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Journal of Extension Education
Vol. 26 No. 4, 2014
Extent of Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs on
Entrepreneurial and Technological Empowerment
M. Swetha1, M. Jagan Mohan Reddy2 and V. Sudharani3
ABSTRACT
Empowerment of women entrepreneurs in the context of technology entails building up
the abilities and skills of women to gain insight into the issues affecting them and also
building up their capacity to voice their concerns. Technological empowerment of women
entrepreneurs will open up avenues to further enrichment. By the use of technology women
can broaden the scope of their activities. Hence the present paper focused on analyzing
the entrepreneurial and technological empowerment of women entrepreneurs. Majority of
the women entrepreneurs had medium level of entrepreneurial and low level of technological
empowerment.
1-Ph.D Scholar, 2 and 3 Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension College of Agriculture, ANGRAU,
Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-30, Andhra Pradesh.
Entrepreneurship itself has been recently
recognized as full-fledged profession and
women entrepreneurship is an even newer
phenomenon. The assertion and analysis of
the concept of women entrepreneurship is
essential to understand how they can be
empowered much to take up entrepreneurial
activities more on scientific manner. Many
dimensions shall contribute for the
empowerment of women entrepreneurs in
general whereas the entrepreneurial and
technological empowerment would influence
significantly in empowering the women to take
up entrepreneurial activities. Garba (2000) felt
that empowering women is a means to an end,
the end being to improve their lives rights to
participate in decisions that affect them. A few
research studies focused their attention to
understand the role and influence of these
factors on empowering the women
entrepreneurs. Keeping this in view the
present paper focused on analyzing extent of
entrepreneurial and technological
empowerment of women entrepreneurs.
Ganeshan (2001) stated that entrepreneurship
is the capacity for innovation and calibre to
introduce innovative techniques in the
business operations.
METHODOLOGY
Ex- post facto research design was followed
for carrying out the study. The State of Andhra
Pradesh and telangana region were selected
purposively for the study as the investigator
hails from the state. Out of 10 districts of the
region, Medak district was selected
purposively for the study. Out of 46 mandals
of the district, six mandals were selected
randomly. The selected mandals were
Siddipet, Thoguta, Chinnakodur, Nanganoor,
Dubbak, Sangareddy. From each mandal two
villages were selected at randomly. The
selected villages were- Hensanpally and
Bandarupally from Siddipet mandal;
Journal of Extension Education5334
Thukkapur and Ghanpur from Thoguta;
Ramancha and Lingareddypally from
Chnnakodur; Nanganoor, and Akkannapally
from Nanganoor; Dubbak and Cheekode from
Dubbak, where as Pothireddy pally and
Malkapur from Sangreddy mandal. Ten
respondents were selected randomly from
each village thus making a total of 120
respondents. Extent of empowerment was
selected as variable for the study and
entrepreneurial and technological
empowerments were the dimensions selected
in it. An interview schedule was developed to
collect the data from the respondents.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Entrepreneurial empowerment
It could be indicated from the Table 1. that
majority of the respondents (58.34%) had
medium entrepreneurial empowerment,
followed by high and low (20.83%)
entrepreneurial empowerment.
The Table 1. depicts the rank ordering of
the statements of entrepreneurial
empowerment of the women entrepreneurs.
The ranks assigned to the statements are
Entrepreneurship gives both personal and
professional satisfaction (rank I) followed by
need of perseverance to phase any eventuality
(rank II), leading a descent and dignified life
by running an enterprise (rank III), running
an enterprise is a sacred, and divine activity
and values, ethics, and morals need to be
maintained to run the enterprise (rank IV),
establishing enterprise with strong vision and
mission (rank V), need for comprehensive
knowledge on the dynamics of running an
enterprise (rank VI), need of proficiency in
technical, business and marketing plans to
run an enterprise (rank VII), An entrepreneur
can unleash the innate business potentials
through enterprise (rank VIII), holding key
positions in society being the owner of an
enterprise (IX), facilitates to build
relationships with high profile people (rank
X), taking up welfare measures through the
enterprise (rank XI) and Entrepreneurship is
one of the premier services to help the poor in
the society (rank XII).
The Table 2, illustrates that majority of the
respondents had medium entrepreneurial
empowerment. Getting the power or control
over running an enterprise is not an easy task.
This kind of entrepreneurial empowerment
can be gained by developing the competencies
on technical, business and marketing plan
formulation. The medium level of awareness
creation, critical conciousness, social and
Table 1.
Distribution of Respondents According to Their Entrepreneurial
Empowerment n=120
Sl.No. Category Class interval Frequency Percentage (%)
1. Low 21-27 25 20.83
2. Medium 27-33 75 58.34
3. High 33-39 25 20.83
5335Extent of Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs on Entrepreneurial and
Technological Empowerment
economic empowerment might have resulted
in medium entrepreneurial empowerment.
The ranking order in Table 2 further
indicates that getting the control or equipping
needed skills to run the enterprise will derive
both personal and professional satisfaction.
The other top ranked statements under
entrepreneurial empowerment were
perseverance to face eventualities, leading a
decent and dignified life by running an
enterprise, maintaining values, ethics and
morals in running an enterprise and
establishing the enterprise with strong vision
and mission. The strong opinion among these
statements reflects the character of the
entrepreneur, their risk taking ability and
foreseeing the future of the enterprise.
Table 2.
Rank Ordering of the Statements of Entrepreneurial
Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs n=120
f % F % f %
1. An entrepreneur should have values,
ethics, and morals to run an enterprise 55 45.83 26 21.67 39 32.50 256 2.13 V
2. Any enterprise should be established with
strong vision and mission 60 50.00 19 15.83 41 34.17 259 2.15 V
3. An entrepreneur should have perseverance
to phase any eventuality 31 25.83 99 82.50 68 56.67 359 2.99 II
4. An entrepreneur should have a
comprehensive knowledge on the
dynamics of running an enterprise 52 43.33 29 24.17 39 32.50 253 2.10 VI
5. An entrepreneur can unleash the innate
business potentials through enterprise 56 46.67 15 12.50 49 40.83 247 2.05 VIII
6. Entrepreneurship gives both personal and
professional satisfaction 35 29.17 99 82.50 64 53.33 367 3.05 I
7. One can lead a decent and dignified life
by running an enterprise 63 52.50 22 18.33 35 29.17 268 2.23 III
8. Entrepreneurship is one of the premier
services to help the poor in the society 30 25.00 26 21.67 64 53.33 180 1.50 XII
9. One should be proficient in technical,
business and marketing plans to run
an enterprise 56 46.67 19 15.83 45 37.50 251 2.09 VII
10. I hold key positions in society being
the owner of an enterprise 49 40.833 25 20.83 46 38.33 243 2.05 IX
11. Enterprise facilitates me to build
relationships with high profile people 50 41.67 22 18.33 48 40.00 242 2.01 X
12. I can take up many welfare measures
through the enterprise 32 26.67 26 21.67 62 51.66 210 1.75 XI
13. I consider running an enterprise is
sacred, and divine activity 56 46.67 24 20.00 40 33.33 256 2.13 V
SI.
No.
Statements Agree Undecided Disagree T.S RankM.S
Journal of Extension Education5336
Table 4.
Rank Ordering of the Statements of Technological Empowerment of
Women Entrepreneurs n=120
Table 3.
Distribution of Respondents According to Their
Technological Empowerment n=120
Sl.No. Category Class interval Frequency Percentage (%)
1. Low 15-19 45 37.50
2. Medium 19-23 44 36.67
3. High 23-27 31 25.83
Technological empowerment
It could be indicated from the Table 3. that
majority of the respondents (37.50%) had low
technological empowerment, followed by
medium (36.67%) and high (25.83%)
technological empowerment.
The Table 4. focused on rank ordering of
statements of technological empowerment of
the women entrepreneurs. The ranks assigned
f % F % f %
1. I rely upon traditional methods to run
the enterprise 61 50.84 31 25.83 28 23.33 273 2.27 I
2. It is better to test prior to implementation
of modern technology to run the enterprise 48 40.00 33 27.50 39 32.50 249 2.07 V
3. I had strong belief that the recent
advancement in science and technology
give good dividends in my enterprise 52 43.33 27 22.50 41 34.17 251 2.09 IV
4. A sound technological plan is the
foundation for success of an enterprise 50 41.67 24 20.00 46 38.33 244 2.03 VII
5. The constant feasibility of any new
technology should be tested its inclusion
in the enterprise 49 40.83 33 27.50 38 31.67 251 2.09 IV
6. It is better not to test the new technologies
in an enterprise without skilled workers 36 30.00 32 26.67 52 43.33 224 1.86 IX
7. Technology up gradation is a continuous
cycle to support the performance of
an enterprise 49 40.83 29 24.16 42 35.00 247 2.05 VI
8. Modern tools and techniques definitely
reduce the drudgery of the entrepreneurs 53 44.17 27 22.50 40 33.33 253 2.10 III
9. The employees at all levels should be trained
to understand and utilise the modern
technologies 45 37.50 28 23.33 47 39.17 238 1.98 VIII
10. I strongly believe that machines cannot
replace the manpower in an enterprise 52 43.33 30 25.00 38 31.67 254 2.11 II
SI.
No.
Statement Agree Undecided Disagree T.S RankM.S
to the statements were- rely upon traditional
methods to run the enterprise (rank I) followed
by strong belief that machinery cannot replace
5337Extent of Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs on Entrepreneurial and
Technological Empowerment
the man power in an enterprise (rank II),
Modern tools and techniques definitely reduce
the drudgery of the entrepreneurs (rank III),
recent advances in science and technology give
good dividends and constant feasibility of any
new technology should be tested its inclusion
in the enterprise (rank IV), It is better to test
prior to implementation of modern technology
to run the enterprise (rank V), Technology up
gradation is a continuous cycle to support the
performance of an enterprise (rank VI), A
sound technological plan is the foundation for
success of an enterprise (rank VII), The
workers at all levels should be trained to
understand and utilise the modern
technologies (rank VIII) and It is better not to
test the new technologies in an enterprise
without skilled workers (rank IX).
The Table 3, illustrates that majority of the
respondents had low level of technological
empowerment. The running of an enterprise
on technical grounds in line with the rules
and regulations of enterprise by laws requires
thorough preparedness and understanding of
formal activities of enterprise management.
Devi et al. (2007) observed that the
technological training programmes attended
by the members of women SHGs resulted in
the incremental increase in their employment
pattern and asset position. Acquiring and
acquainting the knowledge on techniques
involved in crafting, modelling and running
various parameters of enterprise is an arduous
task. It is only the specialised persons could
understand the network of technicalities
involved in controlling the systems of the
enterprise. This might be the reason for low
level of technological empowerment. Preethi
and shashi (2008) observed that 63 per cent
of the women entrepreneurs had low
technological empowerment and 30 per cent
of the women entrepreneurs had medium
technological empowerment.
CONCLUSION
Getting the power or control over running
an enterprise is not an easy task. This kind of
entrepreneurial empowerment can be gained
by developing the competencies on technical,
business and marketing plan formulation. The
medium level of awareness creation, critical
conciousness, social and economic
empowerment might have resulted in medium
entrepreneurial empowerment. The running
of an enterprise on technical grounds in line
with the rules and regulations of enterprise
by laws requires thorough preparedness and
understanding of formal activities of
enterprise management. Hence the low level
of technological empowerment was observed
among the respondents of the study.
REFERENCES
Devi, K.S., Poonnarasi, T. and Saravannana, M.P.
2007. An Impact Analysis of Technological
Training on Women Self Help Groups.
International Journal of Agricultural Sciences.
3 (2): 16-65.
Ganeshan, G. 2001. Entrepreneurship
Development. Kisan World. 28 (6): 50-51.
Garba. 2000. Empowerment and Status of Rural
Women. A Central Himalaya Perspective. M.D.
Publications pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
Preethi Sharma and Shashi kanta Varma. 2008.
Women Empowerment through
Entrepreneurial Activities of Self Help Groups.
Indian Research Journal of extension
education. 8 (1): 46-51.