lack of access to improved technology, no personal security, risk of sexual harassment, low level of self confidence and competition from more organized companies. This is compounded by social and cultural barriers and discriminatory norms that make them exclusively responsible for household work, restrict their mobility and often also restrict access to higher education and trainings. Even in cases where women do have their own business, very often, it is found that they have to consent to the husband’s or other family members’ in key business decisions; furthermore, many also turn over greater power to these family members as the business grows. Given this situation, the gender impact of trade policy needs to given serious attention especially as it is increasingly evident that trade policy is not ‘gender sensitive’. Women’s entrepreneurship is both about women’s position in society and about entrepreneurship . Thus, women’s entrepreneurship deals with three intertwined and inter-related issues: (a) the gender system/structure in the society, that defines not only of roles and identities, but also distribution of resources, ways of behaving in relation to one another and cultural beliefs, all of which contribute to the reproduction of gender inequality; (b) the situation of women in society that is as a result of the gender system/structure, and (c) the factors that affect entrepreneurship in society (OECD, 2004; Ridgeway, 1997; Risman, 1998). Given this situation, the major barriers to women entrepreneurship in the region are lack of access to: (i) finance and credit; (ii) formal business and networks; (iii) opportunities to gain management experience, training and exposure and (iv)last but not least the restrictions imposed due to their household and family care responsibilities, which limits them to run enterprises. Six major conditions can be identified as necessary for women SMEs to engage and grow profitably in the market: financial and other capital incentives and support; technology and infrastructure, including usage of ICT; the creation of economic opportunity including network affiliations; capability building (education, training, counseling, exposure); advocacy and shaping attitudes; and laws, policies, and regulations (Teoh and Chong, 2008; Woetzel, et. al., 2015). Nepal is predominantly a patriarchal society with widespread gender inequality in the country. There are high levels of gender disparity, and women lag behind men both socially and economically. Although women shoulder a lot of responsibilities in the household and community, society and the state have been slow to recognize the contribution made by Nepalese women to the country’s economy (Shrestha, et al. 2015). The Industrial Enterprise Bill 2016 has some specific provisions for women entrepreneurs such as industry registered only in the name of a woman will be given 35% exemption in registration and 20% in fee for getting industrial property registered; women-owned microenterprises can be registered free of cost, and since more than 70 percent of micro entrepreneurs are women owned they are expected be benefit from this provision. However, multiple hindrances are identified by women entrepreneurs in the registration, including challenging bureaucratic processes along with red-tapism. The Industrial Policy 2011 and Industrial Enterprise Bill 2016 provide that enterprises with 50 percent of the direct employees being native women will have an exemption of 15 percent in the income tax that would be imposed. Additionally, such enterprises are also given a tax holiday for 10 years. Women entrepreneurs create new jobs for themselves and others and by being different also provide society with different solutions to management, organization and business problems as well as to the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. Women entrepreneurs are defined as those who use their knowledge, skills and resources to develop or create new business opportunities. Women entrepreneurs whether they may be informally in a home environment without formally registering their business or formally by registering the business, hiring office premises, etc. who are actively involved in managing their businesses, are responsible in some way for the day-to-day running of the business, and have been in operation for longer than a year. According to Moore and Buttner, there is one gender-specific definition the authors came across that specifically appealed to them due to its emphasis on women entrepreneurship. “Women entrepreneurs are defined as those who use their knowledge and resources to develop or create new business opportunities, who are actively involved in managing their businesses, and own at least 50 percent of the business and have been in operation for longer than a year” (Moore & Buttner, 1997). According to Moore and Buttner, a woman entrepreneur is a confident, innovative and creative woman capable of achieving self-economic independence individually or in collaboration, generates employment opportunities for others through initiating, establishing and running the enterprise by keeping pace with her personal, family and social life (Moore & Buttner, 1997). Women entrepreneurship is an act of business ownership and business creation that empowers women economically, increases their economic strength as well as position in the society. A woman entrepreneur is an adult who owns and runs an enterprise, especially a commercial one, often at personal financial risks (Bhuvaneshwari & Annapoorani, 2013). In Nepal women entrepreneurship is a new concept and has recently gained recognition. In Developing country like Nepal, micro enterprise makes major contribution in the development and most of the women are engaged in micro cottage and small enterprises. Because these enterprises are the backbone and foundation of economic development where resources are limited, capital and its mobilization position is weak and entrepreneurship cannot be promoted as expected, micro cottage and small enterprises play a vital role in poverty reduction in both rural and urban areas. Women are generally poor with respect to income, asset holding and gender disparities in human development, especially literacy, school enrollment and life expectancy are the major problems. Total population of Nepal is 26,494,504 out of which 48.50% (12,849,041) are male and 51.50% (13,645,463) are female (Population Census of Nepal, 2011). Entrepreneurs have a vision of what the future could be like for them and their business. And, more importantly, they have the ability to implement their vision and progress. They don’t procrastinate. They make decisions swiftly. Their swiftness is a key factor for their successes. They decide on a course of action once and implement it as quickly as possible. They implement their ventures with total commitments. They seldom give up, even when confronted by obstacles that seem in surmountable. They are totally dedicated to their business, sometimes at considerable cost to their relationships with their friends and families. They work tirelessly. Twelve-hour days and seven-day work weeks are not uncommon when an entrepreneur is striving to get a business off the ground. Entrepreneurs love what they do. It is that love that sustains them when the going gets tough. And it is love of their product or service that makes them so effective at selling it. It is said that the devil resides in the details. That is never truer than in starting and growing a business. The entrepreneur must be on top of the critical details. They want to be in charge of their own destiny rather than dependent on an employer. Getting rich is not the prime motivator of entrepreneurs. Money is more a measure of their success. They assume that if they are successful they will be rewarded. The women, who venture entrepreneurship, played a commanding role within the family by controlling resources, making crucial planting and harvesting decisions, and determining the expenses and budget allocations. Educated women entrepreneurs are seen in higher-status positions in the society and in the private service sectors too. However, within the family, an educated entrepreneur did not necessarily hold a higher status than her uneducated counterpart. Also within the family, a woman's status, especially a daughter-in-law's status, was more closely tied to her husband's authority and to her parental family's wealth and status than anything. Hence, woman’s entrepreneurship is both about women’s position in society and the role of entrepreneurship in the same society. 1.2 Statement of the Problem Formulating an appropriate intervention for transforming the status of women both within and outside their homes has been one of the major preoccupations of development practitioners, at least since the mid-1970s. A number of strategies have been formulated over time, for example, raising women’s status through education, training, access to health and family planning services as well as access to legal counseling. Politically, various attempts have been done to raise the proportion of female participants in representative organs. Economically, the most popular strategy, especially since the 1990s, has been the involvement and participation of women in microfinance programs to assist micro and small enterprises (Milgram, 2001; Von Bulow, Damball and Maro, 1995; Malhotra, Schuler and Boender, 2002). Despite the above development efforts to address the situation of women by transforming social and gender relations, women have been left behind in the development process and are still subordinate to men. It is not well understood why this is so (Jahan, 1995). For example, despite the widely held assumption that women’s micro and small enterprises would lead to transformation of their disadvantaged position in households and in society in general, some gender experts, for instance Cartaya, McDonnell, Himunyanga-Phiri and Tembo argue that, because work in the informal sector tends to use domestic skills that are undervalued and invisible, it is the least likely to transform gender relations and may even reinforce gender stratification (Grasmuck and Espinal, 2000) It is generally realized that merely monetary assistance is not sufficient condition for entrepreneurial growth and that the human factor still remains significant. This is particularly so in industrial progress where the success of scheme largely depends on the person responsible for its implementation (Economic Indicator, 2018/19). The country’s economic development can be enhanced through optimal utilization of its human resources in economic activities (Parker S, 2009). Currently human resources development is a key issue in Nepal. It is therefore important to contribute to what has been discussed by finding out the impact of development interventions. This is an imperative because giving women access to resources is one thing but achieving control over resources by women is another. In this case, while there are many studies on constraints faced by women entrepreneurs (Rutashobya, 1997; ILO, 2003; Omari, 1995; Lutege and Wagner, 2002), study on women’s entrepreneurship development as well as entrepreneurship- based enterprises and empowerment are almost non-existent. In this regard, while there have been some programs to assist women’s microenterprises, the full outcome of such initiatives is not widely known. Wide knowledge of the same would be very useful for future interventions. It is therefore pertinent to explore the impact of women entrepreneurship on women’s empowerment in order to widen our experience and narrow the knowledge gap in the area. Hence, the major research questions for this study will be as: 1. What is the situation of women entrepreneurs in Bharatpur Metropolitan City? 2. What are the major obstacles that the women entrepreneurs are facing? 1.3 Objectives of the Study The study aimed to analyze the situation of women entrepreneurs particularly in the Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Chitwan. This study also tried to identify the leading factors that could drive the women entrepreneurs to enter into business activities and suggest ways that could be employed to combat woman entrepreneurs’ problems. The specific objectives of the study were as follows: To analyze the situations of women entrepreneurs. To explore the major obstacles that the women entrepreneurs. 1.4 Significance of the Study This study also tries to address the important area of social condition of women that is crucial in helping households enhance their social and economic security, by focusing on the serious problem of social paradigm in developing country like Nepal. The knowledge generated by this study is hoped to be useful in the area of women entrepreneurship development and empowerment. The findings of this study with regard to selected empowerment variables are likely to be of interested results to business development service providers. With regard to the knowledge gap in the area, the findings of this study will contribute to widening the experience on women’s empowerment. CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE This chapter presents previous studies related to this topic of the study. This section first focuses on socio economic status of women followed by theoretical perspectives, under which major concepts are discussed and defined. These title deals about enterprise, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship development, the role of enterprises in development as well as gender and gender relations. Similarly, other titles deals on the concept of power in relation to gender, intra-household power relations and conceptualization, measurement, and paradigms of women’s empowerment focusing on findings from previous studies with regard to income earnings by women and intra-household relations, enterprises and women’s empowerment. Finally, this chapter would be helpful to formulate conceptual and analytical framework of the study. 2.1 Theoretical Reviews Gender and Development (GAD) is the more recent approach, articulated by some groups of women in the Third World. The gender approach focuses on the socially constructed roles of both men and women and looks at women in the context of society. The Gender and Development approach seeks to empower women through greater self-reliance and transform unequal relationships between women and men. It tries to understand the unequal power relationships (rich/poor, men/ women) that prevent equitable development and women’s full participation. The goal for GAD is equitable sustainable development where women and men sharing decision-making and power. Gender and Development identifies and addresses short-term needs determined by women and men to improve their conditions. At the same time, GAD also addresses women’s and men’s long-term interests. It focuses on “the current and the potential role and responsibilities of both men and women and their access to and control over resources within a particular system” (Kabeer, 1999). Deshpande and Sethi (2009) also point out the motivational factors for women entrepreneurship research. According to him in recent years there has been a lot of debate in the print and electronic media, parliament and other forums about the development of entrepreneurship amongst women. Due to various cultural and social reasons, women in different parts have different motive, aspiration, social status, needs and urges. Varied motivation need and interest plunges in women entrepreneurs for establishing an enterprise. The role of women entrepreneurs in the process of economic development has been recognized from the 1990s in various parts of the world .Today in the world of business women entrepreneurship has become an essential movement in many countries and has been accepted in all areas of working .The UN's report has also concluded that economic development is closely related to the development of women. In nation where women have advanced, economic growth has usually been steady. By contrast in countries where women have been restricted the economy has been stagnant (Bharadwaj et.al, 2011). The role of women entrepreneurs in economic development is inevitable. Nowadays, women enter not only in selected professions but also in profession like trade, industry, and engineering. Women are also willing to take up business and contribute to the nation's growth. Their role is also being recognized and steps are being taken to promote women entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneurship must be molded properly with entrepreneurial traits and skill to meet the changes in trends, challenges, global market and also be competent enough to sustain and strive for excellence in the entrepreneurial arena (Das, 2000) Rao (2011) states in his research that women are considered as a weaker sex and always made to depend on men folk in their family and outside, throughout their life. They are left with lesser commitment and kept as a dormant force for quite long time. They are considered only subordinates and executor of the decision made by other male members. Though women are considered a weaker gender physically and mentally they are more capable and alert in managing things. Women have been managing house in small finances in their best possible way. Women are easily accessible to management technique and they adopt them quickly with utmost sincerity and honesty. Another school of thought that has driven development in the recent decades is the political economy school. Political economists are more concerned with the nature of the process by which growth is achieved. The key characteristics of this school can be readily identified by applying Paulo Freire’s question regarding the educational process to the development process: ‘Are people (or classes) and nations objects of development under someone else’s control or are they subjects of development, in control of their own destiny?’ (Sittirak, 1999). In both schools, “development has been about men, by men and for men…policymakers did not see women” (Kabeer, 1999). Women’s work was invisible to economists who equate productivity with a cash economy and as a result, women’s domestic work and subsistence food production are viewed as unproductive. And since the farm is owned by the head of the household, generally a man, most development programs were focused on men who owned the resources. This further increases men’s control over resources. The mainstream development policies treat women as second class citizens and most development programs are still biased against women. This has further deteriorated women’s position in many societies. Poverty among women has increased even within the richest countries, resulting in “feminization of poverty” (Kabeer, 2003). According to Moser, economists believed that economic independence is the only way that “women can emancipate from the seclusion of the household and gain at last the chance to be full human being, exercising her mind and her talents in the same way as men”. The drive for economic growth, however, focused only on “modernization” of the underdeveloped world. Constructions of large-scale hydroelectric dams and major highways were some of the options to modernize and improve the economy of the Third World. This, however, resulted in deforestation, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, and an increase in poverty levels. Ghosh and Cheruvalath (2007) pointed out some of the challenges of women entrepreneurs covering a wide spectrum, including level of education, inter-role conflicts emanating from greater parenting responsibilities, a dearth of financial assistance and socio-cultural constraints. Overall challenges for women SMEs are lack of advanced technologies, limited access to finance and credit, dependency on middle men to market their products. A major reason for this is the status of women in the society restricting their access to education, resources/property and limiting their mobility while making them responsible for all household related work. As a result, women not only lack access to finance and credit facilities but also lack of knowledge on business, technologies and market information. All these restrict their business expansion. Although there are programs and policies as well as certain agencies to support women entrepreneurs, there is still a glaring absence of a mutual network for women entrepreneurs for the promotion, learn new trends and markets (Pradhan, 2006). In today's context, the status of women has been changing due to growing industrialization, organization, globalization and social legislation in the world. Government and non-government organization are also giving special emphasis on conducting special entrepreneurial training program for women to enable them to start their venture. Financial institution and bank have also set up special sell to assist women entrepreneurs. The role of women entrepreneur in economic development is inevitable. Status of women has been changing not only in developed country but also in developing country like Nepal. In Nepal entrepreneurship has been a male dominated phenomenon from the very early age, but time has changed. The situation has made women as today's most memorable and inspirational entrepreneurs. Now, women are entering not only in selected profession but in every field of business activity. They are contributing in economy growth. Their role is also being recognized and steps are being taken to promote women entrepreneurship. Government and non-government organization has provided special entrepreneurial training programs for women to enable them to start their own venture. Financial institution and bank have also set up special program to assist women entrepreneur in Nepal. 2.2 Empirical Reviews In the recent years, huge number of enterprises in Nepal is owned by women. According to the first-ever National Economic Census 2018, nearly one-third of the businesses in Nepal are owned by women. As per a report by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), 29.8 percent of the enterprises in Nepal are owned by women, which are 247, 880 in number. This is a good sign that women in the Nepalese society are slowly coming out of their traditional roles and becoming economically independent through businesses. Nawaz (2009) aims to analyze the critical factors of women entrepreneurship development in rural Bangladesh. The analysis is based on recent theoretical ideas that have been supported by empirical research findings. Nawaz depicted an analytical framework based on institutional theory, which focuses on three kinds of factors: regulative, normative, and cognitive. Regulative factors refer to different rules and regulations of the Government that facilitate women entrepreneurship development in rural Bangladesh. Normative and cognitive factors include norms, rules, regulation, and values of society. Based on the analysis of these factors it provides many significant policy implications on how to improve women entrepreneurship development in rural Bangladesh. The services of Government are available in urban areas, whereas rural entrepreneurs continue to be victims of deprivation. In spite of having access to various micro credits, rural women receive almost no training from development organizations, which adversely affects their efficiency and performance. Widespread illiteracy, lack of basic education, training and experience remain serious obstacles in rural women’s entrepreneurship development. Besides the lack of awareness, social superstitious and the absence of the rule of law also affect the rural women’s participation in economic activities outside the family. Kirkwood, (2009) in his study he found that men tend to have higher self-confidence than women and that this affects their entrepreneurial intentions. However, little is known about how self-confidence affects entrepreneurs in their start-up decision, and even less is understood about how it affects entrepreneurs' decisions and actions in their ongoing business. The purpose of her study was to meet these two objectives by using a gender comparative approach. The findings of her study concluded that women exhibit a lack of self-confidence in their own abilities as entrepreneurs compared to men. This finding parallels results of prior research. Once in an established business, women relate to entrepreneurship less than men and do not feel comfortable calling themselves entrepreneurs. For some women, entrepreneurial self-confidence grew over their time in business. For other women, it appears to continue to act as a constraint – affecting their ability to access finance and curtailing their growth aspirations. Women usually worked harder and longer than men. By contrast, women from high-class families had maids to take care of most household chores and other menial work and thus worked far less than men or women in lower socioeconomic groups. Similarly this study further says that the economic contribution of women as substantial, but largely unnoticed because their traditional role was taken for granted. When employed, their wages normally were 25 percent less than those paid to men. In most rural areas, their employment outside the household generally was limited to planting, weeding, and harvesting. In urban areas, they were employed in domestic and traditional jobs, as well as in the government sector, mostly in low-level positions. (UNDP, 2014) There are very few women working in professional work in Nepal. They may study the law, but few are able to enter the profession. Women’s representation in the bureaucracy is also very low. Only one woman so far has served as ambassador. After 1991 not a single woman has been placed in the diplomatic corps. Limited participation in politics, bureaucracy and judiciary does not stop women from making a remarkable contribution in the decision-making process at the household level). Women serve as decision-makers in farm management, domestic expenditure (food items, clothes and other expenses (OCED, 2012), the children’s education, religious and social travel, household maintenance and also capital transactions. However, women’s decision-making roles seem to have declined in recent years. Although some 60 percent women are said to be economically active and 57.4 percent of the Nepalese women are literate, participation of women in politics is negligible. Women excluded economically, socially and politically in Nepal. Those women who are in the frontline and may be working in high profile may be benefited, but they are very few and their voice is rarely heard (CBS, 2011). In Nepal, housewives are often described as ‘dependents’ when in reality the entire family depends on them for food preparation, care and nurturing, and other household activities. In spite of the hard work women put in for the family, her work is not valued the same as of the man’s. Because women’s work, such as housekeeping, food production and other domestic work do not have any monetary value, they are not considered productive. This reluctance to see women’s work in the family as productive, economic activity rather than a natural and moral responsibility has further devalued women’s role. Women are seen as economic burdens, and people are disappointed when a girl is born (Luitel, 1997). It is very difficult to accurately estimate the current number of women entrepreneurs in Nepal, due to the absence of up-to-date statistics and gender disaggregated data. In addition, the statistics do not reveal who actually controls and runs women’s businesses; even though women may be officially registered as owners of a business, in frequent cases it is the husband or father who is operating the business. This makes the task of accurately capturing the number of actual women entrepreneurs very difficult. According to the Department of Cottage and Small Industries (DCSI), there are 244,341 enterprises in Nepal. From the same source, there were 169,770 entrepreneurs registered and out of them 35,764 entrepreneurs are from the Kathmandu Valley, which is 21 percent of the total entrepreneurs. Out of the total 244,341 enterprises, there are 125,419 enterprises in operation that means 49 percent enterprises had closed down due to various reasons. Kathmandu Valley covering Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur has 3,105 women entrepreneurs, who are involving indifferent types of entrepreneurship (FWEAN, 2012). The subordination of women has concealed women’s contribution to their communities. Although women are active actors of development at the grassroots level in many parts of Nepal, their contribution is either taken for granted or is not taken seriously. But an in-depth understanding of women’s role in development paints a different picture. Women’s active role in development has made a remarkable difference in some communities. However, limited decision-making power, mobility, control over resources, and access to training and capital continue to restrict Nepali women (Luitel, 1997). Economic and social issues are closely intertwined, one reinforcing the other. For example the key issue of access to land for women is closely linked to the socially determined inheritance rights and religiously ritualized need to give away daughters from one’s own clan to some other clan. Sexuality of women is a social property and an "object" of negotiation for the giving and taking clans. Her access to resources is conditional by her sexuality (Bennett, 1883). Parents prefer to spend on son’s education rather than on that of a daughter because socially sons are responsible for parents’ maintenance in old age while daughters are perceived as temporary guests in natal households. The major issues related to women in the economic field include their limited access to productive assets the land and property, credit and modern avenues of knowledge and information; concentration of women in low productivity agriculture and high and increasing work burden without concomitant increase in access to resources, child labor, lack of access to training, technology and education; concentration at lower levels jobs, poor working conditions and lack of child care facilities at work places; trade union’s neglect of women’s problems; risk to personal security and sexual harassment in the formal sector and low level of technology, limited market access, low income and progressive loss of proprietorship in informal sector. A problem to be noted is also the declining economic activity rates of urban women, probably signaling the domestication of women (Bushell, 2008). Women entrepreneurs face special problems of resources scarcity, low risk taking capacity and marketing access. Moreover, there is a severe dearth of information on women’s employment and earning patterns, problems, grievances and aspirations in the formal sector including tourism and other services. The recorded economic activity rates under reports women’s work and contributions to household survival (Bushell, 2008). The literacy rate of women entrepreneurs and their close relatives were well above the national average (Goheer, 2003). While the female literacy rate is 32.6 percent in Pakistan, 97 percent of the survey respondents were literate. Information regarding the level of education is revealing as it indicates that the majority of women entrepreneurs belonged to the upper tiers of graduates and post-graduates. Most had supportive husbands and families. The study has also hinted that the educated woman with an educated family background is much more likely than an average Pakistani woman to start or run a business (Goheer, 2003). In this regard, socio-cultural and traditional values and prejudices are said to have seriously affected women’s entrepreneurial traits. For example, early conditioning has affected women’s level of self-confidence, achievement motivation and ability to take risks (Stevenson, 1983; Rutashobya and Nchimbi, 1999). Rutashobya, and Nchimbi (19990 has been further pointed out specifically that women have been conditioned from a very early stage that they will be wives and mothers only, their place is in the kitchen and that they are second-class people in relation to men. Because of these socio-cultural constraints, female entrepreneurs are said to give only secondary importance to entrepreneurship activity (Kibera and Kibera, 1999). Writing about constraints faced by female entrepreneurs, Kibera and Kibera (1999) point out the following constraints: lack of education and training; socio-cultural traditions; financial constraints; legal and regulatory constraint; and lack of business management skills. Financial constraints are due to several factors, for example, lack of education, lack of women’s lobbies, low employment levels of women, lack of collateral, lack of information about availability of loans, negative attitudes by banks and the need to use business earnings for family needs. Lack of business and management skills causes businesses owned by female entrepreneurs to have low growth and profit potential because they are concentrated in product markets with poor demand and poor management (Downing,as cited in Kibera and Kibera, 1999). The ILO (2003) study reveals that the most commonly cited factors facilitating growth, by order of importance, were financial ability, access to equipment, working premises and technical skills. Specifically for starting a business, facilitating factors, by order of importance, included financial ability, technical skills and access to equipment, and lastly, working premises. In the same vein, critical general constraints to growth included access to finance, good working premises and access to equipment. Critical constraints to growth in food processing, by order of importance, included finance, stringent licensing regulations, competition, for getting good premises, access to equipment and corruption (ILO, 2003). Lancsweert (2013), a linkage coordination of Vocational Student Organization (VSO) educational livelihood, presented a report at a conclave on "Economic Growth in Nepal" among the many business leaders, executives, entrepreneurs of Nepal, where they found that there are only few women entrepreneurs in Nepal. Of the total population in Nepal (approximately 30 million), over 51 percent are female, yet the number of women entrepreneurs is estimated at 30,000 (Lancsweert, 2013). It is difficult to assess how many of these women are even real entrepreneurs, ‘undertaking the organization and management of an enterprise involving innovativeness, independence and risk, as well as the opportunity for profit’. Many of these women are simply self-employed and limit the scale of their enterprise to meet the requirements of house-hold consumption. Being compelled to start a business because of financial circumstances, without clear goals, will not lead to poverty alleviation or empowerment but will just subject women to the constraints of the market. While it is easy to see that starting a new business to exploit a perceived business opportunity would lead to economic development. Women in Nepal have a low status in family, community and public life, with significant disadvantage in the formal economy and in accessing to education, health, justice and politics. These factors confine women to traditional, socially acceptable roles which leave very little room for entrepreneurial aspirations. The literacy rate for women is estimated at less than 40 percent in rural areas. Literacy is the key to the programs that foster entrepreneurship (Lancsweert, 2013). Although women entrepreneurs have always been common in some ethnic groups, especially in Newar, Sherpa, and Gurung communities, the idea of women in business has only recently become more common across the country (Tuladhar, 1996). In Nepal, the enterprises run by women earn more than the enterprise owned by men. The working hours also tend to be at least three to four hours longer each day for women compared with men, due to the additional responsibilities women have in the home (Acharya, 2000). These factors severely limit women’s abilities to lead flourishing and profitable businesses. It can be noted that although statistics are lacking, the number of women entrepreneurs either in absolute or relative terms has not reached the critical mass necessary to make an impact on the economic system or to raise awareness in the country of the role women can take in the workplace and wider society. The subtle manifestation of the gender phenomenon is often reflected in the size of the businesses, product line, growth, composition, and management, which can be seen from the profiles of women entrepreneurs. A typical woman entrepreneur’s enterprise is very small, in traditional manufacturing, small shop or informal vending with low turnovers, a low number of employees and no professional assistance (Acharya, 2000). The Global Gender Gap Report 2017 (World Economic Forum, 2017) depicts Nepal’s rank as 110 in economic participation and opportunity, and in the overall ranking it is 111amongst 144 countries. Traditionally, women entrepreneurs have come from ethnic groups like Newar, Sherpa and Gurung communities and it is only in recent years that idea of women in business has become more common across the country (Tuladhar, 1996). Women in Nepal are increasingly becoming entrepreneurial which fuels economic growth. SME sectors in Nepal are on the rise, amongst women also, which has been contributing in the economy as well. However, it is challenging to approximate the current statistics of women entrepreneurs in Nepal. It estimated that women entrepreneurs own about 14,300 SMEs representing just 2% of the country’s GDP and employing about 200,000 workers (Dhungana, 2014). As per a study conducted by the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (FWEAN) in 2015, there are around 3,000 registered women entrepreneurs in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts. As the number of women entrepreneurs grows, their visibility in terms of equal participation and leadership of the business sector, and their contributions towards sustained economic development, will gradually evolve. But to bring this about more quickly, it is imperative for government agencies, private organizations, and women entrepreneurs themselves, to identify the ways women entrepreneurs can be more visible. The ability of women to develop and expand their business is dependent on financial support and opportunities to get information about new markets, suppliers, technology, and costs. Women often conduct business within their ‘comfort zone’ dealing with family, friends, and business people they already know. But with increasing market liberalization and competition internally and from abroad, it is becoming critical that women entrepreneurs are exposed to a variety of networking systems. While there are already several formal women’s business organizations and informal networking communities in Nepal supporting each other, women’s business networks are still not well represented in the various professional business associations in Nepal. One effective networking system in existence for over 15 years is the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal. As well as building marketing networks with other male-centered associations (Brushell, 2008). Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal is also dedicated to business training and enterprise counseling for women, and provides access to credit and savings. Building capacities in these areas for women in the future will undoubtedly promote leadership possibilities for women in business. In addition the Nepalese government should ensure a working infrastructure including affordable continuous electric power and reliable internet capabilities accessible to all businesses. In order to understand entrepreneurs better, researchers have sought to define traits common to majority of individuals who start and operate new ventures. Research studies that explore the characteristic and personality traits of and influences on the entrepreneurs have come to differing conclusions. Most of them however, agree on certain consistent entrepreneurial traits and environmental influences. Although certain entrepreneurial behaviors are also dynamic and influenced by environmental factors. So it is observed that entrepreneurs have some characteristic behaviors which distinguish them from the rest of the population. Since the main objective of entrepreneurship is to contribute to the development of the society by developing persons who perform entrepreneurial roles, efforts are made to promote self-employment among women in many developing countries including Nepal during last two decades. This indicates new awareness on the part of the government and policy maker to recognize the role of women in economic growth and their capacity to alleviate poverty at the household level. Studies on women entrepreneurs show that women have to cope with stereotypic attitudes of society towards women on a daily basis. Business relations as customers, suppliers, banks, etc. constantly remind the entrepreneur that she is different, sometimes in a positive way such as by praising her for being a successful entrepreneur even though being a woman. Employees tend to mix the perceptions of the manager with their images of women role models leading to mixed expectations on the woman manager to be a manager as well as a “mother”. The workload associated with being a small business manager is also not easily combined with taking care of children and a family. However, even if the revenues are somewhat smaller, women entrepreneurs feel more in control and happier with their situation than if they worked as an employee. A specific problem of women entrepreneurs seems to be their inability to achieve growth especially sales growth. Another previously addressed issue is finance as early stated above, the entrepreneurial process is somewhat dependent on initial conditions. In other words, as women often have a difficult time to assemble external resources, they start less ambitious firms that can be financed to a greater degree by their own available resources. This also has consequences for the future growth of the firm. Basically, firms with more resources at start-up have a higher probability to grow than firms with fewer resources. By resources is meant here societal position, Studies on women entrepreneurs show that women have to cope with stereotypic attitudes of society towards women on a daily basis. Business relations as customers, suppliers, banks, etc. constantly remind the entrepreneur that she is different, sometimes in a positive way such as by praising her for being a successful entrepreneur even though being a woman. Employees tend to mix the perceptions of the manager with their images of women role models leading to mixed expectations on the woman manager to be a manager as well as a “mother”. The workload associated with being a small business manager is also not easily combined with taking care of children and a family. However, even if the revenues are somewhat smaller, women entrepreneurs feel more in control and happier with their situation than if they worked as an employee. These factors severely limit women’s abilities to lead flourishing and profitable businesses. It can be noted that although statistics are lacking, the number of women entrepreneurs – either in absolute or relative terms has not reached the critical mass necessary to make an impact on the economic system or to raise awareness in the country of the role women can take in the workplace and wider society. The subtle manifestation of the gender phenomenon is often reflected in the size of the businesses, product line, growth, composition, and management, which can be seen from the profiles of women entrepreneurs. A typical woman entrepreneur’s enterprise is very small, in traditional manufacturing, small shop or informal vending with low turnovers, a low number of employees and no professional assistance. The social status of women in society is intimately related with its economic position which depends of rights, roles and opportunities for participation in economic activities. The economic status of women is accepted recently as an indicator of a society’s stage of development and patterns of women’s activity are greatly affected by social attitudes and institutions which has been a major tool in changing woman’s role from traditional work to non - traditional work. Thus, it is entrepreneurship that can help to make changes on socio economy condition of woman and woman’s access to and control over the resources. Empowerment of women through self-reliance is possible of course by entrepreneurship skills and management. CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter presents the methodology and procedure used in conducting the study. This chapter, as research methodology is the detailed plan of the investigation, deals with an introductory background on the research design, selection of the research area, etc. It includes all the procedures adopted to complete the study in a systematic way. Here, the chapter briefly discusses about sampling technique and sample size, data collection methods and its sources, analysis and interpretation of the data. For this both primary as well as secondary sources of data were adopted. 3.1 Justification for the Area of the Study This study is an attempt to find out the socio-economic status of the women entrepreneurs, their roles, nature, problems and prospect for economic development in the Nepalese economy. In this regard, “Bharatpur Metropolitan City” was selected as the research area for this study. Specifically the women who are doing their own business which are varied in nature and around the periphery of the Bharatpur Metropolitan area. Bharatpur is now the premier cultural and economic hub of Nepal and is considered to have the most advanced infrastructure among urban areas in Nepal. The urban area was purposively selected on the basis of the large number of program participants active in their own businesses. In addition it was selected because Bharatpur is the nerve center of the entire economy and it is the commercial capital of Nepal. Hence, Bharatpur is ideal to be the focal area for this research. 3.2 Research Design This study was based on exploratory research design because it attempts to explore the influencing factors such as push and pull factors that encourage the women to take up entrepreneurship, the nature of their business, their inputs in the entire economy, agencies which are involved for uplifting women entrepreneurs, and various such areas. Similarly, this study tried to identify their socio-economic consequences. In socio economic consequences, this study tries to identify their status in society before and after they took up entrepreneurs, reasons behind doing their own business and limitations and difficulties in running their own business. In this study, the overall research has been carried out on the basis of both exploratory and descriptive research design. It was an exploratory in the sense that it attempts to investigate the potentiality of economic empowerment of women through entrepreneurship development and on the other hand it tries to describe the status of women entrepreneurs, their problems and prospects. This study was conducted in two major phases. The first phase was a study covering sampled entrepreneurs. The purpose of this sample was to get some baseline for the study. The second phase involved in-depth interviews for the entire sample entrepreneurs. Qualitative data from in-depth interviews provided the social context of the research under investigation whose detailed information on the process of empowerment was used to interpret the findings from the survey. 3.3 Target Population and Sampling Procedure Before sampling of a particular type of entrepreneurs, listing of the entrepreneurs in the district was done. The name list of women entrepreneurs were taken from Mahila Uddami Sanjal Chitwan. The entrepreneurs were selected on the basis of the location and entrepreneurs of different categories. The total of 25 entrepreneurs, in which entrepreneurs were from Bharatpur Metropolitan city, Chitwan. The target population for the study was women entrepreneurs generally in four sectors of business namely agriculture, industry, service and trade. Women entrepreneurs, with their own businesses under any program or not under any program and with or without any formal training at all found in the selected study regions were included in the target population for the study. The respondents were chosen with the help of systematic random sampling procedure. Due to the absence of relevant databases, it was not possible to state the number of this category of the target population. The study units were individual women entrepreneurs who were owner managers of the businesses. Since the primary data was collected from the field study, various tools and techniques were adopted as mentioned below. The areas of these locations were selected with the help of group discussions. The data was collected from all these enumeration areas representing women entrepreneurs from different sectors. These entrepreneurs were engaged in both formal and informal sectors including registered and unregistered enterprises. Better choices and different business activities were identified in different sectors such as trade, industry and services. 3.4 Nature and Sources of Data Qualitative and quantitative data were generated through the methods of data collection. Qualitative information was described under the thematic concerns in descriptive manner. Similarly, quantitative data are analyzed in different tables. Both the primary as well as secondary sources of data were used in this study. It is very difficult to find out the exact situation of any study site through merely from the secondary sources. Considering this, the primary data was collected and analyzed to find out the exact situation of women entrepreneurs. The details of the sources are as follows. The primary data was obtained from field study. They were based on field study with interviews schedule, questionnaire schedule and case studies. Secondary sources of data and information are collected from relevant and available literature, documents, journals, research papers, reports, articles and books on entrepreneurship. Individual experts and official persons were also consulted for more validity and reliability of data information. 3.5 Methods of Data Collection Since the present study focused on women’s empowerment in social and economic front as an outcome, it relied on primary data sources. Structured interviews using questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used for data collection. Questionnaires were used to collect baseline information of the research sample that formed the major basis for the in-depth interviews later on. In-depth interviews were conducted to generate personal accounts of women entrepreneurship development and empowerment. As for the questionnaires, all of them were self-administered. However; they were administered with the assistance of research assistants. Prior to going to the field, the research assistants were briefed about the objective of the research and the content of the questionnaire. The researcher as much as possible personally conducted all in-depth interviews for three reasons. Firstly, it was in order to ensure accuracy and consistency of the data collected. Secondly, the size of the sample was small, a factor that made the task manageable. The third and last reason was that it was more convenient and ultimately more efficient for the researcher to contact, locate and negotiate with the interviewees than leaving this task to research assistants alone. The questionnaire used in administering structured interviews was in Nepali and English. The questionnaire was divided categorically specifically focusing as to obtain personal, business and their socioeconomic dimensions. In- depth- interviews aimed at going beyond the structured interviews to receive explanations about the issues raised at the structured method. 3.6. Tools and Techniques of Data Collection Both quantitative and qualitative data and information was collected by using different tools and technique such as (a) Questionnaires, (b) Interviews (c ) Case studies. 3.6.1 Questionnaires In order to collect the data and information, among various tools, structured questionnaire was formulated. That means an open-ended questionnaire was developed as per the objectives (Annex II). In the questionnaire, various aspects such as personal characteristics of entrepreneurs, size and types of enterprises, nature of investment, etc. was incorporated to find out the socio-economic condition of women entrepreneurs. 3.6.2 Interview Schedule Initially, the open-ended questions were openly discussed with the participants in separate discussions. The interview schedule was developed to get the expected information from the respondents regarding their reason in choosing their own business and being an entrepreneur and different other related questions for the entire study scope. With the help of the interview schedule the interview with the respondents was carried the interview process as a whole was satisfactory because the respondents was interviewed in a personal level which developed a certain level of comfort. 3.6.3 Case Studies Regarding the in-depth information about women entrepreneurs and their socio economic conditions, the researcher was conducted a case study to get detail information such as how and why they entered into their own business, and the state of their business now and then and as such related. A couple of business women were contacted and upon their voluntary participation, the researcher visited their businesses and assessed upon it. Apart from the survey questionnaire the researcher had an informal talk with the participant the audio of which was recorded and later was used as case study. For case study, 2 the participants was chosen very carefully taking into consideration their size and nature of the business and their social status. Hence, case studies of two entrepreneurs were done from different clusters. 3.7 Data Analysis and Presentation Data Analysis consists of examining categorizing and tabulating or otherwise recombining the evidence to address the initial proposition of the study. Hence, in depth interview data analysis started during data collection in order to focus the questions and the study as a whole. First, the data was prepared by listening to the interview tapes several times. Then each interview tape was manually transcribed verbatim. Guided by research questions, each interview transcript was analyzed for concise thoughts and categories of information using a constant comparison approach. Through an interpretive process, patterns and trends emerged from the data. The emerging patterns and trends were matched with the respective interviewees’ background characteristics. Finally, the patterns and trends were grouped into themes, sub-themes, problems and issues consistent with the research questions and empowerment variables. 3.8 Limitations of the Study Women entrepreneurs were found mostly in Bharatpur Metropolitan City area Chitwan District. In Bharatpur Metropolitan City, area, most of the women entrepreneurs are found to be engaged in cottage and small scale industries but the coverage of all areas of Nepal and all types of enterprising activities was difficult in this study. Therefore, the women entrepreneurs working in selected sectors of service and trade within Bharatpur Metropolitan City was studied. Finding out the socio economic condition of women entrepreneurs was a number of limitations. Most of the enterprises even though they are owned by women, they were operated by their husband or their male counterpart. There was a conflict between expectation and reality with regard to the number of participant in business. This factor caused the research sample to be smaller than initially expected. Most of the married respondents seemed to be sure or knew the exact amount of household income partly because husbands control household income, making it impossible for them to determine to proportion of their contribution. CHAPTER IV: STATUS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS 4.1.1 Socio-demographic Characteristics of Women Entrepreneurs Today there are instances of women that have demonstrated that women can not only succeed in sectors where traditionally they have had a strong presence, but can also reach leading positions in sectors that were previously believed to be the exclusive domain of men. Table1: Distributions of the Respondents by Their Demographic Features Demographic Variables Number of Respondents Percent Caste B/C 20 80 Janajati 4 16 Others 1 4 Age- Marital Status Married 23 92 Unmarried 2 8 Single - - Education Level Under SLC 5 20 IA/BA 16 64 Masters 4 16 Family Type Extended - - Nuclear 13 52 Joint 12 48 Gender Male 15 60 Female 10 40 Others - - Total 25 100 Source: Field Survey, 2020 The table 1 shows the demographic feature of respondents selected as a sample for the study. Major demographic variable taken here as independent variables are caste, age, gender educational status and family type. Caste distribution of respondents shows that dominant percent of the respondents were Brahmin and Chhetri whose percentage was found as 80. Similarly, 16 percent respondents’ are from Janajati and remaining are from Dashanami Group. It shows that the social structure of the caste hierarchy also affect in the women’s public domain. The earnings and other economic activities of an individual largely depend upon the age of the individual. The age profile of women entrepreneurs shows that majority, 28 percent of total women are between the age of 20-30 and 52 percent were more involved in business and actively participated in their daily business activities. Similarly, 20 percent of the women were from the age group ranging from 41 – 50 years old. From socio-cultural perspectives in Nepal, marital status of women is also an important factor that has vital influence on women’s socio-economic and political life. This study has also included marital status of the respondents (women entrepreneurs) and likely their participants on entrepreneurship. Marital status of woman entrepreneurs shows that vast majority of respondents in all the business segments were married. Altogether respondents out of 25 or 92 percent of the total respondents were married. Comparatively, unmarried respondent entrepreneurs were around to be 8 percent which was out of 25 participants. Population of divorced and single women in business was significantly not found. This study did not find any widow involved in any business segment. Nowadays education is considered to be a tool for socio-economic development along with the capability for active participation in various fields. In Nepalese society, the girl children kept aloof from education system compared to boy children even now. The educational status of sample women entrepreneurs shows that there is great variance in educational profile of women entrepreneurs. Out of the total sampled women entrepreneurs, none of them were illiterate without having any form of formal education. Those women who fall into this category were found to be more into informal and small businesses. Interestingly, in contrary to those entrepreneurs who were formally educated, these entrepreneurs started small with specialized trainings from different empowerment agencies. On an average, the same ratio, 64 percent of these women who were IA/BA level education were also in the same category of business. Family is one of the basic elements of the society. The number of earning members in the family determines the standard of living of the family. The members of the household who live together under one roof and one man guidance constitute the primary group known as family. They have hereditary kinship relations and meet out their basic socio-economic needs through family itself. There are two major types of family known as" nuclear" and "extended". In a nuclear family system the father, mother and their children are considered whereas in joint family, the members of two or three generations live under one roof. Family structure of respondents that majority of women entrepreneurs had a nuclear family with family size of 4 to 5 members. 52 percent of the total respondents had a nuclear family as compared to 48 percent who had a joint family. It is clear from the above Table 5 that the livelihood of women entrepreneur being in business was greater if she lived in a nuclear family, while the predominant mode in Nepal is a joint family structure. Living in a nuclear family structure would mean that women have relatively less interaction with the older generation and are less constrained by their social/cultural influence. Here in Nepalese society, the head of the family usually seems to be the male person available in the family; they are usually the father who is the eldest in the family. After the father it comes down to the healthy working male present there, they can be either husband, brother or if they are married then they can be father-in-law. Very few numbers can be found for other members as the head of the family in traditional society. Therefore, Nepalese society needs more developed thoughts to reach to the level of developed societies in the western countries. The following data were collected during the study period. Leading majority of the head of the family seemed to be the husband at 60 percent. The reason might be the number of participation of the married women seemed to be more than the unmarried or any other single women. The data exhibits that if the brother is older enough in the family, then the responsibility seems to be transferred to him. Father as the head of the family appeared because the women involved in these economic activities were single (unmarried/ divorced). Besides these, it was found that few numbers of mothers that were 40 percent and father-in-law were the head of the family. And most of the women entrepreneurs themselves were the head of their family. 4.1.2 Present Position of Women Entrepreneurs Majority of them are engaged in the unorganized sectors like agriculture, agro based industries, handicrafts, Parlor and Goods based on industries. As per the 2011 census report, there are of women workers of the total working population including formal as well as informal sector. In the era of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization, the women entrepreneurs are very fast entering the nontraditional sectors. Which indeed is in response to their greater awareness? Table 2: Distributions of the Respondents by their Present Position Positions No. of Respondents Percent Owner 15 60.0 Manager 5 20.0 Marketing 5 20.0 Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 The table 2 shows that 60 percent of the respondents occupy the owner roles and 20 percent are manager level of responsibility and 20 percent are doing their profession from the marketing fields. 4.1.3 Nature of Works The respondents were involved in different types of works in their professional career. They are working in the field of Hotels, Marketing, Agriculture sectors, Wholesales Trade etc. The information in which they are recently involving clearly mention below in table 3. Table 3: Distributions of the Respondents by their Nature of Works Works No. of Respondents Percent Chi-Square P-value Parlors 3 12.0 8 0.01832 Shops 10 40.0 Hotels 5 20.0 Agriculture 3 12.0 Wholesales Shops 4 16.0 Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 As shown in the Table 3, only 3 women entrepreneurs involved in agriculture sector, 30 entrepreneurs of industry sector (Wholesales shops and shops), 20 entrepreneur of service sector (Hotel) and 16 of trade sectors were found to be involved in different organizations of different post. In sum, the study found only 60 percent women entrepreneurs were actively involving in organization. To test whether there is different proportion of respondents doing different nature of work, chi-square test of goodness fit is applied this test also support the outcomes described above that there is significant difference in the number of respondents doing different nature of works(p-value =0.01832). 4.2 Women and Work In this section, we discuss the current scenario of women entrepreneurs in the study area. 4.2.1 Reason of Women Entrepreneurs for Their Settlement The location and terrain of Chitwan have played a significant role for people from all over the country wanting to settle in Chitwan. It is one of the most important industrial and commercial centers in Nepal. Every government and private offices are centrally located and people all over the country have no significant choices other than coming over here for fulfillment of various objectives and functions. Many preferred to settle in Chitwan for education or for other purposes. Table 4: Distributions of the Respondents by Family Settlement Pattern Reasons No. of Respondents Percent Marriage 10 40.0 Inhabitants 10 40.0 Good Location 5 20.0 Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 The Table 4 has indicated that there were three different reasons for women entrepreneurs settling down in Chitwan or had their businesses in Chitwan. 40 percent of the entrepreneurs had settled in Chitwan after their marriage and equally near about 40 percent of entrepreneurs had inhabitants of Chitwan having their ancestral property. And a minority of 20 percent of entrepreneurs had settled in for other reasons. The ratio of women entrepreneurs who were the native of involved in trade and service was relatively higher than others who had settled here after marriage or migration. The reason for most of them being the easy access of resources. Getting married and family getting migrated to was the most common reason for people settling down in Chitwan. 4.2.2 Decision Making The women entrepreneurs, who were self-made or the enterprise was totally venture by them, were able to take decision by them though their job of decision making was tough. There was same percentage of women entrepreneurs who prefer to take advice from the family members too. Hence, majority of entrepreneurs either took self-decision or had taken some family advices. More precise data is presented as follows. Table 5: Distributions of the Respondents by Decision Making Process Decisions by No. of Respondents Percent Chi-Square P-value Self 8 32.0 1.08 0.7819 Family Advice 7 28.0 Head of Family 5 20.0 Other 5 20.0 Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 The table 5 clearly mentions that the women entrepreneurs that they took self-decision and family advice for their entrepreneurship development with the percentage of 32 and 28 respectively. It was seemed that the numbers of persons taking self-decision were slightly greater than others. There were also some percent (20 percent) that prefer asking head of the family for taking decisions and also found out an individual with different opinion. To test whether there is equal number of respondent’s decision making process or not, chi-square test of goodness of fit is applied this test results that there are nearly same number of women entrepreneur's decision making process. 4.2.3 Duration of Their Occupations Young generations are active than the old generations and the children. From the study, it was found that the involvement of the young people in the activities is higher than the other age groups and hence showing the lesser number of experience years in the current field they are active in. Very few people seemed to be committed and working in the same sector for a very long period of time. Data from the study are presented in the Table 6 below: Table 6: Distributions of the Respondents by Duration of Their Occupations Duration in Years No. of Respondents Percent- Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 As stated in Table 6, the involvement of younger generations and the duration of their occupation were below 1-5 years with 48 percent. The study shows higher percentage in the trade and service (hospitality) sector from this category. The number of working year category of 6-10 years comes after the previous category with 36 percent followed by the group of 11-15 year duration with 16 percent. Very few people continued their current profession and worked for long. The study showed none of them had worked for 16-20 years and very few worked for 20 years and above. 4.2.4 Access to Institutional Credit Facilities The institutional lending policies have got importance to make access for small-scale enterprises of the entrepreneurs. The limited use of credit reflects lack of supply, resulting from the rationing behavior of both formal and informal lending institutions to women. The established network of formal credit institutions, improving lending terms and conditions in favor of small-scale enterprises would provide an important avenue for facilitating their access to credit. Table 7: Distributions of the Respondents by Their First Impression in the Banks Level of Impression No. of Respondents Percent Bad 7 28.0 Moderate 14 56.0 Very Good 4 16.0 Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 Regarding the table 7, among women entrepreneurs interviewed, only 70 percent told that they received loan from formal financial institutions like banks, cooperatives etc. The rest of them 30percent never received credit from any financial institutions. Regarding loan facilities from public and private banks, it is observed that only 15 out of 25 respondents in the sample managed to receive loan from banks and cooperative financial institutions. This statistics indicates that having access to banks by the women entrepreneurs is still a tough job. Among the respondents, 25 women entrepreneurs out of 15 visited different banks and cooperative financial institutions for a loan but only 20 of them managed to get a loan from financial institution. Out of 25 women only 10 women expressed their first impression about bank. Only 16 percent of them mentioned that they have very good impression. Only 28 percent of them mentioned that their impression of the bank was bad and 56 percent of the women entrepreneurs mentioned that they have moderate impression while they went for a loan to a bank. 4.2.5 Role of Women Entrepreneurs in Business and Family In this section the study shows the lead roles in the respondent's business and family. The lead role could be either themselves or it could be any other members from the family as well as their friends. Further descriptions in this context are presented below in the table 8. Table 8: Distributions of the Respondents by Their Roles in Business and Family Roles By No. of Respondents Percent Husband and wife 13 52.0 Husband 6 24.0 Wife 4 16.0 Others 2 8.0 Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 The table 8 shows that the majority of respondent were playing the lead role in their business and in their family. In business it was 82. Percent and in the domestic work 78 percent of the respondents were with self-lead role. While 24 percent husband used to play leading role in business. Only 52 percent preferred going along with their husband in business and only 3.2 percent had someone else for their business. While in the domestic household responsibilities 8 percent were the other family members playing main roles. 4.2.6 Reasons for Initiating the Enterprises Every person has their own reasons for venturing into entrepreneurship, some might be for their living or some might to utilize their leisure time. All the reasons what so ever have been tabulated in the following Table. Mostly people tend to enter into trade and hospitality sector because it might be more beneficial than other sector. Mostly each and every one is involved for earning the capital but some might be for living the daily life and other have their own reasons. Entrepreneurs seem to be involved into economic activities mostly for their own self decision and self-interest rather than any other reasons. Therefore, it is mostly found that self-decision for the initiation of their enterprises is important. Following Table 9 presents various reasons about the initiations of enterprises: Table 9: Distributions of the Respondents by Reasons for Initiating the Enterprise Reasons No. of Respondents Percent Chi-Square P-value Self 10 40.0 6.8 0.1468 Family 3 12.0 Heredity 3 12.0 Purchase 5 20.0 Others Sources 4 16.0 Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 As shown in the Table 9, the majority of women entrepreneurship was self-oriented (40 percent). They seemed to be involved in the economic activities/initiation for their own personal reasons and self needs. With the similarity percentage of 12 percent and 20 percent, some women entrepreneurs had their family reasons and purchased enterprises while 12 percent obtained their enterprise hereditarily. And few had their ancestral reasons and some other reasons from their reliable source. No matter what one says, the human nature of being self-centered never changes. To test whether there are significant difference in the number of women entrepreneurs playing roles in their business, chi-square test of goodness of fit with equal probability is applied and the result gives the p-value 0.1468 which means that there is no significant difference in the number of women entrepreneurs playing different roles in their business. 4.2.7 Motivating Factors for Initiation of Businesses The respondents were asked to describe factors that encourage them to enter into business and entrepreneurial activities. The opinions they expressed in response to this question are compiled and given in the following table 10 with relative frequency and ranking. Table 10: Distributions of the Respondents by Encouraging Factors to Business Factors that Encourage No. of Respondents Percent Economic development 8 32.0 Inspiration by friends 3 12.0 Self-employment 8 32.0 No alternative job 1 4.0 To upgrade social status 5 20.0 Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 The Table 10 shows that family members, either parents or husband having business played a vital role in inspiring women to become entrepreneurs. 12 percent women entrepreneurs were inspired to venture business by their friends. It was very significant that most of the women started their venture with a view to having self-dependency and economic freedom (32 percent). A great number of women were involved in business to earn extra money for family. Friends also played a vital role to get some women involved in business. And some of the women became entrepreneur because they did not find any other things to do. Only few women (4 percentage) said that they ventured into business because they were inspired by other organizations / training. 4.2.8 Nature of Ownership The selection of proper nature of organization is crucial for the success of a business enterprise. It depends on the risk, responsibility, control of the entrepreneurship and the division of profits. It is a long-term decision, as the form of organization cannot be changed frequently. There is not much difference between female-owned and male-owned enterprises regarding their legal form; almost all of them were either sole proprietorships or simple partnerships. However, the larger percentage of sole proprietorships was found in women-owned enterprises. Table 11: Distributions of the Respondents by the Nature of Ownership Ownership No. of Respondents Percent Joint Family 8 32.0 Partnership 6 24.0 Sole Ownership 11 44.0 Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 The table 11 shows that sole ownership is dominating to all. Among responded, 44 percent was owned by individual, 32 percent was jointly owned by family members and only 24 percent business was run in partnership with other members. Partnership is also dominated by the traditional kinship relationships as 40 percent of women entrepreneurs had partnership with friends, 35 percent with relatives and 25 percent with others. Only 3.8 percent of women entrepreneurs interviewed had partnership with husband. Domination of partnership by kinship relationship can be explained by traditional social values and social system, under which, women social dealing with the people, particularly men, outside of the family is scrutinized. This is also associated with the fear of social insecurity and social stigma. 4.2.9 Women Entrepreneurs Involved in Business Organizations Whenever there is an organization, entrepreneurs can be seen around with some designation assigned to them. Some of them may be the person who started it, some might be just a member working there, and some might be for the promotion of the industry. Whatever the status of entrepreneurs they have been put into the Table 12 below: Table 12: Distributions of the Respondents by Organizational Status Organizational Status No. of Respondents Percent Promoter 8 32.0 Founder Member 5 20.0 Share holder 6 24.0 General Member 6 24.0 Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 As shown in the table 12, some of the women entrepreneurs were found to be involved in more than one organization. And their status in the other organization are here Although 45 percent did not show any involvement with other organization, rest of the percentage were found to be active in other organization as well. The study found 24 percent as the general member who were working there for the organization while 32 percent were there as for the promoter of the organization. The core starting member for the organization was 6.52 percent and 0.31percent was involved in providing trainings and 0.31percent was there for some other reasons. 4.2.10. Role of Household Distribution of Women Entrepreneurs Increasing the number of women entrepreneurs involved in starting new businesses is critical for a country's long-term economic growth. In addition to their economic and income-generating activities, women assume multi-faceted roles in society, that is, as breadwinner of family, unpaid family workers, service providers in the communities and mother/care-taker of the family. In spite of their important contributions to socio-economic development; women suffer from various constraints, which inhibit them from fully realizing their potential for development. Table 13: Distribution of the Respondents by Role Played Motivated by No. of Respondents Percent Father 4 16.0 Mother 3 12.0 Husband 13 52.0 Self 5 20.0 Total 25 100.0 Source: Field Survey, 2020 In terms of the position in family, traditional gender-based stereotyped relationship was highly manifested. Women entrepreneurs were the key role players in household. It could be assumed that this figure is closely associated with the percentage marital status of women entrepreneurs. The male counterpart (52 percent by husband, 16 percent by father) played key roles in the household. Women entrepreneurs told that among total households, only 12 percent Mothers played key roles. The women entrepreneurs, who mentioned father, brother and mother as the key role player, were primarily unmarried. From the perspective of power and authority, most of the households were still male dominated, despite women’s involvement in formal economic activities. CHAPTER V: OBSTACLES FACED BY WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS 5.1.1 Multiple Responsibilities, Multiple Challenges In regard of work/life balance, the informants have shared their diverse experiences. They have been playing vital roles in households before their professional career. Now women are also recognized for their value in the workplace and are engaged in wide range of activities of work in addition to their routine domestic work. Increased participation of women in labour market has intensified their dual responsibilities and roles. Consistently, working women face difficulties to integrate their work roles and responsibilities and manage time with household chores (Grady and McCarthy, 2008). The problem of maintaining a balance between work life and family life is not a new one. But in the recent few years social scientists have started paying more attention to it. Now there is growing concern in Nepal and experts are of the view that a constant struggle to balance both sets of life will have serious implications on women’s career development. How the multiple responsibilities create challenges in their professional career was one of my questions to the informants. She answered as follows: My husband has a very good job. He is often very busy…Even though I am also really busy at work, I still take care of the parents, children and domestic works much more than him. I do all my household works at night. While my men colleagues often go for a drink after work, me and my female coworkers usually have to go home in order to do some household chores and cook. I have not been outside the city yet to participate in meetings and trainings due to my family responsibility. The narrative allows us to point out that it is challenging to working women to balance work/life in Nepal. It shows that a problem still exists from a cultural perspective. All the informants agreed that household duties, as well as childcare are still seen as mostly female duties. Mostly, married working women have more family responsibilities in Nepal. Like hers, the married women have to take of their children (if have), parents and manage all the household works behind their professional duties. This seems to limit her in the professional career as she is not able to participate in meetings and trainings. As soon as she finishes her work in the office, she should reach to home. On the contrary, her husband does not have any compulsion to household duties. He becomes busy only in his professional work. It makes easy to understand that gender intersects marital status of the women. Married working women face more difficulty to balance work/life because of unequal division of family responsibilities to their male counterparts. Similarly, I was able to catch a response on her work/life sharing: I am a married woman and have double responsibility as I have to engage in managing the workplace and also have to run a house as well. I need to take full attention to take care of my husband, kids and in-laws. I get nominal support for shopping and teaching children from my husband and family members because it is a kind of tradition that women do housework. I think of leaving the job almost daily, but the financial constraints do not allow me to materialize it. Though I get tired, I have to maintain the balance between job and household chores anyway. All the working women in Nepal have the dual life; work life and family life where they have multiple responsibilities to fulfill. As she said, she looks after all the household chores after her office work. Her narrative shows that Nepalese women (especially married women) are supposed to get less support less support for household chores and other family responsibilities from their husband and family members due to traditional stereotype belief. It seems that imbalance in between work and family responsibilities create conflict regarding to continue it or leave the job. She stated that she often thinks to leave the job, but the financial condition compels her to balance anyway her work and family life. It shows that working women in Nepal often face imbalance in their work and family life. 5.1.2 Obstacles for the Development of Women Entrepreneurs Women entrepreneurs always suffer from inadequate financial resources and working capital. They are not able to afford external finance due to absence of tangible security and credit in the market. Women have a very less property and bank balance to their name. Male members of the family do not want to invest their capital in the business run by women due to lack of confidence in their ability to run venture successfully. The complicated procedure of banks loans also creates lot of problems in getting required finance. Women entrepreneurs even face problems in getting requisite working capital financing day-to-day business activities. Women entrepreneurs have to depend upon their personal saving and loans from family and friends. Most of the women entrepreneurs fail due to lack of proper financing facilities, because finance is life blood of every business activities. Obtaining the support of bankers, managing the working capital, lack of credit resources are the problems which still remain in the males domains. Women are yet to make significant mark in quantitative terms. Marketing and financial problems are such obstacles where even training doesn’t significantly help the women. Some problems are structural in nature and beyond the control of entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs often depend upon the middlemen for marketing their products who pocket large chunks of profit. The middlemen exploit the women entrepreneurs and likewise they also find it difficult to capture the market and make their products popular. A lot of money is needed for advertisement in these days of stiff competition from male entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs also lack energy and extra efforts needed to be investing and to win the confidence of customers and popularize their products. Women entrepreneurs continuously face the problems in marketing their products. It is one of the core problems as this area is mainly dominated by males and even women with adequate experience fail to make a dent. The shortage of required raw materials is also one of the big problems faced by women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs find it difficult to procure the required raw materials and other necessary inputs for production in sufficient quantity and quality. The prices of raw materials are quite high and fluctuate. Women entrepreneurs encounter the problems of shortage of raw materials. It has been seen that many businesses has been a failure due to unavailability of required raw materials. Women entrepreneurs have to face severe competition from organized industries and male entrepreneurs having vast experience. Many of the women entrepreneurs have imperfect organizational set up. But they have to face severe competition from organizational industries. Women entrepreneurs may not be expert in each and every function of the enterprise. She will not be able to devote sufficient time for all types of business activities. The high cost of production is another problem which undermines the efficiency and restricts development of women entrepreneurs. It is necessary to increase efficiency, expand productive capacity to reduce the cost of production. High cost of production undermines the efficiency and stands in the way of development and expansion of women’s enterprises, government assistance in the form of grant and subsides to some extent enables them to tide over the difficult situations. However; in the long run, it would be necessary to increase efficiency and expand productive capacity and thereby reduce cost to make their ultimate survival possible, other than these, women entrepreneurs so face the problems of labor, human resources, infrastructure, legal formalities, overload of work, lack of family support, mistrust etc. Women entrepreneurs suffer from the problem of low risk taking ability as compared to their male counterparts, because they have led a protected life. They even face discrimination in the selection of or entrepreneurial development training, inferiority complex, unplanned growth, lack of infrastructure, hesitation in taking quick decision also increases the rate of risk and chances of loss. Their success in this regard also depends upon supporting husband and family. Thus, occupational backgrounds of families and education level of husbands have a great influence on the growth of women entrepreneurship. Women also face the conflict of performing of home roles as they are not available to spend enough time with their families. They spend long hours in business and as a result, they find it difficult to meet the demands of their family members and society as well. Their inability to attend to domestic work, time for education of children, personal hobbies, and entertainment adds to their conflicts. One of the biggest problems women entrepreneurs face is the social attitude in which she has to live and work. There is discrimination against women despite constitutional equality. Women do not get equal treatment in male-dominated society and make ego puts barriers in their progress. 5.2.1 Less Access to Financial Arrangements Access to finance is a key issue for women. Accessing credit, particularly for starting an enterprise, is one of the major constraints faced by women entrepreneurs. Women often have fewer opportunities than men to gain access to credit for various reasons, including lack of collateral, an unwillingness to accept household assets as collateral and negative perceptions of female entrepreneurs by loan officers. Even though financial institutions have different products regarding to loan but it did not find any products as such targeted to Women Entrepreneur. Case Study I Struggles - Still a Part of an Enterprise Development With an aim to earn some pocket money and to utilize her time, Ms. Kusum Shrestha, Bharatpur, Chitwan, has making pickles, candles,Bhuja and incense since 12 years. With four other local women from the women’s group, she was able to register her enterprise as “Namaste Grihani”. Her claimed access to finance was a bit difficult, but she was able to secure a very small loan of NRS. 50,000 from the local cooperative. Her aspirations to remain occupied and to make a living had been overshadowed in early years due to financial problems and she found government plans to empower women only in paper. But now she is the legend of successful woman entrepreneur through her own effort. 5.2.2 Less Access to Market Extension The ability to tap into new markets requires expertise, knowledge and contacts. Women often lack access to training and experience in on how to participate in the market place and are therefore unable to market goods and services strategically. Thus, women-owned are often unable to take on both the production and marketing of their goods. Hence, some entrepreneurs are producing goods but lack of access to a market and for some others, the demand placed to their goods to the enterprise is often so large that the enterprise is not able to handle it due to an inadequate skilled which has been quite a challenge faced by many entrepreneurs. Out of the total interviewed, very few enterprises have been involved in exporting their goods. 5.2.3 Less Access to Infrastructure Facility Less access of reliable physical infrastructures (surface as well as air transportation), and towards the need for predicable trade support infrastructure (knowledgeable bureaucracy, supportive government, etc.) are also the problems faced by women entrepreneurs. 5.2.4 Less Access to Technology Facility Women entrepreneurs are less aware of significance of reliable information technology, e-commerce/ e-trade, electronic banking and transfers. Having less educational background, they face difficulties with English language as the medium of communication in internet based communication and gaining knowledge. This further limits their business growth as needed. 5.2.5 Major Challenges Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Chitwan (Summary from Interviews) Discriminatory national laws. Prejudice against women and women owned business. Difficulty in providing collateral (Women do not have own assets in their right). Lack of credit/banking history (due to past, informal nature of businesses). Need for credit plus business planning and advisory services. Prejudice against women. Difficulty in traveling to make contacts. Sexual harassment. Bias against women’s businesses. Bias against women’s involvement in technical matters. Economic Supports Male Supports from Family Households works ,Child rearing bearing responsibilities Case Study II Sanu (Pseudo name) is the resident of Bharapur. In approximately the past 45 years or so, being five family members. Gyanu had spent very hard life in her childhood stage. Hence, the whole family was always in financial crises. She started a very small shop Kirana Stores in 2070 B.S. Sanu started to join her hands to the efforts of her father- in -laws. Having an entrepreneurship skill with little education, within the period of 10 years, she became able to turn her small shop in a big one with other varieties of all utensils in rented house nearby. Her two years younger son also starts to co-operate her. Being old, her father –in -laws left to sit in the shop and other family members were also totally dependent on Gyanu’s trade business. Her husband tried to implement every possible idea to improve the living condition of their family. Being a self- taught trader, Gyanu had to face many challenges, hindrances, problems and difficulties in her business. Having ability to talk very nicely and coolly to the customer, had courage to take risk to increase their shop in credit, had idea to sell the goods and had patients to work from early morning to late evening, she became able to register her “Kiran Suppliers”. Sanu is now a source for all other women of self-made business. She is financially strong now and able to maintain her life better way. Her husband also lives with her and helps in her business. Her one son completed Bachelor level and one is studying in boarding school. All her domestic expenses, college fee for children, medical expenses, even repayment of loan are covered by the profit she earns. Her business transaction is about 1,50,000/- per month. Currently she has already purchased land in different places. She has good saving in different banks too. She is able to increase her sales volume. With all these economic activities, Sanu has made her own identity in the entrepreneur’s field. She has earned both name and fame as a successful woman entrepreneur. Sanu thinks except venturing entrepreneurship that may be in trade, may be in service, may be in any other business or enterprise, women cannot be empowered and strong in the society. She advocates women can play a vital role in family decisions when they make them self financially sound. Hence, Sanu is an example of self- stand women not only of her locality but of the urban area of Bharapur Metropolitan city, Chitwan district. 5.3 Traditional Views on the Role of Women in the Society One characteristic that clearly distinguishes most businesswomen from their male counterparts is the added responsibility society often puts upon them in their roles as mothers and wives. The time taken up and the emotional burden created by these dual role responsibilities often interfere directly with the conduct of business for women in ways that do not apply to the majority of men. The often prevailing attitude that the women’s place is at home and that her first priority is to look after the home and family constrain many married women from venturing into entrepreneurship. Over 50 percent of the women said that their spouse was either happy or very happy that they owned their own business. Another factor that may have contributed to the high degree of spousal support might have been the stable, satisfactory nature of their marriages. It may be noted that most of the women included in the study had been married for a fairly long time with over 80 percent stating that they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their marital life. Because of this patriarchal bias and role prescriptions, ambition, self-confidence, innovativeness, achievement motivation and risk-taking ability, which are essential for an entrepreneurial career, are inhibited. Women entrepreneurs also face restrictions hampering their mobility. Both male and female entrepreneurs in Nepal cite the lack of access to credit as a major obstacle to engage in entrepreneurial activities or expand their business. In theory, women are equal to men in access to credit in Nepal but in practice women are, again, at a disadvantage. Cultural and social barriers impose limitations on women’s ability to exercise their rights. Daughters are only very rarely given a deed to land, even though they have been awarded equal property rights by law. Hence, when confronted with the basic necessity to provide collateral, mostly land, in order to obtain a loan, they cannot fulfill this requirement and are forced to resort to other options, relying on the securities of others to raise the starting capital, usually ending up with a much smaller amount than they need. 5.4 Impediments to Women Entrepreneurship 5.4.1 Access to Finance: Finance is a critical resource for venture creation. It is very important that women entrepreneurs have adequate knowledge and information of the various financial institutions which are rendering financial incentives and many other help for the women entrepreneurs in the region. Women entrepreneurs in Chitwan lacks financial skills as they did not understand hidden costs and anticipate appropriate cash requirement. They have to depend on own saving as the lending practices of banks and government funding agencies are believed to be restrictive and unfriendly to women. Normally banks are blamed for not financing women. Banks don’t have doubt on women capability as they do not consider gender while financing but they place high premium on security of principal and interest amount that is why they take mortgage on bank finance. 5.4.2 Access to Markets: The ability to tap into new markets requires expertise, knowledge and contacts. Women often lack access to training and experience in on how to participate in the market place and are therefore unable to market goods and services strategically. In addition, they have often not been exposed to the international market, and therefore lack knowledge about what is internationally acceptable. The high cost of developing new business contacts and relationships in a new country or market is a big deterrent and obstacle in particular women-owned businesses. Women may also fear or face prejudice or sexual harassment, and may be restricted in their ability to travel to make contacts 5.4.3 Access to Training: Women have limited access to vocational and technical training. In fact, women on average have less access to education than men, and technical and vocational skills can only be developed on a strong foundation of basic primary and secondary education. The figure are testifying to the existence of gender discrimination in building capacity of women and providing them with equal opportunities. Gaining relevant skills and knowledge can also be more difficult for women since they frequently have double work burden and childcare responsibilities, thus making them less able than men to attend formal and informal trainings. 5.4.4 Access to Networks: Since most women entrepreneurs operate on a small scale, and are generally not members of professional organizations or part of other networks, they often find it difficult to access information. Most existing networks are male dominated and sometimes not particularly welcoming to women but prefer to be exclusive. Even when a woman does venture into these networks, her task is often difficult because most network activities take place after regular working hours. There are hardly any women-only or women-majority networks where a woman could enter, gain confidence and move further. Lack of networks also deprives women of awareness and exposure to good role models. Few women are invited to join trade missions or delegations, due to the combined invisibility of women-dominated sectors or subsectors and of women as individuals within any given sector. 5.4.5 Access to Policymakers: Most women have little access to policymakers or representation on policymaking bodies. Large companies and men can more easily influence policy and have access to policymakers, who are seen more as their peers. Women tend not to belong to, and even less reach leadership positions in, mainstream business organizations, limiting their input into policymaking through lobbying. Women’s lack of access to information also limits their knowledgeable input into policymaking. 5.5 Other Impediments to Women Entrepreneurship 5.5.1 Operational: Women entrepreneur in Chitwan not only struggle at the time of establishment of enterprises but at operation stage also, they have lots to overcome with different functional difficulties. Usually women faced two fold operational problems. One she has to overcome with problems of production process like, scarcity of raw material, lack of technical skills, lack of utilities and infrastructure facility. 5.5.2 Management Problem: It is normally believed that women have low managerial skill. But in fact women are stronger in more logic based skills though they are weaker in self-promotion and handling frustration. The increasing number of female students and their excellent performance in management education is a proof to the fact. They don’t lack managerial skills but they have less promotional stability which they need to improve upon it. 5.5.3 Mobility Constraints: Women in Chitwan have got restricted mobility, our society is a conservative society, and the career of women was limited to four walls of kitchen. Though women faced lots of problems being mobile in entrepreneurial activity, the mobility problem has been solved to certain extent by the expansion of education awareness to all. 5.5.4 Dual Responsibility: The most exploited individual of the day are the working women, as they have to perform dual responsibility, one at work and another as family as mother of wife. The level of women exploitation on family responsibility ground depends on her social dependence. 5.5.5 Risk-Bearing Ability: One pre-requisites of the entrepreneurial success is risk taking. It is normally believe that women being feminist gender have low risk taking ability. Bharatpur woman lives a protected life. The society feels that women do not have risk taking ability. They are being suppressed by the protected environment and are not allowed most of the time to take any type of risk even if she is willing or she has the ability to bear. 5.5.6 Unawareness of the Supports and Incentives: Nepal being a under developing country has made efforts at both central as well as state level to solve this problem by way of introducing policy measures and promoting NGO’s. The government of Nepal in its annuals often announces special growth and provision to assist self-employment in women. But it has not worked out effectively and very few women entrepreneurs are able to avail them. Despite the efforts the problem still exists as most of the women entrepreneurs in the region have neither approach nor awareness about these policies due to low education level. Women engage in this venue are unhappy with support system due to harassment from the officials and high corruption. There is a strong need for attitudinal change because policies, programmes and seminars alone cannot change the women status. 5.5.7 Traditional views on the role of women in the society: The often prevailing attitude that the women’s place is at home and that her first priority is to look after the home and family constrain many married women from venturing into entrepreneurship. Even for the women who are interested, the fact that marriage often results in geographical displacement, makes serious entrepreneurship the last option. 5.5.8 Statistical invisibility: Most countries do not collect statistics on the sex composition of business owners or operators. Indeed, statisticians would argue that such statistics are methodologically problematic because many businesses have multiple owners and operators, some of whom might be men and some women. However, in the absence of some kind of statistical base, policymakers, bankers and others tend to assume that all businesses are owned and/or operated by men or, to a similar effect that businesses owned or operated by women are no different from those of men. Such differences suggest different needs, and show that in order to make good policy it is essential to make women’s businesses visible in terms of numbers, their share of businesses and distinct characteristics. CHAPTER VI: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 6.1 Summary The title of the study was Social Status and Problems of Women Entrepreneurs (A Study of Women Entrepreneur in Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Chitwan). The study was aimed to analyze the situation of women entrepreneurs particularly in the Bharatpur Metropolitan City. Gender and Development (GAD) is the more recent approach, articulated by some groups of women in the Third World. The gender approach focuses on the socially constructed roles of both men and women and looks at women in the context of society. The Gender and Development approach seeks to empower women through greater self-reliance and transform unequal relationships between women and men. It tries to understand the unequal power relationships (rich/poor, men/ women) that prevent equitable development and women’s full participation. This study was based on exploratory research design because it attempts to explore the influencing factors such as push and pull factors that encourage the women to take up entrepreneurship, the nature of their business, their inputs in the entire economy, agencies which are involved for uplifting women entrepreneurs, and various such areas. The primary data was obtained from field study. They were based on field study with interviews, questionnaire methods and case studies. Secondary sources of data and information are collected from relevant and available literature, documents, journals, research papers, reports, articles and books on entrepreneurship. The name list of women entrepreneurs were taken from Mahila Uddami Sanjal Chitwan. The women entrepreneurs were selected on the basis of the location and entrepreneurs of different categories. The total of 25 women entrepreneurs, in which entrepreneurs were from Bharatpur Metropolitan City. Both quantitative and qualitative data and information was collected by using different tools and technique such as (a) Questionnaires, (b) Interviews (c) Case studies. First, the data was prepared by listening to the interview tapes several times. Then each interview tape was manually transcribed in Nepali to English. Guided by research questions, each interview transcript was analyzed for concise thoughts and categories of information using a constant comparison approach. Through an interpretive process, patterns and trends emerged from the data. The emerging patterns and trends were matched with the respective interviewees’ background characteristics. Finally, the patterns and trends were grouped into themes, sub-themes, problems and issues consistent with the research questions and empowerment variables. In Bharatpur Metropolitan City, most of the women entrepreneurs are found to be engaged in cottage and small scale industries but the coverage of all areas of Nepal and all types of enterprising activities was difficult in this study. Therefore, the women entrepreneurs working in selected sectors of service and trade within Bharatpur Metropolitan City was studied. Finding out the social condition of women entrepreneurs was a number of limitations. Most of the enterprises even though they are owned by women, they were operated by their husband or their male counterpart. There was of the women entrepreneurs that they took self-decision and family advices for their entrepreneurship development with the percentage of 32 and 28 respectively. The involvement of younger generations and the durations of their occupation were below 1-5 years with 48 percent. The study shows higher percentage in the trade and service (hospitality) sector from this category. Among women entrepreneurs interviewed, only 70 percent told that they received loan from formal financial institutions like banks, cooperatives etc. The rest of them 30percent never received credit from any financial institutions. The majority of respondent were playing the lead role in their business and in their family. In business it was 82. Percent and in the domestic work 78 percent of the respondents were with self-lead role. While 24 percent husband used to play leading role in business. Among responded, 44 percent was owned by individual, 32 percent was jointly owned by family members and only 24 percent business was run in partnership with other members. The study found that 60 percent of the entrepreneurs had their expansion plan for their enterprises. While 40 percent did not want to expand their current enterprises as they were already handful with the current situations. The study revealed that the expansion plan in the trade sector seems to be more as they might be more profitable than others. 6.2 Conclusions This study aimed to provide a greater visibility of women entrepreneurship and partly to provide role models for potential women entrepreneurs. Though women entrepreneurs have dual roles, at home and at work, most of them were not the head of the family. Majority of the head of the family were husband and then father. This reveals that form the perspectives of power and authority, most of the households are still male dominated. 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South Asia Remains World’s Fastest Growing Region but should be vigilant to Fading Tailwinds. Retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/ en/news/press-release/2016/04/09/south-asia-fastest-growingregion-world-vigilant -fading-tailwinds World Economic Forum.2017. The Global gender gap report 2017. ISBN-. APPENDIX I dlxnf pBdLx?;Fu cGtjf{tf{sf] nflu tof/ kfl/Psf] k|ZgfjnL dlxnf pBdlzntf g]kfndf lsg < o;sf] If]q g]kfndf s:tf] 5 < s] s'/fn] dlxnfnfO{ pBdlzntfdf cfsif{0f u/]sf] 5 < s] dlxnfx? :jljj]sn] o; If]qdf nfu]sf 5g\ jf :jtM nfUg g;Sg'sf] sf/0f s] 5g\ < dlxnf pBf]uLx?nfO{ cfˆgf] Joj;fo ljsf;df s] ;d:of÷cj/f]w xf]nf < k'?if pBdL eGbf dlxnf pBdLsf] ;d:ofdf km/s s] xf]nf < s:tf] vfnsf] ljlQo ;d:of dlxnf pBdLx?n] pBf]u Joj;fodf ef]u]sf 5g\ < ;dli6ut ?kdf dlxnf pBdLx?sf] ljsf;sf nflu ug'{kg]{ s]xL yk s'/fx? 5g\ < APPENDIX -II Questionnaire These questionnaires are prepared for M.A. thesis. Data collected through these series of questions will be kept confidential. 1. Personal’s detail: a) Full Name: …………………………………. b) Age: … c) Language: ………………………… d) Religion: ………………………… 2. Marital status: a) Unmarried b) Married c) Divorced d) Single 3. Family description: 4. Head of family (Name / Relation): ……………………………………….. 5. Structure of family: a) Joint b) Single c) Others 6. How did you start living in the current place? a) Ancestral b) Marriage c) Migration d) ("b" &"c" go to Number 7 ) 8. Your educational status: a. Illiterate b. Literate c. Primary education d. Lower Secondary education. e. Secondary education f. SLC g. Higher secondary education h. Bachelors (BA) i. Masters j. Others (Specify) 9. Please specify the higher education above bachelors. ( specify subject) a. … b. ………………… c. …………… 10. In which business/occupation are you involved in currently? a. ……………b. ……………… c. ……………… 11. In above mentioned business/occupation, what is your main stream occupation? …………………………… 12. What is the time period that you have been involved into this occupation? 13. How did you start this? a. Self-established b. Family’s business ( ancestral) c. Purchased old business d. Franchised business 14. Type of your business: a. Single b. Partnership c. Private Company d. Others 15. Category of your business: a. Micro b. Small c. Medium d. Large 16. At what age did you start your occupation/business? …………. Years 17. Who helped/suggested you for your occupation/business? a. Husband b. Family member c. Neighbor/Friends d. Radio/Newspaper/Television/Government e. Others ( Specify) 18. Reason for entering the business /occupation: For daily earning living, To earn, To build up prestige in society, To be able to make own decision,, To use leisure time,, To use skill and knowledge 19. Why did you choose this location for your business/occupation? 20. Who helped you to establish and run this business? a. Bank b. Government c. Business organization d. Family e. Other ( specify) 21. Amount of Investment: a. Loan Amount: ……………… b. Self-Investment: ………… 22. How did you manage your investment? a. Self-Investment b. Family c. Bank loan d. Loan from others e. Other 23. How much time do you give for the business? ………………………… 30. Is this your first business? a. Yes b. No 31. If No, what is your previous business? What is the condition of your business? 32. How your earning is spent? (Monthly) a. Food NRs. …………b. Education NRs. …………c. Housing NRs. ……………………….. d. Personal NRs. ……………………….. e. Other NRs. 40. What can be done to solve the problem? a. …………………b. …………………c. ……………………… 41. Do you participate in decision making of the organization? a. Yes b. No c. Minor Participation 42. If yes, what are the types of role you provide? a. Production b. Pricing c. Marketing d. Employment e. Others 43. If no, what are the reasons? a. Not important b. Unavailable to give time c. Not Interested d. Others 44. What are the problems in taking loan? a. Collateral b. Difficult procedure c. Others 45. Are you planning on the expansion of the business? a. Yes, how? ………………………………………………………………………… b. No, why? 46. What were the most important motivating factors to start this business? 47. How did you finance your business at the start? 48. Please tell the major factors that were helpful in starting this business? 49. Were there any problems that you faced specifically as a women entrepreneur in starting this business? 50. Do you want your business to grow? 51. What are the most important factors that can help your business to grow? 52. What should be the role of Women Business Forums in Pakistan to help the women entrepreneurs in their business-related problems? 53. What do you think are the major business issues faced only by the woman entrepreneurs in Chitwan and not the male entrepreneurs? 54. What are social/cultural barriers that negatively affect your doing business in Chitwan? 55. How do you think these barriers could be reduced/removed? 56. What are social/ cultural aspects that positively contribute to your doing business in Chitwan? 57. How do you think that doing business has affected your social image in the society? 58. What are your opinions in “The Role of Women Entrepreneurs in the Socio-economic Development”?