Abstract
The quick spread of digital technologies has changed the face of entrepreneurship worldwide, giving women new opportunities to launch, formalize, and grow enterprises but also highlighting long-standing structural injustices. This study uses a comprehensive examination of secondary literature and public national and cross-country statistics to investigate the potential and difficulties faced by women entrepreneurs in the digital age. The study’s three main goals are to determine the potential that women entrepreneurs have in the digital age, investigate the obstacles that prevent them from participating in the digital world, and evaluate the contribution of institutional and policy support to closing the gender-digital divide. The paper synthesizes evidence on digital access, e-commerce participation, digital financial inclusion, and socio-cultural constraints using reports from the World Economic Forum, World Bank, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, and Indian institutions like SIDBI and NITI Aayog in addition to peer-reviewed literature indexed in Scopus. The results show that although digital platforms have significantly reduced entry barriers and increased market access, women entrepreneurs still have to deal with a significant digital divide, a disproportionate credit gap, low digital literacy, and increased exposure to hazards related to online safety. The report offers a conceptual framework and testable hypotheses for further empirical research, concluding that eliminating the gender-digital gap necessitates concerted action across digital infrastructure, financial inclusion, skilling, and safety.
KEYWORDS
MSMEs, e-Commerce, Digital Literacy, Women’s Entrepreneurship, Digital Economy, Gender Digital Divide.
Sakshi Chouhan
Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration, Government Meera Girls College, Udaipur-313001, Rajasthan, India