Gender, Microenterprise Success and Cultural Context: The Case of South Asia

This paper demonstrates weaknesses in the ability of orthodox microenterprise development theory to represent issues relevant to women's success in the sector. Researchers tend to use gender simply as a variable to explain success without understanding gender as a social construct. Such work disregards how culturally specific power relations influence women's opportunities for success. Gender and microenterprise development theorists do better at incorporating power relations into explanations of why women start microenterprises and why their performance differs from that of men. They also take a broader view of microenterprise success by combining economic and empowerment outcomes, recognizing the diverse roles self employment plays for women. The relevance of power issues to success and the need for cultural sensitivity in evaluating women's opportunities to achieve positive enterprise outcomes are highlighted through the example of women's involvement in the microenterprise sector in South Asia.