The motivations that drive women to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations vary as widely as the businesses they operate. For Rina Akter, after her husband left her, the struggle to balance her care responsibilities for her family with her work and the instability of her income as a domestic labourer pushed her to start her own small tailoring business on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

For Shristi Shrestha, in addition to the challenges of registering her business and accessing finance, a major challenge she has had to overcome as a woman entrepreneur has been that of societal expectations and competing demands on her time. “As a woman, especially in my culture, domestic labour is part of our job, no matter what our work is outside of the home. As women, we have to develop a superpower when it comes to time management, juggling our household responsibilities with work,” she shares.

Since moving to Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu ten years ago, 33-year-old Sumita Rai has experienced her share of ups and downs. Starting her new life in the city as a cleaner, the young mother found that her earnings were not sufficient to make ends meet. With nothing but 2000 Rupees to her name, Sumita went on to start a small food cart business to supplement her income. However, when the 2015 earthquake hit the city, Sumita had to start over and started selling vegetables, earning just enough to put food on the table.

For Ou Sokphanna, who lost her leg to a landmine explosion when she was young, opportunities for income generation have always been limited, with widespread discrimination preventing her from entering into wage employment. Despite this, Sokphanna is the primary breadwinner for her family, shouldering the responsibility for supporting her three children and her husband, who also lives with a disability. Having lost both her parents from a young age, Sokphanna is no stranger to self-reliance, and has demonstrated a high level of resilience in the face of adversity. 

33-year-old Rina Akhtar, hailing from Dhaka, Bangladesh, found herself grappling with adversity when her husband deserted her, leaving her to raise their two daughters alone.

Undeterred by the daunting hurdles of poverty and societal judgment, Rina refused to be defeated by her circumstances. She took charge of her family's welfare by leveraging her sewing skills and household management expertise to start her own tailoring business. “I came to the decision that, if I start a small business, I’ll be able to take care of my two girls”, Rina explains.

As cities in Asia and the Pacific continue to expand, the demand for transport services to accommodate commuters is increasingly challenging. Integration of public transport systems has emerged as a solution to help navigate the complexities of urban mobility.  

As countries in Asia and the Pacific build back from the COVID-19 pandemic, they have a unique opportunity to empower women and advance gender equality by putting women at the heart of the recovery and response processes. Speeding up progress and meeting the gender equality targets of SDG 5 requires explicitly incorporating gender initiatives into areas where they have traditionally been overlooked. One of these areas is foreign direct investment (FDI) and the role that it can play in host countries in improving gender equality.

As the world celebrates Pride Month, we are confronted with the enduring reality of persistent inequalities that continue to shape the lives of marginalized communities worldwide. Gender equality, in particular, remains a resounding challenge, casting its shadow over the realm of infrastructure development. Globally, women's representation in leadership positions across all infrastructure sectors remains low, with only 19 percent of such positions being held by women.

She lives on the periphery of a bustling city, dreaming of one day moving to a place close to the public transportation grid. Let’s call her Mai, a young mother with an unwavering smile and a heart full of love. Her day begins before the sun has even thought about rising. As her family sleeps peacefully, she quietly tiptoes around her home, preparing breakfast and laying out the clothes. She wakes up the children, packs their lunches and sends her husband off to work. Her children soon follow, backpacks in hand.