1

1. Background of the Study

Women entrepreneurs are defined as those who use their knowledge, skills and resources to
develop or create new business opportunities. Women entrepreneurs - whether they may be
informally in a home environment without formally registering their business or formally by
registering the business, hiring office premises, etc. - who are actively involved in managing
their businesses, are responsible in some way for the day-to-day running of the business, and
have been in operation for longer than a year.

In the context of this study, the definition is extended to explicitly include home-based
women entrepreneurs. According to Moore and Buttner “Women entrepreneurs are defined
as those who use their knowledge and resources to develop or create new business
opportunities whether this be informally in a home environment without formally registering
their business or formally via business registration, hiring office premises, etc. - who are
actively involved in managing their businesses, are responsible in some way for the day-to-
day running of the business, and have been in operation for longer than a year. A woman
entrepreneur is a confident, innovative and creative woman capable of achieving self-
economic independence individually or in collaboration, generates employment opportunities
for others through initiating, establishing and running the enterprise by keeping pace with her
personal, family and social life.”

Today’s women are taking more and more professional and technical degrees to cope up with
market need and are flourishing as designers, interiors decorators, exporters, publishers,
garment manufacturers and still exploring new avenues of economic participation. It is
perhaps for these reasons that Government Bodies, NGOs, social scientist, researchers and
international agencies have started showing interest in the issues related to entrepreneurship
among women in Nepal.
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Studies have shown that successful women entrepreneurs start their businesses as a second or
third profession. Because of their previous careers, women entrepreneurs enter the business
world later on in life, around 40–60 years old. As women are now overtaking their male
peers when it comes to education, having higher education degrees is one of significant
characteristics that many successful women entrepreneurs have in common (Donald et.al,
1986).

Bushell(2008), Entrepreneurship for women is often seen as a journey out of poverty and a
march towards equality. However in past, the women entrepreneurship in much of the
developing world has gone little beyond informal business which ensures daily survival for
women and their families. In Nepal, embedded structural and socio-cultural constraints
challenge women entrepreneurship and make it hard for them to realize their potential as a
leader.

Women entrepreneurs create new jobs for themselves and others and by being different also
provide society with different solutions to management, organization and business problems
as well as to the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities. However, they still represent a
minority of all entrepreneurs. Thus there exists a market failure discriminating against
women’s possibility to become entrepreneurs and their possibility to become successful
entrepreneurs. This market failure needs to be addressed by policy makers so that the
economic potential of this group can be fully utilized.

It has been firmly established that women in Nepal are vital and productive contributors to
the national economy, but their access to knowledge, skills resources, opportunities and
power still found within the family and their roles have been limited to the family taking the
roles of a nurturer and caregiver.
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2. Context

Women have owned and operated businesses for decades, but they were not always
recognized or given credit for their efforts. Often women entrepreneurs were "invisible"
as they worked side by side with their husbands, and many only stepped into visible
leadership positions when their husbands died. But a variety of factors have combined in
recent years to contribute to the visibility and number of women who start their own
businesses.

Entrepreneurship is often seen as an ideal way to juggle the competing demands of career
and family. Finally, the disparity in the salaries and wages that women earn as compared to
men on average has been a factor in motivating some women to decide to establish their own
businesses.

Although the small businesses owned by women have traditionally been in the service
sector, in recent years women entrepreneurs have been moving rapidly into manufacturing,
construction, and other industrial fields. Women business owners still face greater difficulties
in gaining access to commercial credit and bidding on government contracts than do their
male colleagues, and pockets of resistance to women entrepreneurs remain strong in some
industries and geographic regions. But millions of successful businesses launched and
managed by women now dot America's business landscape, each a testament to the
legitimacy of the aspirations and talents of the woman entrepreneur.

Many studies indicate that women start businesses for fundamentally different reasons than
their male counterparts. While men start businesses primarily for growth opportunities and
profit potential, women most often found businesses in order to meet personal goals, such as
gaining feelings of achievement and accomplishment. In many instances, women consider
financial success as an external confirmation of their ability rather than as a primary goal or
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motivation to start a business, although millions of women entrepreneurs will grant that
financial profitability is important in its own right.

Many women start a business due to some traumatic event, such as divorce, discrimination
due to pregnancy or the corporate glass ceiling, the health of a family member, or economic
reasons such as a layoff. But a new talent pool of women entrepreneurs is forming today, as
more women opt to leave corporate America to chart their own destinies. These women
have developed financial expertise and bring experience in manufacturing or nontraditional
fields. As a result, the concentration of women business owners in the retail and service
sectors—and in traditional industries such as cosmetics, food, fashion, and personal care—
is slowly changing

3. Issues/Problems
In the current generation every women has desire to be an entrepreneur. Though there is
extreme desire, women lack the confidence when it comes the part of executing and
running the venture. The problem has affected women because of various factors such as
improper execution and lack of proper knowledge regarding how to run the venture
successfully. A possible cause of the problem is lack of proper knowledge regarding the
entrepreneurship. Perhaps a study which investigates the problem through both primary
and secondary sources could remedy the situation.

4. Purposes/Objectives
 To identify the major problems of women entrepreneurship.
 To examine the actual growth of women entrepreneurship in the last 5 years.
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5. Methods/Methodology
The methods/methodology that has been used in this report
includes:
I. Primary Data

In this report the primary data are collected through

 Open End Questionnaire focusing on the problems of women

entrepreneurship and how to overcome the problem.
 Interview with 8 women entrepreneurs to understand their views
regarding women entrepreneurship.
 Field Visit in the places such as FWEAN, offices of the women
entrepreneurs.

II. Secondary Data

The data collected through secondary sources are as follows:

 Collection of data through website of FWEAN focusing on number of

women entrepreneurs of the last 5 years.
 Collection of data through magazines such as New Business Age to get
the real scenario of women entrepreneurship.
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6. Information and Data Management

Information and Data management is an administrative process that includes
acquiring, validating, storing, protecting, and processing required data and
information to ensure the accessibility, reliability, and timeliness of the data for its
users. Researchers are making use of Big Data more than ever before to inform
business decisions and gain deep insights into customer behavior, trends, and
opportunities for creating extraordinary reader experiences.

Data management solutions make processing, validation, and other essential functions
simpler and less time-intensive.

In fact, data management via leading data management platforms enables

organizations and enterprises to use data analytics in beneficial ways, such as:

 Personalizing the customer experience

 Adding value to customer interactions
 Identifying the root causes of marketing failures and business issues in real- time
 Reaping the revenues associated with data-driven marketing
 Improving customer engagement
 Increasing customer loyalty

This research has collected data regarding the number of women entrepreneurs and the
growth of the women entrepreneurs in the country which can be very helpful for the
readers.
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Table 1
Number of women entrepreneurs and their growth in the last 5 years

Year Number of Women Growth

Entrepreneurs Rate/Increase
(Approx.) Percentage
2014 1200 -
2015 1789 49.08%
2016 3871 116.37%
2017 5574 44%
2018 7325 31.41%
Source: FWEAN (2014 to 2018) Number of women entrepreneurs

The table 1 is the reference from one of the staffs of FWEAN (Federation of Women
Entrepreneurship Association of Nepal). It shows the total number of women
entrepreneurs as per the survey of FWEAN. The number of entrepreneurs has constantly
been increasing in the last 5 years. In 2014 the number of women entrepreneurs were
1200 which increased to 1789, 3871, 5574 and 7325 in the year 2015, 2016, 2017 and
2018 respectively.

Along with that the table 1 shows the growth or increase percentage of women
entrepreneurs in the last 5 years taking the previous years as the base year. The increase
in the women entrepreneur in the year 2015 was 49.08% which increased up to 116.37%,
44% and 31.41% in the year 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.
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8000

7000
Number of Women Entrepreneurs

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
YEARS

Figure 1: Number of women entrepreneurs in the last 5 years

The figure 1 shows that the number of women entrepreneurs has increased in the last 5
years. ). It shows the total number of women entrepreneurs as per the survey of FWEAN.
The number of entrepreneurs has constantly been increasing in the last 5 years. In 2014
the number of women entrepreneurs were 1200 which increased to 1789, 3871, 5574 and
7325 in the year 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.
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22
32

133.5

70.5

102

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Figure 2: Size of women entrepreneurs on the recent year

The figure 2 shows the size of women entrepreneurs in the form of degrees as per the
methods/rule of pie chart. In the 5 years the degree/size obtained by women entrepreneurs
are 22, 32, 70.5, 102 and 133.5 degrees respectively.
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7. Analysis and Findings

A. Analysis
The analysis part of this report covers the statistical and graphical part.
Statistical part covers the analysis through Mean and Standard Deviation.

I. Mean
Mean or simply an “Arithmetic Mean” of set of observation is the sum of
all the observations divided by the number of observations. Arithmetic
Mean is also known as arithmetic average. It is calculated as:

Mean =
∑X
N

II. Standard Deviation

The standard deviation is the absolute measurement of dispersion in which
drawbacks present in other measure of dispersion are removed. It is said to
be the best measure of dispersion as it satisfies most of the requisites of a
good measure of dispersion. Standard deviation is defined as the positive
square root of the mean of the square of the deviations taken from the
arithmetic mean. It is calculated as:
1
Standard deviation (σ) =
√ N
Σ(X- X́ ¿ ¿2
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Table 2
Calculation of Mean

Year Total
2014 1200
2015 1789
2016 3871
2017 5574
2018 7325
19759

Mean =
∑X
N
19759
=
5
= 3952
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Table 3
Calculation of Standard Deviation

Year X X- X́ (X- X́ ¿2

2014 1200 -2751.8 7572403

2015 1789 -2162.8 4677703
2016 3871 -80.8 6528
2017 5574 1622.2 2631532
2018 7325 3373.2 11378478
19759 26266644

S.D = √ ∑ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿

= √∑ ¿ ¿ ¿ ¿
= 9.53
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B. Findings

From the above data presentation and analysis, the findings of this report are
as follows:
 The major problems faced by women entrepreneurs in Nepal are :
a. Work Life Balance
b. Lack of knowledge regarding the use of resources and current
provision
c. Lack of Networking
d. Difficulty in facing the competition with big business that
produces similar goods and services
e. Inappropriate and unaware of latest marketing tools and
techniques ( For instance, use of social media to market their
products and services)

 The average women entrepreneurs in the last 5 years is 3952 which is

increasing each year from 2014 to 2018
 Now-a-days various institutions such as FWEAN is supporting women
in effective and efficient manner by which women have got support
hands.
 As per the information given by FWEAN staffs, government has
increased its role in promoting women entrepreneurship in Nepal
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8. Implications and Conclusion

A. Implications

The most important parts of a research report are the descriptions, analyses, and
interpretations of the data. What you do with the findings, i.e. the implications,
are just as important. Through this live project we are able to evaluate the
situation of women entrepreneurs in Nepal. We also became aware about different
problems that are being faced by women being women entrepreneur. The number
of registered women entrepreneurs and also trend in their growth. Thus all these
valuables findings can be utilized for wide range of purpose some of them are
mentioned below:

 All these findings clearly reflects the current problems of women entrepreneurs
like low literacy rate among women, male dominating society, poor access to
finance etc. Thus once when aware of these problems bold steps could be taken to
wipeout those from root.
 Even before launching any women development programs by government and
various NGOs, INGOs, proper assessment of women regarding their numbers,
business and the rate of their active participation is very important. And these
findings can be one of the source of required information.
 Trends in either growth or decline in the active participation of women in
business in recent years can be evaluated by comparing findings of past and
present.
 Strong Government plans can be formulated for upliftment of women
entrepreneur on the basis of detail analysis of the findings of research projects
based on entrepreneur and exact data and figures provided by it.
 Since, there are many associations in Nepal working for the development of
women and women entrepreneurship, and from the collected data, facts, figures,
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achievements and future planning of those associations their performance, level of

active participation and success rate can be measured and evaluated.

B. Conclusion

The report has fulfilled its objective in identifying the problems faced by
current Nepali Women Entrepreneurs and how they are tackling such
problems of family-work life balance, availability and access to finance,
appropriate use of resources and so on.

In conclusion we can say that, the number of women entrepreneurs and the
situation of theirs’ are getting better day by day because of the increasing
governmental support, institutional support from the organization such as
FWEAN and SABAH Nepal. Along with that the new generation of women
entrepreneurs have sound knowledge regarding the business through
academicals knowledge, training institute, have good communication skills.

All in All, the situation of women entrepreneurship in Nepal has been very
good in comparison to the past years and will be better if there would be
similar and better conditions than today.
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References

Aldrich, C. (2001). Women Entrepreneurship in the development of the

economy. New York, United States: Simon & Schumpeter.

Development of Women Entrepreneurship in Nepal. (2018). Retrieved from

http://gtn.com.np/development-of-women-entrepreneurship-in-nepal/

Private Sectors Collaborates to Deliver Training to Women Entrepreneurs.

(2018). Retrieved from http://www.newbusinessage.com/Articles/view/8234

Du Rietz, A., & Henrekson, M. (2000). Testing the female underperformance

hypothesis. Journal of Small Business Economics, 14(1): 1-10.

Wennekers, S., & Thurik, R. (1999). Linking entrepreneurship to economic

growth. Small Business Economics, 13(1): 27-55.
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Appendix

I. Survey and Interview Questions

1. What are the major problems faced by you being a women entrepreneur?
2. How do you solve your problem as an entrepreneur?
3. How do you come up with the idea and how did you start the business?
4. Pros and cons of being women entrepreneur?
5. What tips do you have for other women who want to be a women entrepreneur?
6. What have you learned about leadership and entrepreneurship?
7. How do you achieve Work Life Balance?
8. How do you see the Development of women entrepreneurship in recent year in Nepal?
9. What sorts of things are necessary to support women entrepreneurs in Nepal?