Abstract:
This research intends to investigate the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the in the Jaffna District of Sri
Lanka. Today, women entrepreneurs’ participation is a key factor in the economy. However, in Northern part of Sri Lanka
entrepreneurial development were suppressed due to the civil war and especially the women entrepreneurs face
numerous challenges and problems in continuing their enterprises in a successful manner. This study has the objectives
to investigate the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and the remedies for them in Jaffna District of Sri Lanka.
20 active members from the Karaveddy Divisional Secretariat division in Jaffna district were enrolled into this research
based on the purposive sampling method. The paper adopts a qualitative research methodology by incorporating the
interpretive analysis capitalizing on in-depth interviews with women entrepreneurs to explore their interpretations of
problems and challenges they faced in particularly in this district.The findings highlight that financial problem is the major
challenge faced by most of the women entrepreneurs and lack of infrastructure, marketing problems, lack of government
support and dual role of women entrepreneurs and gender inequality are the other challenges faced by them. Except
the economic crisis, most of the challenges are similar to the predecessors’ research findings. It is recommended that
the government should encourage the women entrepreneurs to involve in the small scale businesses with the availability
of raw materials in their area and manufacture the goods for the need of the present situation in order to succeed in their
businesses and survive in this economic crisis
