Social media as an enabler of women’s entrepreneurial empowerment during the pandemic

Abstract

ABSTRACT Entrepreneurs utilize social media to market their products, create value, innovate, and reach their customers. However, recent literature reviews emphasize the need for further investigating the role of social media in small businesses or individual owners. This study explores the enabling empowerment of women pursuing small businesses using social media platforms in Southern Philippines. A thematic analysis, following the grounded theory approach, was conducted to derive themes that explain social media as an enabler of empowerment as experienced by individual women business owners or sellers. The themes indicate that social media enabled them to start or continue their own business and expand their market reach through family and close friends. Moreover, it became an avenue for expressing their autonomy and learning to use the features of social media in an innovative way to support their business.