Women’s Self-Employment in Informal Settlements in Delhi, India
A Pathway to Empowerment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6080434 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kathleen Fincham (0000-0001-8918-4851) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 1-27 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-23 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Human Development (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1464-9888 • E-ISSN: 1469-9516 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/19452829.2025.2572700 |
| OpenAlex | W4415493728 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 41 |
Within Western development discourse, women’s economic activity is often assumed to automatically lead to their empowerment. Using empirical qualitative research with focus groups as the primary research method, this paper explores the extent to which working class women in three informal settlement types in Delhi perceive their engagement in self-employment to be leading to their empowerment. Using the Capability Approach as a theoretical lens to privilege women’s perspectives, and building on previous scholarship related to gender, self-employment and empowerment within the Indian context, the paper argues that while engagement in self-employment has helped some women to adapt to financial challenges, it has often stopped short of enabling them to achieve lasting economic and social empowerment
Disadvantaged · Empirical research · Empowerment · Focus group · Human settlement · Informal settlements · Qualitative research · Scholarship · Employment and Welfare Studies · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion · Urban and Rural Development Challenges
Power
Resilience and Vulnerability
Empowering Women through Social Entrepreneurship
Resilience in Development
Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism
The Gender Wage Gap and Domestic Violence
Veil
Whose Reality Counts
The ‘Feminisation of Poverty’ and the ‘Feminisation’ of Anti-Poverty Programmes
Resilience Measurement and Conceptual Frameworks
Empowerment or employment? Uncovering the paradoxes of social entrepreneurship for women via Husk Power Systems in rural North India
Capital factors and rural women entrepreneurship development
Gender, efficiency, poverty reduction, and empowerment
Working children and educational inclusion in Yemen
Gender discourses in an NGO education project
Rural credit programs and women's empowerment in Bangladesh
Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms
Linking Social Entrepreneurship and Social Change
Microfinance and women's empowerment
Citizenship and Political Identity
Resources, Agency, Achievements
Between Affiliation and Autonomy
Lives on hold
Gender symbolism and the expression of post-colonial national and religious identities
Bargaining With Patriarchy
Grassroots groups and poor women's empowerment in rural India
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |