Women’s Leadership Development Through Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh

Abstract

Women own and manage only an approximate 7% of all economic establishments in Bangladesh, indicating a lack of women leadership development and economic participation. This research aims to identify women entrepreneurship development (WED) factors (WEDFs) and investigate how they relate to leadership development of female entrepreneurs. The study identified 370 women entrepreneurs from the Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry list of seven divisional headquarters and collected primary data for systematic probability sampling in this causal research. The study initially conducted an exploratory factor analysis technique to reduce larger measured variables into smaller factors. Data were further analysed through the structural equation modelling technique. According to the findings, women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh develop emotional intelligence, creativity and innovative leadership qualities that influence leadership skills by exercising four WEDFs. These factors are idea generation, resourcing, enterprise management and harvesting and growth. The study’s main theoretical contribution is that it has been able to combine two concepts, ‘women’s leadership development’ and ‘women’s entrepreneurship development, into one framework. The study suggests that policymakers, practitioners and women entrepreneurs should implement the interventions focusing on these factors to strengthen the development of women’s leadership. One of the limitations of this study is that it covers urban Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs only.