Female entrepreneurship is perceived as the new beam of light for the growth of the world economy. The phenomenon is especially important for the developing world. However, female entrepreneurs are always associated with challenges and hurdles and similar is valid even for the developed world. However, due to the segregation of gender roles, female entrepreneurship is especially difficult in the Islamic world and also in Pakistan. Several studies highlighted the importance of the phenomenon and also place light on hurdles that may impair female entrepreneurs to cultivate their own businesses in the tourism industry. However, rear work has been conducted on female entrepreneurship in the tourism industry with reference to Pakistan. Thus, the importance of this study is massive for a diverse set of stakeholders. Therefore, this chapter has been written by linking the hurdles, issues, and challenges pertaining to female entrepreneurship with female entrepreneurship in the tourism industry of Pakistan.
TopBackground
The origin of entrepreneurship is based on the French word “Entreprende”, which means “Undertake”. In fact, entrepreneurship has been used as a term by different disciplines e.g., economics, finance, sociology, anthropology, and psychology, etc. (Cem et al., 2019). However, the use of the term i.e., “entrepreneurship” might be replaced by any synonym word to have the appropriate relationship with the concerned discipline. Although generically we may define entrepreneurship as an opportunity for discovery, analysis, and marketing of any tangible or intangible item that is not existing (Cem et al., 2019). In fact, nurturing the term will provide us with the broadest scope of men’s freedom to understand their abilities through independent & unrestricted comprehension of ideas. Hence the population of entrepreneurs is increasing day after another whether in the form of startups or in the form of entrepreneurs working in larger companies. However, the ratio of women entrepreneurs is still on the lower side significantly either for company ownership or as the corporate entrepreneur (Serafimova & Petrevska, 2018). These indications are aligned with patriarchal philosophies that believe females are inferior as compared to men. Hence, the numbers of men-owned startups are much higher than the number of women-owned startups (Yaqoob, 2020).
On the other side women entrepreneurs are perceived as an un-tapped source that may foster economic growth. The research uses the word of the new engines for female entrepreneurs due to their ability to foster the growth of economies. The tendency to contribute in the development of the economy is found to be much higher for developing sides of the world. However, their importance can also be legitimized in developed parts of the world. World Economic Forum in its annual general meeting for the year 2012 used the word “Way Forward”, for explaining the importance of female entrepreneurs (Serafimova & Petrevska, 2018). However, most of the time women are forced towards entrepreneurship through severe challenges related to occupation. Thus, most of the studies in this domain are focused on differences between male and female entrepreneurs or personal and economic aspects that lead to female entrepreneurship. On the other side tourism sector is massively dominated by male entrepreneurs and female has to face several problems (Yildrim et al., 2020).
Hence females are mostly associated with minor or lower-level entrepreneurial activities e.g., accommodation, food & beverage, souvenir, production, and presentation of local products food & beverages, accommodations & production or presentation of local products, etc. Hence, women are also found to have difficulties in initiating entrepreneurial ventures in the tourism sector. In fact, support from the government may not be found effective to foster entrepreneurial efforts and venture from females (Yildrim et al., 2020).