Empowered Muslim Women Entrepreneurs: A Thought for Assessing Success

Profitability and growth are conventional measures for assessing the success of an entrepreneurial effort. This paper argues that an empowered Muslim woman entrepreneur’s success should not be assessed primarily in relation to these economic measures; rather the delicate balance that she maintains between her roles in family and in business should be the main consideration for her success measurement. The idea of balance as a success factor is derived from a Muslim woman’s obligation and status in the family sphere. Islam entrusts a Muslim woman with critically irreplaceable roles in family management by declaring her status as a mother three degree above a Muslim man. At the same time, for the proper discharge of her roles, Islam renders her free from the obligation to provide financial supports for the family. The paper substantiates the idea of role alignment or balance by employing the conceptual categories of (a) responsibility and right, (b) obligation and option, (c) prime and subordinate, and (d) irreplaceable integral and replaceable substitute as they pertain to her role playing in the family-business complex. The significance of this discussion lies in the fact that increasing participation of Muslim women in organized economic activities has been a socioeconomic reality of the contemporary Muslim world.