IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/5azn2_v2.html

Digital Market Access and Women’s Economic Agency in Pakistan: A Social Science Review of Gendered Constraints and Entrepreneurship Pathways

Author

Listed:
  • Wasti, Hiba Syeda Asad

Abstract

Women’s entrepreneurship in Pakistan is shaped by intersecting social, institutional, and economic constraints, including gender norms, household bargaining structures, mobility restrictions, limited access to finance, unequal digital access, and low participation in formal labor markets. As digital platforms, mobile payments, social commerce, and online marketplaces expand across emerging economies, they create new opportunities for women’s enterprise participation while also reproducing existing inequalities in skills, visibility, trust, and institutional support. This paper reviews social-science literature on women’s economic agency, entrepreneurship, digital inclusion, and gendered labor-market barriers, using Pakistan as a country case. Rather than treating digital market access only as a business-growth opportunity, the paper examines how digital access interacts with social norms, family expectations, market institutions, and women’s ability to exercise economic choice. The paper proposes a conceptual framework linking five dimensions of women’s enterprise participation: digital capability, financial inclusion, market access, social legitimacy, and institutional trust. It argues that women-led enterprise development in Pakistan requires attention not only to platforms and markets but also to the social conditions that shape women’s agency, mobility, and legitimacy as economic actors.

Suggested Citation

  • Wasti, Hiba Syeda Asad, 2026. "Digital Market Access and Women’s Economic Agency in Pakistan: A Social Science Review of Gendered Constraints and Entrepreneurship Pathways," SocArXiv 5azn2_v2, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:5azn2_v2
    DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/5azn2_v2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/6a53fb941a125f9ce17afc57/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31235/osf.io/5azn2_v2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:wbk:wbpubs:41040 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Esther Duflo, 2012. "Women Empowerment and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(4), pages 1051-1079, December.
    3. Agarwal, Bina, 1997. ""Bargaining" and Gender Relations: Within and Beyond the Household," FCND Discussion Papers 42661, CGIAR, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Helene Ahl, 2006. "Why Research on Women Entrepreneurs Needs New Directions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(5), pages 595-621, September.
    5. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    6. Naila Kabeer, 1999. "Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 435-464, July.
    7. Bina Agarwal, 1997. "''Bargaining'' and Gender Relations: Within and Beyond the Household," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1-51.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Han, Wenjing & Zhang, Xiaoling & Zhang, Zhengfeng, 2019. "The role of land tenure security in promoting rural women’s empowerment: Empirical evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 280-289.
    2. Agarwal, Bina, 2026. "DEVELOPMENT AS EQUALITY: A gender lens on progress and its hidden barriers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    3. Alexandra Peralta, 2022. "The role of men and women in agriculture and agricultural decisions in Vanuatu," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 59-80, January.
    4. Susana Martínez-Restrepo & Laura Ramos-Jaimes & Alma Espino & Martin Valdivia & Johanna Yancari Cueva, 2017. "Measuring women’s economic empowerment: Critical lessons from South America," INFORMES DE INVESTIGACIÓN 015825, FEDESARROLLO.
    5. Sara Ratna Qanti & Alexandra Peralta & Di Zeng, 2022. "Social norms and perceptions drive women’s participation in agricultural decisions in West Java, Indonesia," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(2), pages 645-662, June.
    6. Collins, LaPorchia A., 2022. "Identifying Profiles of Empowerment: Does the Empowerment Mix Matter for Food Security?," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322538, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Nga Dao & Quang Phung, 2026. "Rethinking the ‘Defeminization of Agriculture’: Land Consolidation and Crop Diversification in Vietnam's Red River Delta," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 57(2), pages 203-230, March.
    8. Hazel Jean L. Malapit & Esha Sraboni & Agnes R. Quisumbing & Akhter U. Ahmed, 2019. "Intrahousehold empowerment gaps in agriculture and children's well‐being in Bangladesh," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 37(2), pages 176-203, March.
    9. Arohi Anand & Animesh Karn & Avirup Mukherjee & Naboshree Bhattacharya, 2025. "Does earning money empower women? Evidence from India," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, December.
    10. Abreha, Solomon K. & Walelign, Solomon Z. & Zereyesus, Yacob A., 2020. "Associations between Women’s Empowerment and Child Health Status in Ethiopia," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304174, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    11. Funmi (Olufunmilola) Ojediran & Alistair Anderson, 2020. "Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Global South: Empowering and Emancipating?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22, November.
    12. Delprato, Marcos, 2023. "Children and adolescents educational gender gaps across the lifecourse in sub-Saharan Africa: On the role of mothers' lack of empowerment as a barrier for girls' educational performance," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    13. Calasanti, Anna, 2025. "Asset, voice, leverage? Women’s property ownership and household decision-making in Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    14. Susana Martínez-Restrepo & Laura Ramos-Jaimes & Alma Espino & Martin Valdivia & Johanna Yancari Cueva, 2017. "Measuring women’s economic empowerment: Critical lessons from South America," Libros Fedesarrollo, Fedesarrollo, number 15825, December.
    15. Hugo Ribadeau Dumas, 2023. "TÄ qat, Shakti or Empowerment(s)? Describing the Experience of Power: A Decade of Observations in one Informal Settlement of Patna, India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 18(2), pages 221-243, August.
    16. Mara José Montenegro Guerra & Sandeep Mohapatra & Brent Swallow, 2019. "What influence do empowered women have? Land and the reality of women’s relative power in Peru," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1225-1255, December.
    17. Elvis Dze Achuo & Janvier Killosho Buraye & Clovis Wendji Miamo & Muhamadu Awal Kindzeka Wirajing, 2025. "Does Women Empowerment Promote Sustainable Development in Developing Countries?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), pages 6917-6935, October.
    18. Sayed Samer Ali Al-shami & R. M. Razali & Nurulizwa Rashid, 2018. "The Effect of Microcredit on Women Empowerment in Welfare and Decisions Making in Malaysia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 137(3), pages 1073-1090, June.
    19. Jhonatan Clausen & Micaela Salcedo & Nicolas Barrantes & Patricia Ruiz-Bravo, 2026. "Multidimensional Poverty and Disempowerment Among Women: Exploring Associations and Overlaps Across 32 Low- and Middle-Income Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 182(2), pages 1-28, March.
    20. Mehdi Ghasemi & Mohammad Badsar & Leila Falahati & Esmail Karamidehkordi, 2021. "The mediation effect of rural women empowerment between social factors and environment conservation (combination of empowerment and ecofeminist theories)," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 13755-13777, September.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:5azn2_v2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://socarxiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.