Role of Social Factors in Shaping Women's Involvement in Income Generating Activities in Baneshwar Area, Kathmandu

Abstract

Women’s empowerment is a broad concept, and it is defined as a multidimensional social process at different levels. The government of Nepal has declared 33% women's participation in various sectors. It has also introduced a female quota for women’s participation in various organizations. The study analyzed the role of social factors in women’s involvement in income-generating activities for women's empowerment. The study used a descriptive and explanatory research design. The study was conducted among the 60 working women living in the Baneshwar area of Kathmandu by applying the judgmental sampling technique. Primary data was the main sources of information. A survey questionnaire was adopted to gather the required information from respondents. The study adopted mean, standard deviation, correlation, and regression to analyze data to address the research problem. The result shows that the mean value of social factors was 3.0 to 4.6. The average of all social factors was 3.85, close to the agreement point. Hence, it concluded that women were moderately empowered through their involvement in income-generating activities. Social factors significantly impacted women's empowerment, with R-square = .172, and p-value = 0.001. The future researcher can study strategies to empower women through entrepreneurship skills.