FEMENA · FEMale ENtrepreneurs in Asia: Innovation, Policies, Challenges and Opportunities in: Laos, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam

Across the globe, widespread research continues to reaffirm that women face inferior income opportunities when compared with men. Women are less likely to work for income or to actively seek work; they have fewer opportunities for business expansion or career progression; they are disproportionately more likely to be homemakers yet household labour is not remunerated nor considered to be ‘work’. Women make up around half of the economically active population, however they are underrepresented in various fields, including entrepreneurship. According to World Bank data, in 2022 the global labour force participation rate for women was just over 50% compared to 80% for men. Globally, female labour force participation has not increased greatly over the last three decades and male/female disparities remain stark especially across large swathes of Asia. This is despite the fact that Asia is widely regarded as the engine for global economic growth. International organisations estimate that if women had equal representation in all labour markets, GDP could increase to approximately $136 trillion by 2025. At the same time female entrepreneurship and indicators for gender equality appear to go hand-in-hand, making both key factors for a country's economic development. With a total of 20 partners (10 from Europe and 10 from Asia, including 8 non-academic partners) FEMENA draws on world-class expertise to design an inter-disciplinary, international and inter-sectoral research and training programme that addresses the central questions of how female entrepreneurship is framed, fostered, and promoted across Asia. Four phases of secondments will develop an integrated methodological framework based on Amartya Sen's capability approach to explore how individuals, across a range of contexts and operating in difference sectors, assess their opportunities and abilities rather than applying categories that risk being too context-specific or that ignore path dependency effects.