Towards the empowerment of women: a social entrepreneurship approach in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This study was centred on the empowerment of women social entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, the study answered the following sub-problems: 1) the priority issues of women social entrepreneurship; 2) the characteristics and practices of implementers along social service, social activism, and social entrepreneurship; 3) the challenges faced by women social entrepreneurs in implementing social entrepreneurial activities along financing, regulatory restriction and framework, and technical support; 4) the strategic measures to foster social entrepreneurship along access to funding, socio-economic entrepreneurship culture, taxation and regulatory, education and training, and support coordination. The following were the salient findings: 1) 'skills development training' was the priority of women social entrepreneurship; 2) the characteristics and practices of implementers was 'social activism'; 3) the challenges faced by women social entrepreneurs in implementing social entrepreneurial activities was 'regulatory restriction and framework'; 4) the strategic measures to foster social entrepreneurship was 'education and training'.