The Role of Online Entrepreneurships in Gender Equality
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Copyright (c) 2021 Anonna Ahmed, Asif Parvez
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
In recent years, Bangladesh has seen a meteoric rise of women in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) jobs. This is a direct result of women entrepreneurs conducting businesses through social networking sites. Vast research has already been conducted on investigating participation methods to effectively promote gender equality in ICT-enabled jobs. However, the literature has not closely examined the role the ICT-enabled entrepreneurship plays in closing gender gaps especially in developing countries such as Bangladesh. Additionally, the literature has also not investigated the socio-economic factors influencing women's entrepreneurship. Consequently, this research focuses on identifying and analysing economic, socio-cultural, educational, and psychological factors that motivate women in ICT-enabled entrepreneurship. On conducting an exhaustive literature survey, social networking site-based women-led businesses with less than 5 employees have been selected as a sample for this research. This business size was selected to capture small businesses where entrepreneur women have a direct impact on their businesses. A sample of 100 such businesses has been selected as a sample size. The primary data for this research is collected through a descriptive and specifically designed research survey. The secondary data is collected through a literature review. The datasets were interrogated to analyse the most common responses, factors affecting the most and identify clear distinctive groups drawn. The outcome of this analysis will identify the motivating factors of ICT-based entrepreneurship and how they play a crucial role in closing gender gaps. It is of critical importance because these factors then can be replicated to provide the right infrastructure for other aspiring women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh and other developing countries.
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