Women Entrepreneurship: Opportunities and Challenges in Pakistan Guidelines from Extant Literature

Abstract

This research article presents critique on the extant literature and provides material for ongoing debate on women entrepreneurship (WE) in Pakistan. Study seeks to motivate academia and professional community to enhance understanding on the subject of WEs in Pakistan with the belief that WE can ensure women empowerment and reduce their socioeconomic inequality. Research published in context of WEs in Pakistan is very limited, however, study identified that most of the women entrepreneurs are engaged at micro-level or small and medium enterprise with larger focus on service sector. The literature review has also identified a number of social, cultural and economic challenges that WEs face and attention of decision makers and academic community has been drawn for their part to play. Implications for policy-making and research are discussed in the last section.