The document summarizes a qualitative research study on women entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. It discusses the following key points: - The study used a phenomenological approach and purposive sampling to interview 7 women entrepreneurs about their experiences starting and running businesses. - Findings showed that some entrepreneurs started businesses to support their families financially and faced challenges accessing government facilities and capital. Family support was also found to be important for success. - The paper provides literature reviewing previous studies on women's empowerment through entrepreneurship in Bangladesh and other countries. It outlines the research methodology used including sample size, data collection and analysis methods. - The results section summarizes the participants' demographic profiles and business profiles. It identifies themes

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Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurship: A Qualitative Research
Ifti Mahmud Ratul, Mahmudul Haque Nafi & Ashaduzzaman
Department of Business Administration,
University of Asia Pacific (UAP), Dhaka - 1209, Bangladesh.
Abstract
In this study we have discussed women entrepreneurs of Bangladesh
empowered themselves through entrepreneurial work and the challenges they
face to start and continue their business in the society. The qualitative study
was conducted using phenomenology and for sampling purposive technique
was applied on a sample size of seven. The finding of the study is that some
entrepreneurs have started their business to meet their family needs and do
not get any facilities from government and also found that the support from
family is important to become a successful entrepreneur. Some suggestions
have been included for future research.
Key Words: Women entrepreneur, Phenomenology, Purposive sampling technique,
Qualitative study.
1. Introduction
The word “entrepreneur” originates from a thirteenth-century French verb, entreprendre,
meaning “to do something” or “to undertake.” An entrepreneur runs a small business and
takes all the risk and reward of the business. Entrepreneurs are individuals who see
opportunities and are willing to take risks to innovate and create businesses (Hanson, 2009).
Women entrepreneur is defined as a women or group of women who initiate, organize, and
run a business enterprise. In late 1970s women witness the rise of women entrepreneurs
(Jennings and Brush, 2013).
Bangladesh is a developing country in South Asian region. Women make nearly half of the
population which means huge potential to be utilized for the socio-economic development of
the country. Now a day’s more women are interested to establish their own business both in
the urban and rural areas to overcome poverty, generate family income and increase the
standard of living.
The purpose of the study is to investigate how women of Bangladesh empowered themselves
through entrepreneurial work and the challenges they face in starting and continuing their
businesses in the society.
The paper is organized as follows: First comes the introduction, then some literature review
on empowerment of women entrepreneurship in provided. This is followed by research
methodology that carries sample size, sampling method, data collections and data analysis.

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Next, the research findings, discussion & implications are presented. Finally, the study
conclusion and a set of recommendations for future research are suggested.
2. Literature review
The literature was reviewed by searching for national and international sources, investigation
and research conducted on women entrepreneurship. Following are some literatures which
were done on contents to that of ours.
Morshed & Haque (2015) carried out a qualitative study on women entrepreneurs of
Bangladesh on a sample size of 40. The author observed entrepreneurship had increased
empowerment of the women and their decision taking ability.
Alam et al (2011) conducted a quantitative study in Malaysia on women entrepreneurs on a
sample size of 194. The study revealed that women can be successful in their ventures if they
had support from their family and strong social ties.
Siddiqui (2012) investigated on the women entrepreneurs of India using a both qualitative
and quantitative research on a sample size of respectively 34 and 304.The study showed that
problems of women entrepreneurs could be overcome by appropriate training,
encouragement, motivation and also family’s support.
Hisrich & Brush (1984) conducted a qualitative study on woman entrepreneur. A total 32
women was interviewed. The study revealed that women who had previous experience in the
field had a better chance of successfully establishing her venture.
Goswami & Kumar (1998) carried out a qualitative study on empowerment of women in
Bangladesh. A total 20 women were interviewed. The study overviewed how women have
empowered themselves through entrepreneurial work.
Naser et al (2012) conducted a qualitative study on women entrepreneur of Kuwait. The
study revealed that individual characteristics such as knowledge and education, skills,
interests and hobbies are the factors that might influence women to become entrepreneurs.
3. Researchmethodology
Qualitative research is an exploratory research. Qualitative research provides in-depth
understanding of the subject. Qualitative research has some research methods such as
ethnography, narrative, phenomenological investigation, grounded theory and case study. In
our research we applied phenomenology method that describes the challenges faced by
women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. The primary data has been collected through interviews.
3.1 Sample size and Sample technique
There are seven respondents who take part in the interview sessions conducted for this study.
All respondents are women entrepreneurs. In this article we have used a purposive sampling

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technique. We have talked with different types of women entrepreneurs. The respondents
must have two years or more experience.
3.2 Data collection and analysis
All the interviews are taken at the convenience of respondent’s time and place. For the
purpose of the interviews, we developed a semi-structured questionnaire for the respondents
that were relevant with the topic; as we conducted a qualitative study scope for flexibility is
ensured by this. Each interview lasted at least 20 to around 25 minutes, on an average. For
ethical consideration, the interviews were recorded with permission of the respondents and
transcribed soon after the interviews were taken by listening to the recording time and again.
Then firstly the demographic information were analysed, next the information of the main
question were arranged side by side to figure out if there is a particular pattern among the
interview responses of the study participants.
4. Findings of the study:
In this segment we have discussed the results that we obtained from the respondent, the
answer have been evaluated against a semi-structured questionnaire. The outcomes are
shown in three parts; first part provides demographic information, second part provides
business profile and finally third part narrates interviewee's responses.
Table 4.1: The demographic profiles of the respondents are given below:
The demographic profile includes respondent, age, district, family member, family income,
marital status and academic qualification this presented in table 4.1
Respondent Age District Family
Member
Family
Income
Marital
Status
Academic
Qualification
1. 25-30 Dhaka 4 30000 Single B.B.A
2. 25-30 Barisal 3 25000 Single B.B.A
3. 40-45 Sirajgonj 3 100000 Married M.B.A
4. 25-30 Dhaka 5 20000 Single Hons
5. 30-35 Dhaka 4 35000 Married H.S.C
6. 30-35 Munshigonj 5 40000 Married Hons
7. 25-30 Dhaka 3 30000 Single B.B.A
Table 4.2 Business Profile:
The demographic profile includes respondent, business type, total employee, experience and
working hours this presented in table 4.2
Respondent Business Type Total
Employee
Experience Working
Hours
1. Online Boutique 6 2 10
2. Online Boutique 5 3 8
3. Import Medicine 15 5 7
4. Boutiques 4 2 8

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5. Boutiques 6 8 9
6. Beauty Parlour 7 4 8
7. Boutiques 4 3 7
Theme One: Entrepreneur defined
The respondent's views about entrepreneur are found that the majority consider a feature in
an individual who starts a business by taking risk to gain profit. The respondents shared their
opinions in the following different ways:
I think a person who starts a business and willing to risk in order to make money. (R-
3)
The person who starts a business and manages it is an entrepreneur to me. (R-5)
Entrepreneur is someone who innovates new ideas of business and implements that to
work. (R-4)
Theme Two: Motivation
Through interviews the majority of women entrepreneurs have mentioned that to get self-
employment and financial gain are the main reasons behind their decisions of starting own
business.
I got motivated from my father. He always tells me not to sit ideally at home. I got the
idea from a cousin and there is another benefit that I can run this business from my
house. (R-2)
One respondent shared her views as:
I need flexibility; I felt that job would not give me freedom. (R-3)
Some entrepreneurs have started their businesses to meet their family needs. As one of the
participants expressed:
My family is big and my father is the only earning member. So I want to help my
family financially by starting a business. (R-4)
Theme Three: Raising capital
Raising fund to start a business is very challenging for women. An overwhelming majority of
respondents (5 out of 7) raised fund from their family.
My family helped me to raise my business capital and start my business. (R-7)
Few respondents (2 out of 7) raised fund from bank loans and personal savings.
I had managed my business capital from bank loan and personal savings. (R-6)
From my personal savings I start my business. (R-1)

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Theme Four: Work-life balance
All the participants expressed the importance of family support. Some of the respondents
shares their views as follows:
Running a business is very difficult. You need someone behind who is supportive. My
husband helps me a lot, so I can balance between my work and family. (R-6)
My mother was supportive but my father was not supportive though I was a student at
that time when I started my own business. He does not believe women working outside
their homes. (R-5)
Theme Five: Society expectation
The majority of respondents who shared their views about their expectation from the society
have a positive impact on their business.
Everyone did not take it too badly, because it is a different business. (R-3)
I think my surrounding environment is good. I am satisfied with my surroundings
environment because I get many facilities from my surroundings. (R-2)
Because it is online business so nobody takes it badly. (R-1)
Theme Six: Government expectation
When asked about any expectation from the government regarding their business, the
majority of them shared their opinions in the following way:
I don't have any expectation from the government. I haven't received any government
benefits. (R-2)
Few of respondents (2 Out of 7) have different points of view:
When I am importing I am paying tax for LC. Also when we are supplying, we have to
pay advance income tax. So we want that the government should stop this advance
income tax cut. (R-3)
I think government can provide some training facilities and give them low interest
rate loans. (R-7)
5. Discussion
A similar study conducted in Malaysia showed that women can be successful in their venture
if they had support from their family and strong social ties (Alam et al) also in our interview
we found that the support from family is important to become successful entrepreneur. A
research conducted in India revealed that women have empowered themselves through

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entrepreneurial work (Goswami & Kumar) also we found that empowerment of women had
increased decision taking ability and flexibility in work. Another research discovered in
Kuwait individual characteristics such as knowledge and education, skills, interests and
hobbies are the factors that might influence women to become entrepreneurs (Naser et al) but
we found that some entrepreneurs became motivated to start their business to meet their
family needs.
5.1 Implication
• Government should take proper step so that women entrepreneurs should have
complete freedom and autonomy in their works, in particular and their society, as a
whole.
• Adequate entrepreneurial knowledge should be provided to the entrepreneurs through
formal education and training.
• Bank loans should be available to entrepreneurs according to their needs.
• Political contribution and other types of disturbances so called political leader need to
be stopped by passing necessary law in the parliament.
• Government policies, tax policy, import-export policies should be made consistent.
6. Conclusion
The study was conducted on women entrepreneur whose age ranges from 25-45 years old and
most of the respondents had good educational background. The objective of the study is
women of Bangladesh empowered themselves through entrepreneurial work and the
challenges they face to start and continue their business in the society. The sample size of this
research paper is seven respondents. The investigation was carried out using phenomenology
and for sampling we used purposive technique. The study discovers that some entrepreneurs
have started their business to meet their family needs and do not get any facilities from
government.
6.1 Suggestion for Future Research
There is no end to making improvements for future researches but there are some specific
areas where definitely modifications are required. This is a qualitative research and there is a
much more broad scope for conducting quantitative research. Future research may also use
mixed method approach. The research being interviewed over a small sample size we propose
to take large sample size. Along with this we also advise that respondents should be observed
over than one time interview.

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Reference:
Alam, S.S., Jani M.F.M. and Omar, N.A. 2011. An empirical study of success factors of
women entrepreneurs in Southern region in Malaysia. International Journal of Economics
and Finance, 3(2): 166–175.
Goswami and Kumar, A. 1998. “Empowerment of Women in Bangladesh”, Empowerment: A
Journal of Women for Women. 5, 45.
Hisrich, R. D. and Brush, C. 1984. The woman entrepreneur: Management skills and business
problems. Journal of Small Business Management, 22 (1): 30-37.
Morshed, F. and Haque, E. 2015. Impact of Women Entrepreneurship on Women
Empowerment in Bangladesh. Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, 6(1): 74-
82.
Naser, K.R. and Al-Hussaini, A. 2012. Personal and external factors effect on women
entrepreneurs: Evidence from Kuwait. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 17(2): 1-
23.
Siddiqui, A. B. 2012. Problems Encountered by Women Entrepreneurs in India. International
Journal of Applied Research & Studies, 1(2):1-11.
Zaman, S. 2013. Women in Business: A Study on the Development of Women
Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. World Journal of Social Sciences, 3(6): 175-188