Determinants Influencing Women Entrepreneurship: An Analysis of Challenges and Opportunities

The entrepreneurial arena for women is relatively challenging, as it is characterized by male domination; lacking of entrepreneurial awareness; gender biases; lack of access to necessary resources, which result in social and cultural voids. Despite these challenges, several determinants drive women to enter this arena with the desire to be independent and the desire to make their presence visible, regardless of job scarcity and maintaining a work-life balance. The chapter aims to identify and further bifurcate the determinants that create opportunities and challenges for women entrepreneurs striving to accomplish their professional dreams. The chapter is structured outlining the three objectives—the first section explores the research question by administering SWOC Matrix; the second part investigates the determinants that are categorized as personal, sociocultural, structural, and industrial factors influencing women entrepreneurs and eventually, the third segment provides strategies and directions for managing the identified factors that can be channelized to offer more opportunities for woman entrepreneurs. The secondary data have been assimilated from documented Scopus and Web of Science literature. The findings highlight that women entrepreneurs come across more roadblocks as compared to the new openings stemming from gender discrimination and stereotyping, which deliberates to fill the research gap, as all the determinants have not been researched in totality till date.