The purpose of this review paper is to critically assess the role of government policies and programs in encouraging entrepreneurial development among women entrepreneurs. As the contribution of women to economic growth through entrepreneurship becomes increasingly recognized at the international level, governments have launched various policies to enhance gender equality and empower female enterprises. This paper discusses the effectiveness of such policies and programs for women-owned businesses. A thorough literature search was done on Emerald Insight, Elsevier, and Google Scholar with the keywords of government policies, institutional support, women entrepreneurs, and policy framework. The articles were between 2005 and 2023, with the direct relevance to the role of government policy in women entrepreneurs being the only ones selected for analysis. The review indicates that despite many government programs having a positive impact on women's entrepreneurship, issues of limited access to finance, bureaucratic barriers, and socio-cultural limitations still exist. The results highlight the importance of intersectional and context-specific policy regimes that take into account the varied experiences and backgrounds of women entrepreneurs. This paper makes its contribution to scholarship by providing an intersectional prism through which government policies are compared and contrasted in their implications for women entrepreneurs across lines like socio-economic class, geographic locale, and race. It is also providing comparative analysis of worldwide models, gaining new insights from adaptive policy paradigms. The review is constrained by published literature availability and scope and does not necessarily capture policy changes in real time or grassroots-level realities in all locations. The research offers pragmatic advice to policymakers to create more responsive and inclusive programs. The research also directs future scholarly inquiry by pointing out under-researched aspects of policy influence on women's entrepreneurship. The article highlights the significance of enabling policy environments in realizing gender equity, economic empowerment, and inclusive growth through increased female entrepreneurial participation.
Murmu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.