Dismantling Sociocultural Barriers: Pakistan's Growing Women Entrepreneurship through Digital Spaces.
Keywords:
Digital humanism, Women entrepreneurs, Cultural challenges, Digital ethnography.Abstract
Entrepreneurship is a profession, where men have historically held a disproportionate amount of power for being the sole performers in that role. Same is the case of Pakistan, the establishment of clear limits on one's work area in accordance with one's gender role and responsibilities, is heavily influenced by cultural norms and values. The ethnographic study was carried out in two urban centers Islamabad the Capital of Pakistan and Rawalpindi. A purposive sample of hundred and twenty-six women entrepreneurs from the above locale was selected for the study. The selected participants were engaged in entrepreneurship though digital platforms either fully or partially. The study findings projected that digital literacy as enabler for women to participate in areas of life where they have previously been excluded. The growing digitalization has brought changes which have influenced every aspect of their life. They gained digital and business skills that contributed to the cultural transformation, leading to the increase of female entrepreneurs within society. They had been an influential force in mentoring other women for digital inclusion and for growth of their business. The socio-cultural contexts create challenges due to gender inequalities, limited knowledge, mobility limitations which were managed by the digital efficacy of women entrepreneurs. Digital skills for networking, delivering, mobility and marketing were utilized to handle previously held cultural barriers.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
So that authors and publisher may be protected from the consequences of unauthorized use of the contents published in IJME, we require, as a condition of publication, that authors assign us all rights, including subsidiary rights, to their work. This enables us to promote and distribute the contribution in professionally appropriate venues. Authors have nonexclusive license to use their work without charge and without further permission after it has been published by IJME, as long as the IJME publication is referenced.