Lifelong activism and women’s entrepreneurship: how a social movement organization improves conditions for self-employed women in India

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a local trade union improves living conditions for women entrepreneurs in India and how its activities have evolved over time. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a longitudinal case study of the self-employed women’s association (SEWA) in India. Founded in 1972, this organization fosters and supports women’s entrepreneurship. The approach of this study combines qualitative face-to-face interviews and secondary data analysis. Findings The findings highlight the fact that SEWA, which combines the features of a trade union and a social movement, improves women’s conditions in several different ways. The study shows that the organization’s main role has evolved from creating a community to expanding it and finally to becoming an agent of societal change. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature by analyzing how locally grown organizations fight social exclusion and improve the conditions of deprived groups in emerging economies.

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Germinating seeds in dry soil: examining the process of frugal innovation in micro- and small-enterprises at the base of the pyramid

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“…It was found that the inflation rate, bond market and stock market development are significant factors impacting leverage in the case of India, whereas bond market development significantly impacts leverage in the case of China.Woman entrepreneurship in an emerging country is an interesting theme and hot topic for research. Based on this idea,Colovic and Mehrotra (2020) examined how the activities of a social movement and a locally grown organization encourage entrepreneurship by women and improved the living conditions for women, a deprived gender in a typical developing country like India. Their study is based on face-to-face interviews and secondary data ways through which social change can be brought in by an organization.…”