From Invisibility to Visibility: Female Entrepreneurship in Afghanistan

Abstract

This study focuses on female entrepreneurship in Afghanistan as a relatively new phenomenon in the country. It captures women entrepreneurs’ lived experiences and investigates their motivations, the factors affecting their businesses, the challenges they face, and their survival strategies. It also explores entrepreneurship's impacts on women’s lives, particularly affecting their ascribed gender roles and contributions to social transformation. The findings of this research, based on qualitative interviews with 19 female entrepreneurs in Afghanistan, suggest that female entrepreneurship could be an effective way of involving women in social and economic development. This thesis also contributes to women’s empowerment and increases job opportunities for other women. It also has the potential to address women’s previously unmet needs. I argue that in conservative societies, entrepreneurship brings about social change by normalizing women’s presence in the public sphere, particularly in business, and therefore it should be supported and promoted.