Women’s empowerment through self-employment in tourism

The civil war in Sri Lanka had caused enormous impacts on the physical as well as infrastructure development of Eastern Province. Since the end of war in 2009, the province has immensely benefitted from the state and non-state sectors, particularly in the sphere of women empowerment in terms of their livelihood, education, health, etc. Although, many previous studies have delved into a number of post-war development interventions in the province, it failed to explore the dimension of women’s empowerment. Using both qualitative as well as quantitative methods, this study specifically explores the impacts of socio-economic development initiatives on women’s empowerment in the post war context. The findings show women received much support such as housing assistance, dry rations, livelihood assistance, micro-credit loans and psycho-social counselling from state and non-state sectors including NGOs, and UN organizations in the post war period in the Batticaloa district of Eastern Province and such supports have largely been effective as it contributed to women’s empowerment. Nevertheless, such supports have significantly dried up in recent times with priorities of state and non-state sectors being shifted. Thus, it is crucial for state and non-state sectors to focus on the empowerment of women in future, especially enhancing their capacity in terms of their knowledge and skills, and providing financial assistance for their self-employment on a soft loan basis or under grant schemes.

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Tourism development, entrepreneurship and women's empowerment – Focus on Serbian countryside

Journal of Tourism Futures ◽

10.1108/jtf-10-2020-0167 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Darko B. Vukovic ◽

Marko Petrovic ◽

Moinak Maiti ◽

Aleksandra Vujko

Keyword(s):

Rural Areas ◽

Local Development ◽

Women's Empowerment ◽

Women’S Empowerment ◽

Future Research ◽

Content Type ◽

Local Character ◽

Self Employment ◽

Wide Range ◽

Practical Implications

PurposeThe starting premise of this study is that women's empowerment is the goal for self-realization and that the support that comes from local tourism stakeholders represents an adequate base. In many rural areas, women have established self-help groups (SHGs), which facilitate the interaction with a wide range of stakeholders. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of SHGs on female entrepreneurship and self-employment in tourism.Design/methodology/approachTo examine the research question, this study adopted a quantitative research that included a sample of 513 women in a less-advanced rural area in Serbia. For the data analysis, the generalized linear regression model (GLM) was used.FindingsAccording to the results, self-employment is the leading goal of women's empowerment.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation in the research and the authors’ suggestion for future research is to increase the sample size of female respondents, so examination of their attitudes and role in the travel business in their local settings might reach higher significance. The second issue that the authors would like to point out is a highly local character of our study, so the future research should involve other rural areas in the country and from abroad (e.g. similar undeveloped countryside with noticeable, active women's role in local entrepreneurship).Practical implicationsThe most important practical implications of this paper are twofold: (1) the results of the research have shown that the tourist potential of rural areas can be enhanced through local tourism stakeholders' support; (2) women without professional interest or jobs in rural areas, especially in the areas where the population is traditionally dominated by men (husband/brother/father), have a chance to earn and to be economically more independent. This research can affect future studies to investigate other aspects of empowerment depending on the difference of regions, from one side, and also alternative opportunities for tourism and local development in less-advanced rural areas, from another side.Originality/valueThe study analyzes the tourism potential of the rural areas (which are less advanced and mostly very poor in developing countries, such as Serbia). In this case, there are opportunities to increase employment, social inclusion of women, development of new tourism strategies, implementation of destination marketing, etc. Moreover, it contributes to future research in the field of stakeholders in tourism strategies.

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The Impacts of Microcredit: Evidence from Ethiopia

American Economic Journal Applied Economics ◽

10.1257/app.20130475 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 54-89 ◽

Cited By ~ 63

Author(s):

Alessandro Tarozzi ◽

Jaikishan Desai ◽

Kristin Johnson

Keyword(s):

Randomized Controlled Trial ◽

Labor Supply ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Animal Husbandry ◽

Women's Empowerment ◽

Large Majority ◽

Women’S Empowerment ◽

Socioeconomic Outcomes ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Self Employment

We use data from a randomized controlled trial conducted in 2003–2006 in rural Amhara and Oromiya (Ethiopia) to study the impacts of increasing access to microfinance on a number of socioeconomic outcomes, including income from agriculture, animal husbandry, nonfarm self-employment, labor supply, schooling and indicators of women's empowerment. We document that despite substantial increases in borrowing in areas assigned to treatment the null of no impact cannot be rejected for a large majority of outcomes. (JEL G21, I20, J13, J16, O13, O16, O18)

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The Impacts of Cash Transfers on Women’s Empowerment

10.1596/26272 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Kate Ambler ◽

Alan De Brauw

Keyword(s):

Women's Empowerment ◽

Cash Transfers ◽

Women’S Empowerment

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Empowering Women Entrepreneurs Through Microfinance - A Case of Rural Bangladesh

ADVANCES IN BUSINESS RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ◽

10.24191/abrij.v3i2.10092 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 7

Author(s):

Saida Parvin

Keyword(s):

Women's Empowerment ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Women’S Empowerment ◽

Case Study Method ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Theoretical Contribution ◽

Donor Agencies ◽

Definition Of ◽

The Impact

Women’s empowerment has been at the centre of research focus for many decades. Extant literature examined the process, outcome and various challenges. Some claimed substantial success, while others contradicted with evidence of failure. But the success remains a matter of debate due to lack of empirical evidence of actual empowerment of women around the world. The current study aimed to address this gap by taking a case study method. The study critically evaluates 20 cases carefully sampled to include representatives from the entire country of Bangladesh. The study demonstrates popular beliefs about microfinance often misguide even the borrowers and they start living in a fabricated feeling of empowerment, facing real challenges to achieve true empowerment in their lives. The impact of this finding is twofold; firstly there is a theoretical contribution, where the definition of women’s empowerment is proposed to be revisited considering findings from these cases. And lastly, the policy makers at governmental and non-governmental organisations, and multinational donor agencies need to revise their assessment tools for funding.

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Women’s empowerment and crop diversification in Bangladesh: A possible pathway to climate change adaptation and better nutrition

10.2499/p15738coll2.133306 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Women's Empowerment ◽

Women’S Empowerment ◽

Crop Diversification

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Understanding Local Realities of Microfinance and Women's Empowerment in Sri Lanka: The Effectiveness of the Samurdhi Program from the Perspective of Beneficiaries in a Rural Community

Asia Pacific World ◽

10.3167/apw.2013.040204 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 29-54

Author(s):

Poornima Gayangani Wasana Jayawardana

Keyword(s):

Sri Lanka ◽

Rural Community ◽

Women's Empowerment ◽

Women’S Empowerment

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Women’s Education May Be Even Better Than We Thought: Estimating the Gains from Education When Schooling Ain’t Learning

10.35489/bsg-rise-wp_2020/049 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Michelle Kaffenberger ◽

Lant Pritchett

Keyword(s):

Child Mortality ◽

Women's Education ◽

Basic Education ◽

Women's Empowerment ◽

Women’S Empowerment ◽

Life Outcomes ◽

Primary Schooling ◽

The Impact ◽

Financial Practices ◽

Attenuation Bias

Women’s schooling has long been regarded as one of the best investments in development. Using two different cross-nationally comparable data sets which both contain measures of schooling, assessments of literacy, and life outcomes for more than 50 countries, we show the association of women’s education (defined as schooling and the acquisition of literacy) with four life outcomes (fertility, child mortality, empowerment, and financial practices) is much larger than the standard estimates of the gains from schooling alone. First, estimates of the association of outcomes with schooling alone cannot distinguish between the association of outcomes with schooling that actually produces increased learning and schooling that does not. Second, typical estimates do not address attenuation bias from measurement error. Using the new data on literacy to partially address these deficiencies, we find that the associations of women’s basic education (completing primary schooling and attaining literacy) with child mortality, fertility, women’s empowerment and the associations of men’s and women’s basic education with positive financial practices are three to five times larger than standard estimates. For instance, our country aggregated OLS estimate of the association of women’s empowerment with primary schooling versus no schooling is 0.15 of a standard deviation of the index, but the estimated association for women with primary schooling and literacy, using IV to correct for attenuation bias, is 0.68, 4.6 times bigger. Our findings raise two conceptual points. First, if the causal pathway through which schooling affects life outcomes is, even partially, through learning then estimates of the impact of schooling will underestimate the impact of education. Second, decisions about how to invest to improve life outcomes necessarily depend on estimates of the relative impacts and relative costs of schooling (e.g., grade completion) versus learning (e.g., literacy) on life outcomes. Our results do share the limitation of all previous observational results that the associations cannot be given causal interpretation and much more work will be needed to be able to make reliable claims about causal pathways.

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