Legal Barriers Faced by Female Entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka

Abstract

According to the data obtained from the Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce Sri Lanka, there is a significant increase in the number of female entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka over the past decade. Sri Lankan female entrepreneurs play a significant role contributing to the economic development of the country. These female entrepreneurs work for the common good of the society, while looking for opportunities and utilizing them for their own betterment. There are many challenges faced by female entrepreneurs during the course of their ventures including economic, political, technological and legal constraints. The objective of this paper is to examine the legal barriers the Sri Lankan female entrepreneurs come across during the course of their business venture. The study was done with secondary data obtained from materials from the Central Bank of Sri Lanka along with data obtained from a survey research conducted by the author, of a population consisting 200 interviews. The standardized five point’s Likert questionnaire which was used by many researchers with a proven reliability and validity was used and a few personal interviews were done with female entrepreneurs chosen from random sampling. A qualitative analysis was conducted to analyse the data and the results proved that the legal factors affect the decision making of female entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka. In addition, the research identified various legal barriers which affect and influence the female entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka. This paper will propose some solutions to help overcome these legal barriers. The paper recommends that Sri Lanka ought to imply strong policies and national laws, which can be implemented to offer solutions to address these concerns.