Empowering women or empowered by women: the female perspective of entrepreneurial empowerment in lower-income economies

Purpose This study investigates how women's entrepreneurial empowerment unfolds within fragile lower-income economies, focusing on the experiences of women entrepreneurs navigating institutional support systems and socio-cultural constraints. Design/methodology/approach The study employs a qualitative design using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the lived experiences of women entrepreneurs in Yemen. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight women entrepreneurs selected through snowball sampling. The analysis focuses on how participants experience and interpret their efforts to access financial resources, institutional support, and empowerment initiatives. Findings The findings reveal that women's entrepreneurial empowerment unfolds through a complex interaction between institutional constraints, organisational practices, and socio-cultural norms. Women frequently encounter barriers when engaging with formal support structures such as microfinance institutions and development programmes. In response, they mobilise alternative strategies through informal networks and community-based resources. These dynamics form an empowerment–disempowerment cycle, in which entrepreneurial aspirations interact with institutional barriers, leading to adaptive strategies that sustain entrepreneurial activity but often limit business expansion. Originality/value The study contributes to entrepreneurship and gender research by offering a process-based explanation of women's entrepreneurial empowerment in fragile institutional contexts. By conceptualising empowerment as an empowerment–disempowerment cycle, the study uses institutional theory and liberal feminist theory to explain how empowerment initiatives unfold in lower-income economies.