Understanding the Barriers and Challenges Faced by The Women-preneurs of Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

In developing countries, like Pakistan, entrepreneurship has the potential to be a driving force for economic development, job creation, and societal transformation. Entrepreneurship education prepares people to see life's possibilities, produce creative ideas, and manage critical resources. Moreover, it provides people with the knowledge to launch and sustain new businesses with innovation. Women's empowerment via business may have a substantial influence on gender equality while also contributing to Pakistan's overall economic success. This research shed light on the key motives and challenges that women entrepreneurs face while starting and running enterprises in Pakistan. This research incorporates qualitative technique and semi-structured interviews that allows women entrepreneurs to honestly express their unique experiences. The study's findings center on familial support and personal freedom, with the latter appearing as the most prominent and major motivating force. Cultural limitations are a common and significant hurdle, with respondents indicating a desire to transcend society conventions that frequently impede their aspirations, making it difficult to balance their responsibilities in life. While these ladies are pleased with their accomplishments, they are dissatisfied with the lack of support. This study recognizes a few drawbacks such as its concentration on a specific geographical location (Karachi) and a specific population (young women entrepreneurs). These limitations necessitate care when extrapolating the societalfindings in an extensive setting. Future study might broaden the scope to include a more varied population and investigate geographical variances. There are two outcomes for this research. It emphasizes the necessity of specialized support systems and programs meant to deal with the particular difficulties experienced by Pakistani women business owners. It also emphasizes how critical it is to advance cultural sensitivity and entrepreneurship education in order to create an atmosphere that is inspiring for prospective women business owners. The importance of this study is in its original approach to comprehending the driving forces and obstacles faced by Pakistani young women entrepreneurs. Also, it contributes to the expanding corpus of information on entrepreneurship in developing nations b by uncovering their distinct problems and goals. It provides useful information to organizations, legislators, and educators that are proponent of women empowerment and encourage them to pursue entrepreneurship, which will eventually promote gender equality and economic progress.