Reassessing Women’s Role, Opportunities, and Challenges in the Unorganized Sector

India's burgeoning population and inadequate employment prospects, entrepreneurship is the only viable option to escape the current unemployment crisis. In India, the unorganized sector employs a larger percentage of the workforce than the organized sector. The unorganized sector employs rural women in a variety of jobs, including agriculture, raising livestock, handicrafts, food processing, and other cottage industries. Women frequently serve as social change agents through their endeavors, questioning gender norms and promoting empowerment in their local communities. Government policies, NGOs, and private sector initiatives play a crucial role in fostering an enabling environment for their entrepreneurship. Promoting equitable and sustainable economic development in India requires aiding and abetting rural women entrepreneurs in the unorganized sector. Their precarious employment, low economic standing, lack of control over earnings, lack of bargaining power, inability to balance paid work with childcare responsibilities and homework, lack of institutional credit, training, and information access, and lack of assets are the main causes of their vulnerability. This paper aims to identify the role, problem, and future opportunities for rural women entrepreneurs. This paper highlights their development, expectations, and struggles. This research will contribute to a deeper comprehension of unorganized business operations and assist policymakers in crafting appropriate legislation that will safeguard these enterprises’ interests going forward.