Woman Entrepreneurs in Manufacturing Sector

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Definition of SME
SME means Small and Medium Enterprises. There is no common acceptable definition
of SME that has been applied world wide. The definition of SME varies from one country to
another and even within the same country. So, there is a definitional ambiguity in cases of
SMEs in Bangladesh. Different organizations define it according to their objectives and
conveniences. However, the amount of capital investment and the number of workers
employed are the two major criteria of defining SME. More than 90% of the industrial
enterprises in Bangladesh are in the SME size-class, i.e. with up to 100 employees.
Generally, SMEs are labor intensive with relatively low capital intensity.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have drawn a lot of interest among the policy
makers, academics, businessmen and people in general. There is a broad consensus that a
vibrant SME sector is one of the principal driving forces in the development of the economy
of Bangladesh. SMEs stimulate private ownership and entrepreneurial skills and can adapt
quickly to changing market situation, generate employment, help diversifying economic
activities, and make a significant contribution to export and trade.

1.2 Introduction to Women Entrepreneurs

In the context of a developing country like Bangladesh, where SMEs are the engine of
growth, there has arisen a new class: SME women entrepreneurs. The urban and rural women
of Bangladesh are now turning the situation as a crucial progress in national development.
Though there has been substantial participation of women in the off-house activities of late,
women are yet to assume a dominant role in mainstream economic activities.

2. OBJECTIVES
2.1 Objective of the study
The present study focuses on the current scenario of woman entrepreneurs in manufacturing
sectors in SME and problems faced by them in Bangladesh as well as suggest some policies
and recommendations. The specific objectives of the study are to:
1. Primary Objective:
Analyze the current status of woman entrepreneurs in Bangladesh;

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2. Secondary Objectives:

Examine the role of SMEs in the economy of Bangladesh;

Review the situation regarding their access to finance by SMEs;

To identify the major financing constraints to woman entrepreneurs

development in Bangladesh

To understand & analyze their business activities;

To understand the problems of woman entrepreneurs;

Put forward some specific recommendations for future growth of women;

entrepreneurial activities contributing in SMEs in Bangladesh.

3. SME SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

6.1 Role of SME in the Economy of Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, SMEs including micro enterprises comprise over 99 per cent of all industrial
units, contributing over 85 per cent of industrial employment. Focusing on the 10+ units,
small units constitute 87.4 per cent, followed by medium and large units comprising 5.7 and
6.9 percent respectively. In other words, 81 thousand SMEs all together constitute more than
93 per cent of the total 10+ units. Again, focusing on the 10+ units, small units contribute to
35 per cent of the employment, followed by medium and large units comprising 8.8 and 56.0
percent respectively. In other words, SMEs employ 1.3 million people, constituting 44
percent of employment generated by 10+ units.

The recent available estimation obtained from two major micro surveys, International
Consulting Group (ICG) study and South Asia Enterprise Development Facility (SEDF)
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survey suggest the SME contribution to manufacturing value added to be in the range of 20
to 25 percent (Ahmed 2008; Bahar and Uddin 2007).
The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) together employ a total of 31 million
people, equivalent to about 40 per cent of the population of Bangladesh, aged 15 years and
above. More than three quarters of the household income in both urban and rural areas are
provided by the MSMEs (Rahman 2007).

6.2 Current Statistics of SMEs in Bangladesh

The National Report of BBS based on the nationwide census of all non-farm economic
activities in 2001 and 2003 presents data by employment size and category.
Table 01: Sectorial and rural/urban distribution of establishment of micro, SME and

large enterprises in Bangladesh-2001-2003

As regards manufacturing SMEs (10-99 workers), the Economic Census 2001 & 2003
indicate that there are nearly 28 thousand small and medium manufacturing establishments
employingsome 644 thousand persons? In the 10+ size group, manufacturing SMEs account
for nearly 88%of the manufacturing establishments while this is about 29% of manufacturing
employment.

4. WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN BANGLADESH

The concept of women entrepreneurship is still not well accepted in society, particularly in
family circles. Business is considered a mans job. The Economic Census, 2001-2003 data
reveals that women own only 2.83% of all enterprises.
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Rural women are involved in cattle and poultry rearing, rice husking, spice making, imitation
ornament trading, pickle making and other micro businesses. Urban women are mostly
involved in block printing and boutiques, bakery and fast food, doll making, tailoring, fabrics
paint, interior decoration, etc.
They are also owners of beauty parlors, computer training centers, leather goods, fish culture
etc. which are non-traditional activities for women. Women entrepreneurs prefer to start their
business in sectors where female employment is concentrated. The choice of the sector is
limited by various factors such as resource constraint, female aversion to risk-taking, etc.,
which forces them to engage in activities with low entry barriers and low financial risks such
as food processing and or clothing and textile sector. Hence female businesses have smaller
employment and sales than male business. Majority are micro and small enterprises,
employing less than 10 persons. Most of them are sole proprietors. Participation of women as
entrepreneurs has also improved their quality of life and their households. They serve as a
role model for young generation for self-employment opportunities.

Women enterprises are small in size. Short-term loans were more widely used than medium
term loans, which had an average size of Tk. 3 lakh. The average interest rate was 13%,
ranging from 10% to 14 %. Loan giving process discriminates against women. The average
time required for an SME to process loan was 57 days, while for women enterprises it took
145 days. Debt financing has yet to deeply penetrate womenled enterprises (Bangladesh
Bureau of Statistics, 2007).

5. CREDIT SCHEMES FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Despite the negative image of women as entrepreneurs, institutional assistance with local and
international support resulted in projects and programs aimed at furthering women
entrepreneurship. Some of these are mentioned below.
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8.1 Women Entrepreneurship Development Project (WEDP):
WEDP was the only program in the industry sector which was directly related to women
entrepreneurship development. This was initiated by BSCIC in 1982 with the support from
USAID and was discontinued in 2004-05. It was the first program to support women with
larger amount than micro credit without collateral. The highest ceiling of the loan was Tk.
60, 000. The activities were to provide pre-investment counseling, assisting in project
appraisal and feasibility studies, extending credit facilities, imparting training and providing
marketing and technical support.

8.2 Women Entrepreneurship Development (WED) Cell of MIDAS

To help promote women entrepreneurs MIDAS has one special program, which MIDAS
started from its very inception- the Women Entrepreneurship Development or WED Cell.
WED Cell is one of the best ways of empowering women and WED Paper17mainstreaming
them in the economic activities of the country, with the primary object to create
entrepreneurship among the women folk of the country.

8.3 Women to Women Support Program

Women to Women Support program is a new program introduced by the WED cell. MIDAS
analyses the practical requirement of the women entrepreneurs mostly prospective ones,
has undertaken it.
Objectives of Women to Women Support program are:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

Through matchmaking process help new entrepreneurs establish a commercially

viable enterprise;
Upgrade and improve the quality of existing products and diversify the product range
of existing small and micro enterprises run by women;
Expand the existing market share and marketing network of women entrepreneurs;
Creating a network among the existing and potential women entrepreneur groups, and
Maintaining an up-to-date data bank of potential and existing women entrepreneurs of
various sub-sectors.

The function of MIDAS, mediator between the two groups is to closely supervise and
monitor the two groups and provide them with necessary technical support, guidance&etc.

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8.4 Entrepreneurship Development for Women by JMS:
The Jatio Mohila Sangstha (JMS) initiated a project in 1998 in 64 districts for five years with
assistance from UNDP to support potential women to become entrepreneurs. The project
supported those who were graduates of various micro-credit programs of various agencies
like the Department of Womens Affairs, Department of Youth etc. The project also aims to
link the beneficiaries with institutional source of credit. Although the credit limit was from
Tk30000 to Tk. 150,000, the highest disbursement was Tk70,000. Before extending credit
management training was imparted to the entrepreneurs. Mainstreaming SME credit in the
last quarter of 1980s, Bangladesh Bank circular directed the commercial banks to lend at
least 15 percent of their lending capital for industrial sector. Five percent was supposed to be
spent for the Small and cottage industries.
Some public banks have women banking facilities but their role is to generate saving rather
than encourage investment. Though not legally required, banks and credit programs insist on
husbands or other male relatives consent as guarantee before providing loans.

Sonali Bank is the pioneer bank which opened a few women branches in the country to
promote saving habit of women. It initiated a project named Credit for Urban Women Micro
Enterprise Development which offered loan between Tk 50 thousand to two lakh without
collateral. To be eligible for loan, viability of the project, hypothecation and a personal
guarantee were the necessary requirements. The formalities were considered to be difficult
for women and the amount was too small to establish a small enterprise.
Janata Bank has good facilities in providing collateral free loans up to Tk 5 lakh, but these
are available only in Dhaka.

8.5 SME Foundation

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The SME Foundation is an independent center of excellence created and generously
capitalized by the Government of Bangladesh. SMEs are recognized as engine of economic
growth and employment generation for sustainable industrialization in both developed and
developing countries of the world. In context of Bangladesh, there is no alternative of small
and medium enterprises for rapid industrialization and national economic growth through
lower capital investment and employment generation.
The SME Foundation is playing its role in helping the SME entrepreneurs including the
women entrepreneurs by conducting various programs with an aim to develop the SMEs of
Bangladesh. One of the major aims of SMEF is to bring the grassroots entrepreneurs into the
main stream of economic development through employment generation, reduction of social
discrimination and poverty alleviation.

8.5.1 Contribution to the Women Entrepreneurship Development of SME

Foundation
Bring the women entrepreneur to main stream development process and facilitate them for
women empowerment is one of the prioritized activity of SME Foundation. Main activities
are: institutional capacity building of women chamber/ trade bodies, formulate gender action
plan, encourage bankers for finance to women entrepreneurs, conduct study on women
entrepreneurs,

organize

women

entrepreneur

conference,

national

SME

women

entrepreneurship award, SME product fair for women entrepreneur etc.

6. WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN MANUFACTURING SECTOR

Now, SMEs are regarded as an engine of economic development and creation of new
employment. In the context of Bangladesh there are no alternatives of SMEs for rapid
national economic growth.
Especially, women play an important role
in every countries economic development

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and they are highly represented in the SME sub sectors.
The objective of the study is to provide an overview of women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh.
The concept of women entrepreneurship is not well accepted in the society. Basically
business is considered as only mans job.
But more eagerness and strive to be successful in business is creating more women
entrepreneurs in SME sectors. Participation of women in SME sectors will improve the
economic conditions and thus for the country.

7. CURRENT SCENARIO OF SME SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

The latest BSCIC estimates suggest that there are currently 55916 small industries and
511612 cottage industries excluding handlooms, including handlooms, the number of cottage
unites shoots up to 600000 units indicating numerical superabundance of the SCIs in
Bangladesh. Whatever the correct magnitude, the SMEs are undoubtedly quite predominant
in the industrial structure of Bangladesh comprising over 90% of all industrial units. This

numerical predominance of the SMEs in Bangladeshs industrial sector becomes visible in all
available sources of statistics on them. (Ahmed, M.U 2001)
The various categories of SMEs are reported to contribute between 80 to 85 percent of
industrial employment and 23 percent of total civilian employment (SEDF, 2003).
While the SMEs are characteristically highly diverse and heterogeneous, their traditional
dominance is in a few industrial sub-sectors such as food, textiles and light engineering and
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wood, care and bamboo products. According to SEDF, Sources quoted from ADB (2003),
food and textile units including garments account for over 60% of the registered SMEs.
Various recent studies(Ahmed, M.U 2001, ADB 2001, US-AID 2001) the SMEs have
undergone significant structural changes in terms of product composition, degree of
capitalization and market perpetration in order to adjust to changes in technology, market
demand and market access brought by globalization and market liberalization.
8. AIMS AND DREAMS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
The highest aim or dream of 31.50% of the women was to become a successful women
entrepreneur, 19.17% aimed at expanding their existing business, 15.83% wanted to become
a self-dependent personality, 6% wanted to create employment for others.
The aims and dreams of the women entrepreneurs depicted their ultimate endeavors through
success in business. There was a time when society rebuffed them but after success today
society recognized their achievements. Their contribution towards the national economy was
through their income earning and providing employment to the skilled workers and also
providing support of various kinds to the disadvantaged. Through their efforts in uplifting the
status of the people and also the socio-economic development of the society they have
contributed and also prepared the path of success for the future generations of the country.

9. CONTRIBUTIONS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

12.1 Contributions of Women Entrepreneurs in Economy of Bangladesh

A revolutionary change is going to be occurs in economy for the development of SME.
Woman entrepreneurs are playing the vital role in SME sector. Women entrepreneurs are
contributing to develop the standard of living by producing more goods and creating new
markets and new opportunities. Entrepreneurs are self-sufficient because they are creating
new sectors for employment opportunities.
1. Increasing standard of living:
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Women entrepreneurs are playing a vital role in increasing standard of living. They
are earning more money by producing goods and services. For earning more extra
money the standard of living are increasing day by day.

2. Creating self-reliance:
Nowadays women are engaged in difference field of work. They are doing official
work, engaging in a new business, creating new sectors for employment and so on.
As they are earning money by doing those types of business so they are now selfreliance.

3. Ensuring proper utilization of natural resource:

Most of the women entrepreneurs are using domestic natural resources. So, women
entrepreneurs are not dependent on foreign raw material. It ensures the proper
utilization of our natural resources.

4. Establishing local market:

At the time of global competition women entrepreneurs are creating new market with
new or improved products and services using domestic raw materials thats why they
are producing products and services at cheap rate. So they can easily compete with
other domestic and foreign competitors.

5. Increasing national income:

As women entrepreneurs are now not only engaged in their traditional non-financial
works like rearing children, washing clothes , Cooking food, washing utensils. They
are now doing a lot of commercial activities that increases the income of the woman.
Finally it increases the national income.

6. Creating employment opportunity:

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Women entrepreneurs are creating new sectors and business that requires more
employees to maintain business activities. So they are creating and facilitating huge
employment besides their self-sufficient.

12.2 Contribution of Women Entrepreneur in Society

Women entrepreneurs are the pioneer of changing the socio-economic conditions of women
in our country. They are the economic changing agent. They not only contribute to our
economy but also society. Some social contribution of women entrepreneurs are given below.
1. Creating part-time and full time job opportunity:
Women entrepreneurs are creating new sectors and business that requires more
employees to maintain business activities. So they are creating and facilitating huge
part time and full time job opportunities being self-sufficient.

2. Reducing poverty:
Women entrepreneurs are creating new sectors for more earning. As they are earning
more and creating more job opportunities thats increase our national income. As a
result they are playing a vital role in reducing poverty.

3. Providing good quality product:

As the market is competitive and women entrepreneurs are the new comer in this
sectors. So the women entrepreneurs are always tries to provide good quality product
for their existence.

4. Providing training facilities for making skilled labor:

Nowadays we are seeing thats women entrepreneurs are providing training facilities
to their workers. Because when the labors get training facilities they get skilled labors
as a result they have ability to create quality products and services.

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12.3 Contribution of Women Entrepreneur towards Family
The survey revealed that the women entrepreneurs contributed towards the family in various
ways. Of those the highest contributions
1. Bearing Family and household expenditure
2. Bearing personal expenditure without burdening family
3. Bearing cost of Childrens Education
4. Reducing financial problem in business
5. Employment for family members
6. Assisted poor people,
7. Encouraged women in business,
8. Lessen family burden as women
9. Jointly assisting to social development
10. Enhancing the family prestige, as well as the family image and status in society,
These contribute towards family in crisis; earn social respect as member of an established
family

through

development

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and

financial
also

contribution,

raise

consciousness

providing assistance to

in

family

on

womens

marriage of destitute family memb

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ANALYSIS OF THE STUDY

14.1 Ages of Women Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh
From the surveyed report, we can observe that most of the women entrepreneurs in
Bangladesh less than 35 and 35 to 45 years old. They are starting their own business when
they are students and before marriage. They continue their business after marriage with the
help of their own friends and family.

14.2 Educational Qualifications of Women Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh

From the study, we can observe that more than half of the women entrepreneurs are well
educated to perform their business. About 65% are graduates and 35% passed SSC and HSC
level to start up their business.

14.3 Types of Ownership

Most of the women entrepreneurs started their business as a sole proprietorship business.
They can not get help from other in early time of establishment. About 65% are sole
enterprise, 25% are partnership and 10% are in Joint Venture business.

14.3 Sources of Finance

About 50% are established with their own funds of entrepreneurs. 20% are from the
friends and family, 15% taken loan from NGOs and 15% on from banks.

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14.4 Number of Employee

Among the surveyed enterprise the 65% has less than 20 employees, 25% has 20 to 50
employees, 10% has 100 and above and 5% has 50 to 100 employees.

10. SUCCESSFUL WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE YEAR

15.1 Tania Feroze:
Tania Feroze is the Winner of Best Woman Entrepreneur Award 2013 from Jatio
Mahila Shangstha. She is the owner of Grapes Crafts. She is a fashion designer and
working for creative design in handicrafts. She is doing her business for 14 years. She
started her business for supporting the woman in her village besides her personal
income. Now she has 300 working womenin her business. First she trains up her
employees for understanding new designs and then she provides the raw materials the
women and then they prepare it according to the design.Arong, Kay-kraft, Anjans and
some other brands in country are the loyal customer of Tania Feroze.

15.2 NahidaSharmin:
Nahida Shrmin the entrepreneur and proprietor of Sholpik Crafts. She won of Best
Woman Entrepreneur Award 2009 from FBCCI. Her business in to design and
manufacture dress on Block, Print and Carchupi. Age of her business is 15 years. She
has completed her BFA and MFA from Fine Art, University of Dhaka. Now she is one
of the best designers in our country.
15.3 MS Hasina Begum:

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MS Hasina Begum is the entrepreneur of Sonar Bangla Mohila Songstha where she has
250 women who work for her. She is now 13 years in this business. She own CPDP
Prize in 2006, Best Woman Entrepreneur of 2004.
15.4 Hafiza Akter Zahan:
Hafiza Akhter Zahana graduate is the owner of Alimpon Crafts. She has worked for
16 years in a job. But after a certain time she realized the real prestige of being an
entrepreneur rather than employee.

Like these entrepreneurs we have meet with 20 women entrepreneurs and they have given us
necessary information about themselves and organizations. They are developing gradually
but they had to face some financial and social constraints that needed to be solved to run their
business well. Some of those can be solved by the initiative of Govt. and the others can be
solved by the awareness development of the people. We got some message for the concerned
department to get them facilitate to reach their product home and abroad.

11. PROBLEMS FACED BY WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

There are many problems faced by our women entrepreneurs in our country. Women
entrepreneurs face various problems in business including lack of capital, insufficient
experience, unavailability of raw materials, lack of marketing opportunities, difficulties
in attainment of skilled workers and problems of accounts keeping. But the most common
problems of the women entrepreneurs are presented below:
1. Discrimination:
Discrimination still exists regarding access to finance by women entrepreneurs.
Studies on the subject noted that women contribute around 26 per cent in total deposit
of the banking system but their access to credit is below 2 per cent of the total
outstanding loans. This is an unfortunate situation.
2. Access to finance:
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Access to finance is one of the most critical constraints faced by women
entrepreneurs. Although most of the banks have SME banking, few women apply for
the bank loans as they need to submit a number of statements such as bank statement
of the enterprise, reference of guarantor etc. for collateral free loans. Problems were
more pronounced for women entrepreneurs in the informal sector. A recent study
noted that about 79 percent of women entrepreneurs in this sector had no access to

formal financial institutions and depended on own savings and family as source of
capital to start a business (Chowdhury, Farzana, 2008).
3. Unwillingness of the Banks:
Banking system is not adequately focused on women-owned enterprises. Banks
usually consider women entrepreneurs in SME to be high-risk borrowers. The kind of
collateral usually considered by banks as appropriate security is land and building.

4. Lack ownership of land:

Women usually lack ownership of land and hence the collateral requirement of land
and building is a constraint for them to access institutional finance. Lack of collateral
makes women entrepreneurs more risky for banks. Although women have proved
their repayment capacity with a repayment performance of 90 percent in the field of
micro credit, commercial banks perceive them to be of high risk.
5. Lack of credit history:

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Most of the small women entrepreneurs do not have a credit history, and so there is
no CIB report on them. These barriers induce female entrepreneurs to take recourse to
informal sources of finance, which has a negative impact on their growth potential.
6. Family Problem:
Most of the family wants to keep their lady safe so they are not interested to let the
woman go outside for the business. After marriage the problem is being more
complex for the woman.
7. Lack of Finance and Working Capital:
It goes without saying that access to finance particularly working capital finance and
investment finance to enable the woman entrepreneurs to expand their business is a
prime constraint facing the woman entrepreneurs. Banks in general do not consider
SME financing to the woman as profitable activity. SMEs are also regarded as high
risk borrowers because of their low capitalization, insufficient assets and high
mortality rates, and consequently banks are not keen to offer them credit at
comparable interest rates. Entrepreneurs in the export sector also face problems of
access to working capital.

8. High interest and tax rate:

High interest rate of Bank loan and high tax rate for SME products is a barrier to
expand the business of the woman entrepreneurs. For high interest rate and tax rate
the ultimate production cost is increased. As a result the value of products and
services are high and the customers lost their interest to buy domestic products and
services.

9. Marketing problem:
Most of the women entrepreneurs are non-business graduate and many of them are
educated under HSC thats why they have very few knowledge and opportunity for
proper marketing. As small and medium business they have very few budgets for the
marketing.

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10. Complexity in loan condition:
Govt. and non govt. organizations that are providing loan to the entrepreneurs
requires hundreds of documents with very tight condition thats why women
entrepreneurs are not interested in bank loan to reduce complexity and risk.

11. Problem in exporting products:

Entrepreneurs are not getting the govt. support to do a lot for export their product.
They have very few communications with the foreign buyer so they dont get the
support that could spread their product worldwide.

12. Social Security:

Woman are facing big problem in business being a woman. They had to face different
unexpected situation in every time like walking on the road, meeting with a gents
who have bad intention, risky to return home at night etc.

13. Importing foreign products:

Govt. is emphasizing the import rather than production. Thats harmful for our
domestic entrepreneurs. Because when government import more product from foreign
country the customers are easily move from domestics to foreign product. It is a main
problem for our women entrepreneurs.

12. RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

SMEs will continue to be the major driving force for
income and employment generation in Bangladesh.
The future for entrepreneurship appears to be very
bright. We are living in the age of the entrepreneur,
with

entrepreneurship

business
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community,

endorsed

by

government,

educational

institutions,

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society, and corporations. Development of SMEs in Bangladesh is the need of the hour to
raise the standard of living of the people of our country. The modest suggestions and
recommendations are given below:
1. Development of SME Infrastructure:
Infrastructure development is a prerequisite to efficient development and financing of
SMEs Currently, the most severe constraint that hinder the development of SMEs is
the lack of infrastructure (e.g., roads, gas and electricity), limited access to market
opportunities, technology, expertise and business information and communication.
The government should provide appropriate infrastructure for women entrepreneurs.

2. Training Facilities for Women Entrepreneurs:

Women with or without higher education and skills are coming to the SME sectors as
an entrepreneur. Most of them dont have proper business knowledge. In this situation
the women entrepreneurs need training facilities for their development. Training
programs are needed for women entrepreneurs development. Most of the women
entrepreneurs use traditional technology-based manual skills in their business.
Technology can play a role in saving money, increasing productivity, and increasing
the quality of output. Training should be given to women entrepreneurs so that they
can use technology effectively.

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3. Providing sufficient funds:
In our society women are always leg behind thats why they dont get sufficient fund
for their business. So the government should take proper steps to facilitate the women
entrepreneurs providing loan with easy loan conditions.

4. Reduce interest and tax rate:

The government should decrease the interest rate of Bank loan and reduce tax rate for
SME. For the lower interest and tax rate the ultimate production cost is decreased. As
a result the value of products and services are lowthat will give them a competitive
advantage.
Besides these the women entrepreneurs expect some others facilities from the government.
these are given below.
5. Helps in marketing products.
6. Exporting products to foreign countries.
7. Providing subsidiary.
8. Improvements of location & transportation facilities.
9. Providing leasing facilities of fund.
10. Taking care of the political instability.
11. Introducing popularity our domestic products.
12. Helps in participating international trade fair.
13. Providing training facilities.

13. CONCLUSIO N
The economic development of a country is not possible without proper participation of
women into the main stream of economic development. Now, it is the demand of time to
make the women as an economic change agent. Development programs could not bring
women in the main stream of economic development because they failed to include women
as an equal partner of men. Women fall in dilemma between their personal advancement and
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household works. Besides, ours society does not emphasize women participation in business.
Family members do not favor the womens participation in business. Women have the ability
of psychologically handle the pressure and more skilled in dealing with people. So
employment program and national policy of developing nations should emphasize selfemployment for women and enhance their access to education, training and self-funded
sustainable local credit schemes.
Women have to bear the burdens of their families, and cross the hurdles raised by the society
to achieve their socio-economic development. Many women are found to have overcome the
different barriers and emerge as successful women entrepreneurs of the country. Their
contribution towards their families and the society is a testimony to their inherent strength in
tackling any situations which may arise before them. They have paved the way for their
sisters to rise from the drudgeries of life and the bane of superstitious attitudes of the males.
Today a silver lining in the dark clouds is visible as women entrepreneurs are gradually
climbing the ladder of success through their socio-economic development. Nothing will push
them back again, for they have learnt how to face the challenges of life. They are not only
stronger and more courageous, but also more efficient, conscious, competent and wellorganized. Women entrepreneurs are making their contribution to the national economy and
it is they who will play their role in making Bangladesh a strong and prosperous nation.

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