Women's Entrepreneurship in Pakistan: A Review of the Literature

The purpose of this literature review on women’s entrepreneurship is to inform the design of an activity to support women’s economic empowerment in Pakistan. It presents the existing research regarding the major political economy issues facing women-led businesses, and provides an overview of the relevant socio-cultural, ethnic, and regional influences. It further introduces the major public and private stakeholder organizations involved in this sector.

Two main types of literature were useful to this review. The first comprises the findings of quantitative surveys and reports that provide insight into the women’s employment and gender statistics. These support an analysis of the foundational factors, such as poverty, geographic location, and human development indicators that contribute to the current situation.

The second body of literature is academic research, which provides analytic insight into why women face on-going barriers and limited opportunities as entrepreneurs and how best they may be overcome. Over one hundred different research items were collected, with approximately 70 closely reviewed for this analysis.

The reviewed work mostly relies on qualitative research methodologies, which permit identification of issues and patterns in findings but are not necessarily generalizable to the broader population of entrepreneurs under discussion.

Please see the link to the full report below.