Industrial and Commercial Training

Study on work-life balance of women entrepreneurs – review and research agenda

Sucheta Agarwal Usha Lenka
Article information:
To cite this document:
Sucheta Agarwal Usha Lenka , (2015),"Study on work-life balance of women entrepreneurs – review and research agenda",
Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 47 Iss 7 pp. 356 - 362
Permanent link to this document:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ICT-01-2015-0006
Downloaded on: 02 October 2015, At: 22:49 (PT)
References: this document contains references to 49 other documents.
To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
Downloaded by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee At 22:49 02 October 2015 (PT)

The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 130 times since 2015*
Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:
Siwan Mitchelmore, Jennifer Rowley, Edward Shiu, (2014),"Competencies associated with growth of women-led
SMEs", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 21 Iss 4 pp. 588-601 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/
JSBED-01-2012-0001
Pingjun Jiang, Bert Rosenbloom, (2013),"Consumer Knowledge and External Pre-Purchase Information Search:
A Meta-Analysis of the Evidence", Research in Consumer Behavior, Vol. 15 pp. 353-389 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/
S0885-2111(2013)0000015023
Linzi Kemp, (2011),"Implications for recruitment in a multinational organization: a case study of human resource
management in the United Arab Emirates", Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, Vol. 1 Iss 4 pp. 1-14 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/20450621111192780

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:393769 []
For Authors
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service
information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit
www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of
more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online
products and additional customer resources and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication
Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.

*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

 Study on work-life balance of
women entrepreneurs – review
and research agenda
Sucheta Agarwal and Usha Lenka
Downloaded by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee At 22:49 02 October 2015 (PT)
Sucheta Agarwal is Research
Scholar at the Department of
Management Studies, Indian
Institute of Technology,
Roorkee, India.
Usha Lenka is based at the
Department of Management
Studies, Indian Institute of
Technology, Roorkee, India.
PAGE 356 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review and conceptually explain the work-life balance of women
entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach – Through the secondary data, selected papers have analysed to prepare
a conceptual framework depicting the work-life balance of women entrepreneurs.
Findings – Entrepreneurship has emerged as a global concept and contributed for economic development
of the country. It utilizes competencies of entrepreneurs for success of their enterprises. Working women
executives suffers the problem of work-life balance. Developing family responsibilities as well as their potential
roles, generate the issue of role conflict. In order to overcome role conflict, they need to balance between
work and personal life style. To gain more flexibility and control on their work and personal obligations, women
start up their own business. They contribute in job creation, innovation, and economic development of nation
through their entrepreneurial activities.
Originality/value – It provides future direction to various researchers, academicians and policy makers in this field.
Keywords Economic development, Flexibility, Women entrepreneurship, Work-life balance
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
Entrepreneurship is a process of starting a new venture. Entrepreneurs develop business models
by assembling and utilizing resources such as human capital, raw materials, land, and labour.
They envision a futuristic approach (James, 1996) and are responsible for their firms’
accomplishments and failures (Sandelands, 1997). The term “entrepreneur” was first coined by
Richard Cantillon (1680-1734, cited by Landstrom, 1999). He has defined entrepreneur as a person
who identifies opportunities and takes risk in order to maximize firms’ monetary returns. However, this
definition is not specifically limited to a particular gender. In the era of globalization, women realize that
for their recognition and sustenance of their families, they have to work equally as men (Marlow, 2002).
The working environment of corporate world is however not very conducive for achievement-oriented
women, so they move towards the entrepreneurship field (Appelbaum et al., 2011). A woman
entrepreneur is an enterprising individual having a clear vision to identify market opportunities,
immense potential to takes risk, commercial acumen, and achievement motivation to run business
(Vinze, 1987). The contemporary women entrepreneurs have emerged as strong economic
contributors in global prosperity and growth (Davis, 2012). Therefore, involvement of women is
required in an increased manner for overall socio-economic and cultural development of the country.
The paper reviews and conceptually explains work-life balance of women entrepreneurs and
suggests measures to deal with this issue. With the help of secondary data, selected papers have
been reviewed from the duration of 1988-2014 related to work-life balance of women entrepreneurs.
j VOL. 47 NO. 7 2015, pp. 356-362, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0019-7858 DOI 10.1108/ICT-01-2015-0006
 Work-life balance of women entrepreneur
The financial condition of a family does not solely depend on earning of men. Women are also
responsible for better economic health of family. Women break the stereotype barriers, created
by both culture and society and exhibits the push and pull factors to earn recognition and identity
in society. To develop their economic prowess, they set up their own venture. Push and pull
factors generate motivational drives for women (Brush, 1992). Pull factors are recognition,
self-esteem, to become own boss, work on own rules and regulations, earn more money, and
become independent. Push factors are job dissatisfaction, family’s financial condition, child’s
education and care, and husband’s sickness or death. Therefore, they overcome economic crisis
of family and provide better life to their children through their entrepreneurial skills. In the era of
high technology, women are rising as a powerful force which cannot be ignored by policy makers.
Women entrepreneurship has been recognized as wealth creators, employment generators,
and also provides solutions to problems related to society.
Work-life balance means maintaining balance between work and life style of an individual. In UK,
the term “work-life balance” was first coined in the late 1970s which illustrated the balance
between an individual’s work and personal life. Work and family are two essential aspects for both
men and women. By earning money for betterment of family, women are also playing the role of
bread winner, as a result of which, it disturbs the balance of their family. The involvement of
Downloaded by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee At 22:49 02 October 2015 (PT)

women in entrepreneurial activities, maintained the balance between work and family.
This paper reviews extant literature on women entrepreneurship to exhibit how women have
contributed to their entrepreneurial success by maintaining work-life balance.

Review on work-life balance of women entrepreneurs

Need for maintaining work-life balance has been widely acknowledged by both employees and
managers as it affects their performance (Bird, 2006).
Since 1970s, women have entered in workforce. Nock (2001) has coined the term MEDS which
stands for “marriage of equally dependent spouses, where each spouse contributes 40-50% of the
income”, creating the concept of shared bread winning. Involvement of both spouses in income
generations disturbs the normal routine of households. It surmounts both workplace responsibilities
as well as domestic household tasks, which becomes difficult for women to handle and rating up the
issues of work-life balance (Boyum-Breen, 2006). As well as, with realization of women power and
exhibition of their business acumen in the corporate world, the issues of glass ceiling and
organizational barriers like inequality in pay, opportunities of promotion, allocation of challenging
work, promising assignments, responsibilities, and key positions in organization have been also
denied to women (Kephart and Schumacher, 2005; Mattis, 2004). Daniel (2004) stated several
reasons for leaving the corporate world is discontent with work environment, gender-related
problems, and seeking of flexibility in work. She plays various roles in the family, as a wife, mother,
daughter, and care taker (Casper and Bianchi, 2001). Social role theory states that each role has
certain expectation (Eagly and Wood, 2011). The individual is expected to perform the various roles
judiciously. Any failure in performance of one’s roles and responsibilities lead to dissatisfaction of
other members. Therefore, if a woman is incompetent to perform various roles perfectly, it disturbs
both work and family responsibilities. As a result of these biases and issues, women have decided to
move towards creation of their own business where she enjoys the autonomy and freedom. In order
to satisfy their higher order needs of achievement, self-esteem, flexibility in life, and to become
economically independent, women have entered in entrepreneurship, which was traditionally

“In order to satisfy their higher order needs of

achievement, self esteem, flexibility in life, and to
become economically independent, women have
entered in entrepreneurship, which was
traditionally considered to be men’s bastion.”

VOL. 47 NO. 7 2015 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING j PAGE 357

 considered to be men’s bastion (Raley et al., 2006). Number of women entrepreneurs has increased
with time as they are competent, and possess creative ideas, innovative viewpoints, capabilities to
seek challenges, and are eager to gain recognition and identity in society (Caudron, 2001).
However, socio demographic changes have made family structure to be nuclear in nature
(Polomeno, 2007). The cotemporary women are highly qualified, ambitious; scrutinize their
personal development, and have a higher involvement in entrepreneurial activities (Mallon
and Cohen, 2001).
The greater involvement of women in business ventures and work resulted in emergence of work-
life balance issues. In order to maintain a healthy work-life balance, an individual needs to utilize
flexible schedule between work and personal responsibilities (Frame and Hartog, 2003).Though,
the imbalance generates stress among the women. This stress caused due to poor work-life
balance, detrimental the physical and mental health and causes behavioural changes in women.
Women involved in self-employment tend to develop flexible schedules to maintain balance between
work and family demands (Lombard, 2001). Therefore, they prefer working from home in order to
spend judicious amount of time for their domestic responsibilities (Boden, 1996). DeMartino and
Barbato (2003) have found that men have been motivated to take up entrepreneurship to seek
financial gains and women opted for entrepreneurship for more flexibility in both work and
Downloaded by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee At 22:49 02 October 2015 (PT)

family (Table I).

Findings and discussion

The review of literature has been scrutinized on the grounds of why women entrepreneurs leave
corporate world to enter entrepreneurial activities. To incorporate flexibility and manage their
work and personal lives, women have initiated their own enterprises in order to enhance work-life
balance (Ward, 2007) Women have to work for the betterment of their children by balancing work
and family life (Platske, 2007). In this competitive scenario, women are more confident, enriched
with entrepreneurial skills and believe in following relational approach in the working environment.
They focus more on maintaining effective communication and relationship with employees
and customers. Because they perceived that problems in business or family can affect their
performance in either. Therefore, a woman handles the problems both emotionally and practically
with their emotional intelligence. The women entrepreneurs believe that effective communication
and relationship building with family and customers can reduce the stress encountered in both
personal and professional lives and helped them to achieve balance (Jome et al., 2006).

Table I Review table

S.no. Authors Findings

1. Baber and Monaghan (1988), Machung (1989), Buttner and Moore (1997), To gain flexibility in work and family activities
Carter et al. (2003), DeMartino and Barbato (2003), Brush et al. (2006), Baughn
et al. (2006), Shelton (2006), Ward (2007), Mathew and Panchanatham (2011),
Bade et al. (2014), Houston-Armstrong and Edmonds-Biglow (2014)
2. Robinson and Sexton (1994), Caputo and Dolinsky (1998), Williams (2004) For child care and married life style, women have
opted self-employment
3. Boden (1996), Lombard (2001) Worked from home provided flexible work
schedules to manage work-family responsibilities
4. Caputo and Dolinsky (1998), Hughes (2003) To devote time for child care
5. Bruni et al. (2004), Hughes (2006), Rehman and Roomi (2012) Contribute to family income
6. Fels (2004), Ahl (2007) To enhance their entrepreneurial skills
7. Brush. (1992), Lewis (2004) Divorce or death of husband
8. Mattis (2004), Ahl (2007) As caregivers to elders/parents and devote time
for personal care
9. DeMartino et al. (2006), Shelton (2006), Sumitha and DSouza (2014) To control family responsibilities and achieve
professional objectives
10. Buttner and Moore (1997), Carter et al. (2003), Baughn et al. (2006), Work-life balance act as significant motivational
Rehman and Roomi (2012) factor for women to initiate the venture

PAGE 358 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING j VOL. 47 NO. 7 2015

 The suggestions for maintaining the work-life balance are as follows:
■ women entrepreneurs should manage work and life style by proper time management;
■ women entrepreneurs can delegate responsibilities among their employees;
■ encouraging and supporting employees through effective communication and development
programs would help them to maintain a healthy work environment and their personal life;
■ women entrepreneurs should enhance technical competence of employees to facilitate the
pace of work;
■ women entrepreneurs should encourage involvement of family members in their
entrepreneurial venture so that they get enough time to spend with their family;
■ they should not bring back office work to home or vice versa;
■ they should spend their vacation time with family members to prevent stress;
■ women should hold work and family responsibilities on proper time schedule to avoid
procrastination; and
■ they should improve their personal (self-confidence, self-control, personal goals, stress
Downloaded by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee At 22:49 02 October 2015 (PT)

management, and listening skills), social (communication, effective relations, change management,
responsibility, flexibility, and development skills), and professional (planning, problem solving,
information gathering, analytical thinking, creativeness, and time management) competencies
through various development programs to accomplish their business venture successfully.
On the basis of above discussion, a conceptual framework has been developed on maintaining
work-life balance of women entrepreneurs (Figure 1).

Conclusion
Entrepreneurship is considered as a prominent field in the competitive business world.
It generates employment and helps in sustaining economic development of a country. Due to
globalization, the growth of women-owned enterprises has been recognized in increasing
manner by the world and they have become representatives of a nation. They are accountable
for the growth of income and employment generation. Women have involved themselves in
entrepreneurship and have left their career in order to overcome gender-related biases and
work-life balance. Lack of proper guidance, government training, technical knowledge, family
support, and poor network are hindrances in their entrepreneurial venture. Work and family are
prominent aspects in the life of working women. Therefore, women entrepreneur prefer to run
their own business from home to control work and personal life style. Their involvement in
entrepreneurial activities helps them in gaining recognition and confidence. Women try to
maintain work-life balance through their entrepreneurial skills like effective communication,
organizing, planning, leading and delegating skills.

Future scope of study

Women entrepreneurship has been gaining attention of policy makers for economic growth and
development of country. The various government agencies and NGOs focus on training
programs and entrepreneurial education to enrich skills of women entrepreneurs. Future research
should focus on making a comparative study between men and women entrepreneurs on
work-life balance issues. There is also need for a comparative study between working women
executives and entrepreneurs.

“[...] women entrepreneur prefer to run their own

business from home to control work and personal
life style.”

VOL. 47 NO. 7 2015 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING j PAGE 359

 Figure 1 A conceptual framework on work-life balance of women entrepreneurs

Push factors-Financial
condition of family, job
Varied Roles of Women
dissatisfaction,
husband’s sickness/
death, children’s care
Domestic Work
and their education,
and care for
elders/parents Wife
Child
care

Maintaining
Motivate Become balance
to start an Women between work
Women entrepreneur and family
enterprise

Elder care
Mother

Pull factors-Recognition, Social Work

Downloaded by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee At 22:49 02 October 2015 (PT)

personal improvement, to
become own boss, to earn
more money, to become Maintaining balance
independent executing various
roles

References
Ahl, H. (2007), “Gender stereotypes”, in Clegg, S. and Bailey, J. (Eds), International Encyclopedia of
Organization Studies, Sage, London, pp. 534-41.
Appelbaum, S.H., Asham, N. and Argheyd, K. (2011), “Is the glass ceiling cracked in information technology?
A qualitative analysis: Part 1”, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 43 No. 6, pp. 354-61.

Baber, K.M. and Monaghan, P. (1988), “College women’s career and motherhood expectations: new
options, old dilemmas”, Sex Roles, Vol. 19 Nos 3-4, pp. 189-203.
Bade, M.U.R., Reddy, J.V. and Rao, M.P.D. (2014), “Work-life balance of women entrepreneurs in India”,
in Aluvala, R. (Ed.), Managing Human Resources in Global Era-Prospects & Challenges, Zenon Academic
publishing, Hyderabad, pp. 158-70.
Baughn, C.C., Chua, B.L. and Neupert, K.E. (2006), “The normative context for women’s
participation in entrepreneurship: a multi-country study”, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol. 30 No. 5,
pp. 687-708.
Bird, J. (2006), “Work‐life balance: doing it right and avoiding the pitfalls”, Employment Relations Today,
Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 21-30.
Boden, R.J. Jr (1996), “Gender and self-employment selection: an empirical assessment”, The Journal of
Socio-Economics, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 671-82.
Boyum-Breen, T.L. (2006), “A phenomenological inquiry of the work and home life experiences of mothers
who are college presidents”, doctoral dissertation, Major: educational policy and administration, University
of Minnesota.
Bruni, A., Gherardi, S. and Poggio, B. (2004), “Entrepreneur-mentality, gender and the study of women
entrepreneurs”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 256-68.
Brush, C.G. (1992), “Research on women business owners: past trends, a new perspective and future
directions”, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 5-30.
Brush, C.G., Carter, N.M., Gatewood, E.J., Greene, P.G. and Hart, M.M. (Eds) (2006), “Women’s
entrepreneurship in the United States”, Growth-Oriented Women Entrepreneurs and their Businesses: A
Global Research Perspective, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham and Northampton, MA, pp. 184-202.

PAGE 360 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING j VOL. 47 NO. 7 2015

 Buttner, E.H. and Moore, D.P. (1997), “Women’s organizational exodus to entrepreneurship:
self-reported motivations and correlates with success”, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 35
No. 1, pp. 34-46.
Caputo, R.K. and Dolinsky, A. (1998), “Women’s choice to pursue self-employment: the role of
financial and human capital of household members”, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 36
No. 3, pp. 8-17.
Carter, N.M., Gartner, W.B., Shaver, K.G. and Gatewood, E.J. (2003), “The career reasons of nascent
entrepreneurs”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 13-39.
Casper, L.M. and Bianchi, S.M. (2001), Continuity and Change in the American Family, Sage Publications,
California, CA.
Caudron, S. (2001), “The myth of job happiness”, Workforce-Costa Mesa, Vol. 80 No. 4, pp. 32-7.

Daniel, T.A. (2004), “The exodus of women from the corporate workplace to self‐owned businesses”,
Employment Relations Today, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 55-61.
Davis, P.J. (2012), “The global training deficit: the scarcity of formal and informal professional
development opportunities for women entrepreneurs”, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 44 No. 1,
pp. 19-25.
DeMartino, R. and Barbato, R. (2003), “Differences between women and men MBA entrepreneurs: exploring
Downloaded by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee At 22:49 02 October 2015 (PT)

family flexibility and wealth creation as career motivators”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 18 No. 6,
pp. 815-32.
DeMartino, R., Barbato, R. and Jacques, P.H. (2006), “Exploring the career/achievement and personal life
orientation differences between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs: the impact of sex and dependents”,
Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 44 No. 3, pp. 350-69.
Eagly, A.H. and Wood, W. (2011), “Social role theory”, in Van Lange, P.A., Kruglanski, A.W. and
Higgins, E.T. (Eds), Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology, Sage Publications, London, pp. 458-78.
Fels, A. (2004), “Do women lack ambition?”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 82 No. 4, pp. 50-60.
Frame, P. and Hartog, M. (2003), “From rhetoric to reality. Into the swamp of ethical practice: implementing
work‐life balance”, Business Ethics: a European Review, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 358-68.
Houston-Armstrong, T. and Edmonds-Biglow, K. (2014), “Work-life balance and African American
women entrepreneurs”, in Kelly, L. (Ed.), Entrepreneurial Women: New Management and Leadership Model,
ABC-CLIO, LLC, California, pp. 225-42.
Hughes, K.D. (2003), “Pushed or pulled? Women’s entry into self‐employment and small business
ownership”, Gender, Work & Organization, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 433-54.
Hughes, K.D. (2006), “Exploring motivation and success among Canadian women entrepreneurs”, Journal of
Small Business & Entrepreneurship, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 107-20.
James, J. (1996), “Thinking in the future tense”, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 28 No. 7,
pp. 28-32.
Jome, L.M., Donahue, M.P. and Siegel, L.A. (2006), “Working in the uncharted technology frontier:
characteristics of women web entrepreneurs”, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 21 No. 1,
pp. 127-47.
Kephart, P. and Schumacher, L. (2005), “Has the ‘glass ceiling’ cracked? An exploration of women
entrepreneurship”, Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 2-15.
Landstrom, H. (1999), “The roots of entrepreneurship research”, New England Journal of Entrepreneurship,
Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 9-20.
Lewis, K. (2004), “New Zealand SME owners: in it for ‘lifestyle’ or ‘freestyle’”, Institute for small business affairs
27th National Conference Proceedings, New Zealand Centre for SME Research, Massey University.
Lombard, K.V. (2001), “Female self‐employment and demand for flexible, nonstandard work schedules”,
Economic Inquiry, Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 214-37.
Machung, A. (1989), “Talking career, thinking job: gender differences in career and family expectations of
Berkeley seniors”, Feminist Studies, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 35-58.
Mallon, M. and Cohen, L. (2001), “Time for a change? Women’s accounts of the move from organizational
careers to self‐employment”, British Journal of Management, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 217-30.

VOL. 47 NO. 7 2015 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING j PAGE 361

 Marlow, S. (2002), “Women and self-employment: a part of or apart from theoretical construct?”, The
International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vol. 3 No . 2, pp. 83-91.
Mathew, R.V. and Panchanatham, N. (2011), “An exploratory study on the work-life balance of women
entrepreneurs in South India”, Asian Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 77-105.
Mattis, M.C. (2004), “Women entrepreneurs: out from under the glass ceiling”, Women in Management
Review, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 154-63.
Nock, S.L. (2001), “The marriages of equally dependent spouses”, Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 22 No. 6,
pp. 755-75.
Platske, L.M. (2007), “The balancing act”, available at: www.nawbo.org/content_2896.cfm (accessed
15 January 2008).
Polomeno, V. (2007), “Marriage, parenthood, and divorce: understanding the past as we move into the
future”, International Journal of Childbirth Education, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 13-19.
Raley, S.B., Mattingly, M.J. and Bianchi, S.M. (2006), “How dual are dual‐income couples? documenting
change from 1970 to 2001”, Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 68 No. 1, pp. 11-28.
Rehman, S. and Roomi, M.A. (2012), “Gender and work-life balance: a phenomenological study of women
entrepreneurs in Pakistan”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 19 No. 2,
Downloaded by Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee At 22:49 02 October 2015 (PT)

pp. 209-28.
Robinson, P.B. and Sexton, E.A. (1994), “The effect of education and experience on self-employment
success”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 141-56.
Sandelands, E. (1997), “Strategic issues for training”, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 29 No. 4,
pp. 97-140.
Shelton, L.M. (2006), “Female entrepreneurs, work-family conflict, and venture performance: new insights into
the work-family interface”, Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 44 No. 2, pp. 285-97.
Sumitha, M.P. and DSouza, M.P.K. (2014), “Work-life balance: an empirical study of married women
entrepreneurs in the city of Mangalore, Karnataka”, Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 3 No. 4,
pp. 1-14.
Vinze, M.D. (1987), Women Entrepreneurs in India: A Socio-Economic Study of Delhi, 1975-85, Mittal
Publications, New Delhi.
Ward, L. (2007), “Women: taking care of business: the government suggests becoming an entrepreneur
is the perfect way for women to achieve work-life balance. But is it all it is cracked up to be”, available at:
www.theguardian.com/money/2007/mar/23/genderissues.worklifebalance (accessed 11 November 2014).
Williams, F. (2004), “What matters is who works: why every child matters to new labour. commentary on the
DfES green paper every child matters”, Critical Social Policy, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 406-27.

Corresponding author
Sucheta Agarwal can be contacted at: sucheta.agar@gmail.com

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

PAGE 362 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING j VOL. 47 NO. 7 2015