Role of Women Entrepreneurs in Economic Empowerment of Rural Areas

Abstract

In this globalized era, economic growth of a country highly depends on the participation of women in thedevelopment of that country. But for a male dominated society like India where majority of population lives in rural areas,it is very difficult for a woman tothink about to establish their own business.  Entrepreneurship amongst women has been a recent concern in rural India.Woman Entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically independent.In India around three million women entrepreneurs are working and mainly they are skewed towards smaller sized firms, as almost 98 percent of women-owned businesses are micro-enterprisesThis paper mainly concerned with the women entrepreneurship situation in rural areas of India. This is a conceptual paper and uses secondary data from books, journals, articles, web sites and government reports.This study highlighted the current scenario of women entrepreneurs and their contribution in economic empowerment of rural areas of India. This paper also focuses on the future prospects of women entrepreneurs and government initiatives for making women entrepreneurs more successful. This study suggests some strategies for empowering rural women.