Is social media beneficial for small business owners? Is there any difference in such benefits enjoyed by male and female small business owners? Since small business is an important livelihood option for individuals having limited access to capital and social media is an important platform to showcase their products, it is important to find answers to these queries. To this end, the authors conducted surveys on 110 small business owners who operate through different social media platforms. The findings suggest that women are relatively more successful in sales through social media while perception towards social media, trust towards the customers play important roles to improve volume of sales. KEYWORDS: Social media, small business, trust, perception.

Is urban womens workforce participation primarily dependent on family responsibilities and vocational skills? Do they prefer government jobs over private jobs ? To find the plausible answers to these research questions, a primary survey on 210 urban women from different metropolitan cities in India was carried out. The study finds that :(1) around 85% urban women prefer government jobs to other types of employment for maintaining the work life balance; (2) marriage and other family responsibilities significantly lowers urban womens likelihood of working and (3) there exists an u shaped relationship between education level and workforce participation , and finally, (4) despite this relationships, professional degree and vocational skills significantly improves urban womens probability to join the workforce. The study suggests that urban women should be given greater opportunities for acquiring professional and vocational skills. KEYWORDS: India, gender, female workforce participation, urban women, education