Background:

Women empowerment and participation is considered as an essential tool for the development of
a country and to achieve this end, entrepreneurship is considered the most viable option (Ismail,
2016). Across the world, entrepreneurship is considered as an essential source to end
unemployment, poverty and poor economy. The establishment of new business ventures and
rapid growth in existing businesses are significant input in the economy (Vasudevan & Prasadh,
2016). It has been observed that the economic development of a nation cannot be possible
without the development of women.
 Vasudevan, A., & Prasadh, H. (2016). Women entrepreneurship in india. Primax
International Journal of Commerce and Management Research, 2016(special issue),
 Nabahat, S. (2014). IMPACT OF MICRO FINANCE ON WOMEN EMPOWERMENT:
A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED DISTRICTS OF KHYBER
PAKHTUNKHWA (Doctoral dissertation, UNIVERSITY OF PESHAWAR).

Opportunities and access to the resources among men and women vary all over the world, but are
more common in underprivileged developing nations. Basically a woman’s role is as important as
a man’s role in providing stability to the family and development of the country (Nabahat,2014).

Literature:
Women-empowerment is known as the process of equipping women to be economically
independent, self-reliant, having positive esteem which allows them to defend any challenging
circumstances and to contribute to various development activities (Kapila et al., 2016).
Empowerment of women is perceived as central to the development and growth of family and
community. An economically empowered woman is assumed to be high in stature as she goes
about her daily activities, as a valued contributor of her household, she finds her inner-self and
enjoy a new elevated status. She imagines the respect she will command because of her confidence
to uplift the standards of her family by participating in income generating activities. In today’s
world, empowerment will goes to those who can learn new things rapidly and earn for themselves
and also for their families. In Pakistan, it is believed that women need to be guided by men in
financial matters(Shaheen, Hussain & Mujtaba, (2018).
  Shaheen, I., Hussain, I., & Mujtaba, G. (2018). Role of microfinance in economic
empowerment of women in Lahore, Pakistan: A study of Akhuwat supported women
clients. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 8(2), 337
 Kapila, M., Singla, A., & Gupta, M. L. (2016). Impact of microcredit on women
empowerment in India: An empirical study of Punjab state. In Proceedings of the World
Congress on Engineering (Vol. 2).

Mayox theory:
According to this theory, “women empowerment can be achieved by providing access to credit
facilities through microfinance institutions” (Mayoux, 2005). Both, financial capital assistance
and nonfinancial services such as micro training and social capital could be pivotal in attaining
women empowerment, which is generating income related activities in micro-enterprises
(Mayoux, 2005). Poverty alleviation, financial self-sustainability and feminist empowerment are
three core paradigms of Feminist empowerment theory (Mayoux, 1998). Incorporating
microfinance for empowering women, all the considered aspects in paradigm are formed. Theory
offers a methodical structure for empowering women through microfinance services such as
micro-credit, micro-saving, micro-insurance and any other financial as well as non-financial
services. However, in this study, only financial services are considered to examine the impact on
the women’s micro enterprise empowerment. This theory provides a link between microfinance
institutions and women’s empowerment thus reducing their poverty level and gender
discrimination against them. It enhances the success of women-owned and run micro-enterprises
through micro finance offered by microfinance institutions.
Microfinance:
In developing countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, extraordinary work has done on
microfinance for the alleviation of poverty and livelihood diversification. Microfinance program
are currently promoted by multilateral and bilateral donor agencies as a mean of inserting poverty
alleviation and empowerment objectives into the dominant development objective of market led
growth (Mayoux, 2001).By offering poor households access to formal or semi-formal financial
services, microfinance has the potential to empower its clients in a variety of ways firstly income-
generating opportunities created through microfinance could provide greater economic security
and power to clients, and secondly group formation and management could link clients with
networks beyond their neighborhood or community(Chhay, 2011).

 Chhay, D. (2011). Women's economic empowerment through microfinance in

Cambodia. Development in Practice, 21(8), 1122-1137.
It is not a new phenomenon but an old one which is followed in one shape or another in most of
the world. It gain worldwide popularity after Muhammad Younas’ Model the Grameen Bank of
Bangladesh established in 1983 when its outreach was expended in a very small period of time in
all over the country. The Grameen Bank model was followed by other financial Institutions in rest
of the world especially in developing world and gain rapid success, by taking into consideration
its worldwide expansion and universal acceptance as a tool for alleviation of poverty the United
Nation on 15th December 1998 has passed a resolution and declared 2005 as “International year
of Microcredit”.The approach which was adopted by Dr. Muhammad Younas was unique bottom-
up which was contrast to commonly used top-down approach followed by development economist
for reduction of poverty and economic development.

The microcredit is provided by MFIs or NGOs to that poor section of community who has lack of
access to conventional financial system due to weak financial position. “The Key characteristic of

microfinance is ability of securing of microcredit without any collateral” (Carroll, 2010). The

Microcredit refers to the act of providing the small loan for short period whereas microfinance is
the act of providing whole range of financial services such as deposits, loans, payment services,
money transfers, and insurance to poor and low-income households and, their microenterprises
(Naeem, Khan, ul Hassan & Muhammad, 2014).

 Carroll, N. (2010). Microfinance in the Philippines. Asia Focus, (Jan).

 Naeem, A., Khan, S., ul Hassan, F. S., & Muhammad, J. The Impacts of Microfinance on
Women Entrepreneurs “A Case Study of District Quetta, Pakistan”.

The Microcredit refers to the act of providing the small loan for short period whereas microfinance
is the act of providing whole range of financial services such as deposits, loans, payment services,
money transfers, and insurance to poor and low-income households and, their microenterprises
(Naeem, Khan, ul Hassan & Muhammad, 2014). Availability of credit may facilitate investment
and improve production practices and thereby increase the output of the farmers and micro-
entrepreneur. Its role is also vital in reduction of poverty as it paves way for employment and
empowerment which leads to economic development (Rajendran & Raya, 2010). The
microfinance users seek funds from MFIs and invest them into future opportunities in this way
they enhance their income level and also become self-employed instead of searching employment
opportunities somewhere else(Naeem, Khan, ul Hassan & Muhammad, 2014).

. But most of these financial institutions confined their activities to the micro credit only and not
providing full range of microfinance services. Majority of these NGOs and MFIs have worked
under the umbrella of the govt. The target market of microfinance sector in Pakistan is estimated
to be 25 to 30 million borrowers and government has set the outreach goal posts to at least 3 million
by the end of 2010 and have moved it further to 10 million by 2015(Naeem, Khan, ul Hassan &
Muhammad, 2014).

Since start of microcredit movement various financial institution, microfinance banks, NGOs are
involved in provision of microcredit services throughout the world and outreach reach to 150
million borrowers who getting benefit from the services of these financial institution whereas there
are still 2.7 billion poor who are still lack of access to the microfinance (Skins, 2011).

 Skins, M. B. (2011). The CSFI Survey of Microfinance Risk. CSFI: Centre for the Study
of Financial Innovation. New York.

A number of Banks and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO’s) emerged in the market

providing microfinance services in different cities of Pakistan. The Government of Pakistan can
enhance its microfinance outreach by focusing on female entrepreneur which is about 51% of the
total population of country(Naeem, Khan, ul Hassan & Muhammad, 2014).

Entrepenurial

As a result, many studies have developed numerous intention-based models to explain the
formation of entrepreneurial intentions (Fuller, Liu, Bajaba, Marler, & Pratt, 2018). Nevertheless,
this has provided only a limited understanding of entrepreneurial activity as entrepreneurship is
not simply the development of intention, but how well individuals engage in entrepreneurial
activity (Kautonen et al., 2015). As such, As the growing unemployment around the globe, many
governments are depending on entrepreneurial start-ups for job creation. Prior research over the
years has focused on understanding the drivers of entrepreneurship by examining why some
individuals develop the intention to start a new venture. This follows from the view that
entrepreneurial intentions are a key determinant of entrepreneurial behavior (Kautonen, Gelderen,
& Fink, 2015). The latest report of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) (2017) shows that
early stage entrepreneurial activity1 is currently highest in Africa, Latin ,and that rates of female
participation are higher in these regions than in Europe and North America. Nevertheless, the
literature on entrepreneurship remains dominated by the experiences of white men in the Global
North (Langevang et al., 2015).

Researchers have emphasized the need to move beyond models that end at explaining intentions,
to include how these intentions translate to entrepreneurial actions (Shirokova , 2016). Levels of
female entrepreneurship vary with country also (different nations have different social, cultural,
religious and family norms, and the freedom of women to work on their own is greatly determined
by such factors).

 Fuller, B., Liu, Y., Bajaba, S., Marler, L. E., & Pratt, J. (2018). Examining how the
personality, self-efficacy, and anticipatory cognitions of potential entrepreneurs shape their
Kautonen, T., van Gelderen, M., & Fink, M. (2015). Robustness of the theory of planned
behavior in predicting entrepreneurial intentions and actions. Entrepreneurship Theory and
Practice, 39(3), 655-674.
 entrepreneurial intentions. Personality and Individual Differences, 125, 120-125.
 Langevang, T., Gough, K. V., Yankson, P. W., Owusu, G., & Osei, R. (2015). Bounded
entrepreneurial vitality: The mixed embeddedness of female entrepreneurship. Economic
Geography, 91(4), 449-473.
 Shirokova, G., Osiyevskyy, O., & Bogatyreva, K. (2016). Exploring the intention–behavior
link in student entrepreneurship: Moderating effects of individual and environmental
characteristics. European Management Journal, 34(4), 386-399.
 Antoncic, B., BratkovicKregar, T., Singh, G. and DeNoble, A.F. (2015), “The big five
personality entrepreneurship relationship: evidence from Slovenia”, Journal of Small
Business Management, Vol. 53 No. 3, pp. 819-841.

Entrepreneurs are individuals who do not like repetitive and routine work, who take personal
responsibility and who want to see the concrete results of their decisions (Antoncic et al., 2015).

Philosophy

Research philosophy is a term that contracts with the foundation, nature and development of data.
In simple words, a research philosophy is a certainty using of data collection method, data analysis
methods about a particular phenomenon (Bajpai.N, 2011). The research philosophies that can be
used for carrying any study are positivism, interpretivism and realism (Saunders, M et al., 2012),
these philosophies involve choice between subjective, objective or subjective plus objective
approaches for research (Burrell & Morgan, 1979). According to Walsham (1995b), the positivists
have ontology that world exist but independently from the human beings and the epistemology
(methodology) in order to investigate this phenomena will be methodology developed by natural
science experts that include statistical tools and techniques or quantitative tools and technology.
Similarly, interpretivists have ontology that the world or nature is socially constructed phenomena,
so the data about nature or reality is only available through social perceptions, social consciousness
and social interpretations and this phenomena can be investigate by using qualitative tools and
techniques (Myers, 2009). The realists have ontology that universe exists independently however
it exits for the human beings that contain abstract things that are born of people’s mind (Bhaskar,
1978).
 Bajpai, N. (2011). Business research methods. Pearson Education India
 Burrell, G., & Morgan, G. (2017). Sociological paradigms and organizational analysis:
Elements of the sociology of corporate life. Routledge. Bhaskar, R. (1978). On the
possibility of social scientific knowledge and the limits of naturalism Journal for the
Theory of Social Behavior
