Social Entrepreneurship and Women Empowerment in The Light of The Corona Pandemic": A Field Study from The Point of View of a Sample of Iraqi Women Entrepreneurs

Abstract

This research aims to clarify the conceptual framework of social entrepreneurship shows the importance of the development of social entrepreneurship according to the contextual aspects and the social value achieved from these works. It also identifies the degree of level of a sample of women entrepreneurs in Iraq for the extent of the relationship between social entrepreneurship and women's empowerment. It also explains the impact of entrepreneurial work in empowering women and the extent to which there are individual differences between the average scores of the sample members’ estimation of the level of social entrepreneurship according to social status, age group, educational qualification, and specialization according to the scale of Bag, Bahn & Mc Cline (2000) which included (8) variables, (4) of which were selected for the current research (realization of the pioneering opportunity, creativity, risk[1]taking, proactiveness) at a rate of (5) items for each variable making the total items 20. The second part measures the level of women's empowerment according to Hashemi and Schuler (1993), which included (7) variable and for the current research, (4) were selected: the sense of the self, economic security, the development of pioneering behavior in the public sphere, and participation in decision-making. At the rate of (4) items for each variable, so that the total number of the items of the second part becomes (16). A questionnaire was distributed to (63) female entrepreneurs who were randomly selected in the field of social work. The level of women's empowerment was high. Also, social entrepreneurship had a significant impact on the women's empowerment index, especially in the light of the Corona crisis. The results of the study showed that there is a direct relationship between the degree of appreciation of the members of the sample for the level of social entrepreneurship, and the degree of their appreciation for the level of women’s empowerment. They also revealed that there are differences between the average degrees of the respondents’ assessment of the level of social entrepreneurship due to demographic variables. The study recommended that the priorities of the public business agenda should focus on the requirements of attention social entrepreneurship projects for both sexes, especially women, because of their positive impact on various social, economic and political aspects.