Economic development: Role of women entrepreneurs

Over the last few decades, while women have come forward to establish their own enterprises, their numbers remain few. But in recent time, the traditional conditions are profoundly changed even in a developing country like India due to many factors like women's education, technical progress, urbanization etc. The women-owned businesses are becoming increasingly important in the economies of almost all countries. Significant government and local initiatives/incentives have been introduced with the intention of stimulating entrepreneurship among women. Woman entrepreneurship must be recognized for what it is. Nationally, it has great importance for future economic prosperity. Individually, business ownership provides women with independence they crave for which ultimately brings them economic, personal and social satisfaction. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to study the perception of women entrepreneurs regarding the role they play in the society in terms of economic development. For this data was collected from 295 women entrepreneurs in Haryana region using a structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed through mean and standard deviation. It was found that women entrepreneurs have a positive perception regarding the contribution they make in economic development. This is an important finding as it shows that the women entrepreneurs can also be a part of economic change in a developing country.