The impact of empowering rural women through micro entrepreneurship: A case study from selected villages in the Central Province of Sri Lanka.

Abstract

Empowerment is a widely accepted and applied concept in the development process in many parts of the world. Women’s empowerment has become a global issue and the discussions on women’s rights are at the forefront of many formal and informal campaigns. Particularly the developing countries apply this concept in their poverty alleviation strategies to minimize the feminization of poverty. In recent years Sri Lanka as well as other developing countries use micro enterprise sector to empower rural women in their poverty alleviation strategies. Particularly in the rural sector micro enterprises have opened opportunities for rural women with few options by establishing their self-esteem and social dignity. As a result of this process of ^ empowerment various positive and negative effects have created. Particularly through women entrepreneurship, rural women have been able to define their attitudes, values and behaviour in relation to their own interest. After starting micro enterprises they have the autonomy because they claim their freedom from existing male hierarchies and maintain equal mindedness. They use their talents and maintain their strength in the context of family, society and working environment. But it is also identical that there are some adverse impacts of this process. Particularly it has adversely affected their family and social setup by creating various family and social problems. Their cultural background, family setup and ideology have mainly been responsible for these problems. As theoretically explained by the concept, empowered women should not aim at being superior to men and they need to continue to meet their family responsibilities. They should not be retreated from traditional responsibilities but it does not mean that they can completely apart from family setup and responsibilities. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to discuss various positive and negative impacts of women empowerment though micro entrepreneurship in the rural sector. For this purpose two villages from the central province of Sri Lanka have been selected as the sample for the study. Methodologically this study is mainly based on qualitative research techniques such as in-depth interviews, discussions and case studies. Finally, findings of this study disclosed that empowered women through micro entrepreneurship have been able to be economically independent and self-reliant and they have attained the power of controlling their own bodies and resources. But to certain extent they have lost their family setup and social honor as women due to exceeding the limits. It is evident that socio cultural setup particularly associated with the rural sector in Sri Lanka has mainly affected this background.