Escaping poverty: Women entrepreneurs' journeys toward empowerment and sustained livelihood

Abstract

This paper examines the transformational role of entrepreneurship for the empowerment and sustained livelihood of women in poverty. We conducted a field study using interviews with 134 Indian women entrepreneurs in five categories of businesses. Although the women living under (extreme) poverty and oppressive socio-cultural norms engage in entrepreneurial activities out of desperation, the process of entrepreneuring has deeply transformational effects on their personal and professional lives. By working within and around the socio-cultural and institutional constraints they face, women entrepreneurs gradually redefine the norms and values of their families and communities to gain acceptance and recognition of their economic contributions. Further, the learning and personal growth they experience as a part of entrepreneuring are associated with elevation of their business goals from meeting basic subsistence needs to ensuring long-term sustained livelihood for their families. Our paper contributes to the entrepreneuring-as- emancipation perspective by extending its focus from an entrepreneurial project to a life-changing transformational process of empowerment.