“…Women entrepreneurs, like their male counterparts, are catalysts for job creation, innovation, and a more than tangible contribution to the gross national production (Dwibedi, 2016). However, the proportion of female entrepreneurs remains low (Arenius, 2003;Gautam & Pandey, 2023) because of the less start-up capital and social motivation, and personal factors like low selfconfidence and weak drives . Further, it is found that women-owned businesses are smaller, and expand more slowly in comparison to the men-owned businesses, implying gender inequalities in the emphasis placed on business expansion (Arenius, 2003;Rho & Ha, 2006).…”