Sustainable Socio-Economic Development of Women: A Blueprint from Vulnerability to Empowerment

The major goals of women's empowerment are to improve earnings, the standard of living and to enable them to use the resources at their disposal to make decisions that will benefit their households and societies. As such, the socioeconomic empowerment of women is significantly captured in the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs of the United Nations UN. The purpose of the study is to look at women’s education, capabilities, decision -making power, access to financial resources, control over household resources, and ability to mobilize for economic rights to enable them to participate in the economic life of the household and the community in a sustainable way. Considering the research questions and recent past publications, this systematic review included relevant literature on socioeconomic empowerment from 2015 onwards. Both direct and summative qualitative content analysis research approach is used. Google Scholar was used as a tool to acquire relevant data from the significant databases made available by Elsevier, Emerald, Sage, Tailor and Frances, Springers, and ProQuest among others. The review of relevant literature found that the importance of the sustainable socioeconomic empowerment of women makes it an essential development intervention and a constituent of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It also discovered the necessity of prioritizing women's safety when creating programs for socioeconomic empowerment and closely observing the possibility of conflict and violence within households. It revealed themes of socioeconomic empowerment intervention for women to include labour force participation, agro-based entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion. These interventions are geared toward the improvement of participation in leadership and decision-making for sustainable empowerment. Therefore, the study suggests conducting a case study to examine culturally appropriate tactics that can be most effective in giving women economic empowerment in the conventional cultural and economic framework that is dominated by men.


Introduction
The interrelated domains of empowerment include but are not limited to political, social, and economic issues. As such, the empowerment of women has been considered a potential development intervention through which productive assets guarantee opportunities for females to control and earn extra income and as well obtain authority to make decisions that improve their well-being (Bryan & Garner, 2022;Malapit et al., 2019). The expanded access to opportunities and support from external interventions has removed obstacles and encouraged women to become agents of change in their own lives. Females are therefore empowered economically when they experience transformation in their lives through unlimited power and opportunity to economic assets for advance make participation in economic activities, capabilities, and self-esteem resulting in participation in economic activities become noticeable. Others could be women's economic decision-making ability at the house level, access and control over financial resources, and the ability to organise themselves to promote economic rights (Campo & Steinert, 2022). It can also be noticed that the house chores and childcare which make women prone to indoor pollution are often not quantified and therefore uncompensated due to the gender division of labour. Dahlum et al (2022) found that government agencies and decisionmakers are much more interested in quantifiable economic activities and performance but not in justice and equity in the representation or protection of women's rights.
In a democratic dispensation, it is only logical and condition of equality empowering women to ensure the concept of rule by the people through decision-making as equal citizens. Some of the positive impacts of women's empowerment can be seen in the improvement in own health, child's education, nutrition, and as a policy tool to fight violence against women (Campo & Steinert, 2022). The vulnerability of women may be attributed to their less representation in decision-making and low access to resources at all levels (Demedeme & Opoku, 2022). The complexity of empowering women may stern from its challenge being societal as such societal norms need to be addressed through formal education and the creation of awareness to make transformation a reality. As such, interventions like vocational training, savings initiatives, or child care services with a greater financial effect may exonerate women from exposure to highly controlling behaviour from their husbands or their male counterparts (Campo & Steinert, 2022). It is trite knowledge that quality education, among other factors like respect for women's rights, and freedom to earn and join networks are elements of development necessary for the empowerment of women (Adam et al., 2022). These elements make it possible for women to acquire strategic decision-making ability to make choices that were previously restricted in a predominantly patriarchal society. Invariably, the educational status of women also determines their exposure to the risk of controlling behaviour in the form of control of financial resources and appropriation of those resources.
The reversal of certain causal relationships, child-rearing, and household chores, serving as barriers may influence women's empowerment significantly. For instance, the application of certain technologies to control birth rates and home appliances to take charge of house chores save women's time. Dahlum et al (2022) found that while birth control technologies reduce birth rates, home appliances like freezers, washing machines, and dishwashers reduce time allocation for household chores and enhancing women's labour force participation thereby empowering women socially and economically. The researcher thinks that women need to exploit both human and material resources in an agentic way to earn the necessary income, balanced decisionmaking power, improve well-being, enhance freedom to jobs outside the home, and have equality to be empowered (Adam et al., 2022). Rodriguez (2022) suggested exploiting resources in the process of empowering women. Empowerment is about getting plans of action and measures to achieve the objectives of empowering women economically. This objective is achievable when plans are strategized and harmonised towards the output and outcomes based on economic activities and potentials of women. Thus, women can make informed choices that grant them control and access to household resources. For instance, the empowerment of rural women may be based on the existing economic activities and potential in agro-processing, farming, traditional craft, and agro-industrial activities (Demedeme & Opoku, 2022).
The World Bank report revealed that women still face restrictions on opportunities to participate both in politics and the economy on equal terms with their male counterparts (World Bank, 2020). It is revealed that about 40% of countries across the globe have restrictions on women's movement, 40% have legal restrictions on labour market choices and 40% have discriminatory legislation on women's property rights (World Bank, 2020;Dahlum et al., 2022). The economic empowerment intervention efforts are sometimes and, in some places, thwarted by economic violence perpetrated against women in the form of prohibition from taking a paid job, managing their own financial resources, and spending their salary controlling women's behaviour (Halim et al., 2019;Campo & Steinert, 2022). Compared with men, women face worse conditions in getting resources, credit or loans, skill training, and social protection limiting capacities that enhance their livelihood thus decreasing their chances of taking new opportunities. Despite all these predicaments, women still contribute significantly to the global economy at the micro-scale enterprise level especially by increasing the local output and their household income (Demedeme & Opoku, 2022). The house chores considered the responsibility of women constrain them from accessing credit facilities to start up a small business (Shoma, 2019;Khan & Bhat, 2022).
There exist both negative and positive effects of the participation of women in economic activities in the gendered division of labour. For instance, most of the economic activities outside the house used to be the preserve of men who were into farming, and women were left with domestic chores to handle. The trend has changed, except for men's limited participation in domestic chores, women can now participate equally with men in farming and trading to earn some income to support the family budget (Mulema, 2018). The women in some societies are inundated with domestic chores, productive and communal responsibilities and therefore need to be empowered to reduce the workload since they would now be able to hire domestic help. The workload on women impacts negatively their health, and ability to mobilise for economic engagement which invariably affects every aspect of their lives. When empowered adequately, they can have spare time to engage in self-growth activities through networking, capacitybuilding training, and others that effectively yield economic benefits for them (Mulema, 2018). The researcher may not be wrong to opine that participation in decision-making does still not accord women the recognition they deserve from society in the context of some developing countries including Ghana. The contribution of women in critical areas of the economy in developing countries cannot be ignored yet most of them lack control over productive resources including land hence the need for empowerment (Demedeme, & Opoku, 2022). The study is designed to broadly explore: ➢ women's education and participation in decision-making, control, access to financial and household resources, and the ability to mobilize for economic engagement.

Method
This synthesizes evidence on women's empowerment and systematically reviewed the literature to unearth the nitty gritty of the predicament of women in the domestic sphere. This review focused on research using in-depth qualitative methods to comparatively investigate the empowerment of women. Databases like Elsevier, Emerald, Sage, Tailor and Frances, Springers, and ProQuest have been systematically searched through the Google Scholar platform for relevant information on the empowerment of women. The criteria for data source inclusion and review protocol resulted in a systematic review to include relevant literature on socioeconomic empowerment from 2015 onwards. The data extracted were thematically analysed after the identification of recurring themes from the selected articles and papers. A wide range of literature reviewed includes studies focused on specific attributes and summarised into thematic areas from all the research.
To assess issues on the empowerment of women, the qualitative data analysis method is used. This involved an extensive gathering of relevant past studies from articles on the latest engagements bordering on the socioeconomic development of women. The current information on women's empowerment is extracted from secondary data which shed light on how to enhance women's socioeconomic development through services and interventions that improve lives. The researcher identified, and read reports and articles that relate to empowerment, livelihood development, and well-being in search of relevant data. Articles were sampled and refined the information to generate themes that were representative of issues about the empowerment of women.
Experts in the systematic review using a qualitative perspective were consulted throughout the analysis to ensure no stone was left unturned in the process. For the purpose of validity and reliability of the analysis, these experts reviewed portions of the findings of this paper. The researcher found descriptive themes to be the most appropriate way to respond to the questions of the study thus describing recent trends of contribution in support of the lives of women. Based on the research objectives, varying sources and multiple interpretations were analysed after reading and re-reading articles to gather information consistent with the objectives of the review. After several times of reading and analysis, the major themes based on the appearance of the articles were generated in the process.
The limitation of the research is the fact that it is not based on intense empirical findings but on based on online articles and relevant materials not the face-to-face presentation of testimonies.
Besides, it is also not possible for the study to capture all the nuances in the existing literature on complex concepts like empowerment since the analysis was based on thematic analysis. The study is therefore to offer a glimpse of the social and economic ways of empowering women for the service of humanity.

Literature Review
Empowerment is viewed differently based on perspective or level of approach, beneficiaries involved, available resources, and expected returns thus considering factors that make women vulnerable. Based on these, relevant literature is reviewed on women's empowerment.
The gap between men and women persists throughout the country, especially in farming communities where most women are engaged in farming activities. The increase in women's labour force participation is due to the reduction in job security and income of men which alters the perception of women's role in the labour market (Evans, 2016;Orkoh et al., 2022). ideally, men should also express interest in care work, but the domestic nature and general perception make it culturally unacceptable. Studies indicate the vulnerability of women is attributable to their less access to resources like inputs, extension services, and land among others where men have access to larger farmlands and are more likely to be granted financial services than women (Abdu et al., 2022). Women are faced with time constraints due to gender roles assigned and are the first to be considered unpaid family workers. There is, therefore, the need for loan inputs, capacity building, financial and technical training, and other services to enable full labour force participation for the sustainable empowerment of women. The key elements in the agenda for sustainable development include women's empowerment and gender equality which warrant the broadening of the range of opportunities to bridge the gender gap. The sustainable empowerment of women engulfs reducing inequality, and educational and financial inclusion as part of boosting the socioeconomic development processes (Tchamyou et al., 2019;Nkoa et al., 2022). Women work more unpaid hours in many nations, and they have fewer opportunities to use education and skills to escape poverty.
There seems to be a clear difference in social and economic development between the north and south due to factors like differences in infrastructure and agroecology. Even though the farming system is rainfed, there is a variation in the north-south agroecological system. For example, the unimodal rainfall pattern in the north and bimodal of the south led to differences in agricultural production and participation in agribusiness. This variation constrains women's participation in the mainstream agriculture and agricultural paid labour market as males still constituted the preferred hired labour despite the increasing scarcity of labour (Dzanku & Tsikata, 2022). Such an endeavour will probably strengthen women's active engagement in social organizations and agribusinesses that are considerate of their needs and those of society at large. For instance, farm-based women's organizations are supported by local institutions as a productive way to attract agripreneurs in order to boost their socio-economic development in a sustainable manner. For instance, 42% of women are represented in farm-based organizations with 4,743 registered members (Abdu et al., 2022).
The accessibility of economic resources empowers women to become resilient to enhance their well-being thereby resulting in local and national economic growth (Demedeme & Opoku, 2022).
As women are economically empowered, it opens other opportunities like jobs, financial resources, market network information, and skills development programmes which built confidence in their own capabilities (Demedeme & Opoku, 2022). These constraints deny women access to loans, savings, and insurance that are available for the low-income group. This provides economic opportunities like self-employment is a significant economic empowerment for women as they serve to raise and maintain the standard of living (Khan & Bhat, 2022;Tariq, 2020;Tariq et al., 2020). The researcher thinks that when women are self-employed can bypass obstacles associated with culture, gender, or race and thus paving way for the advancement of their income. Besides, women can penetrate male dominance considering the significant contribution of self-employment in relation to status, resources, or power. Demedeme, and Opoku, (2022) women are crucial for boosting both local and overall productivity levels and for supporting their families financially. Research shows that women spend, on average, much time on housework, on childcare, and less time on employment in the labour market (Orkoh et al., 2022). According to Murphy (2015), expectations regarding the division of care between men and women, have not changed despite an increase in women's labour market participation.
The tool for women's empowerment includes education and training which accord them knowledge and necessary skills to earn income to improve their livelihoods. For instance, several interventions and programmes are implemented in Ghana to enhance women's business capacities to ensure women's economic empowerment for sustainable and enhanced well-being (Demedeme, & Opoku, 2022). The underrepresentation of females in authority-making decisions in both public and private domains may be considered as factors that militate against women's empowerment which possibly results in extreme poverty. Most government social policies and interventions failed to capture issues concerning women despite the advent of globalization and liberalization of trade. Recent studies pointed to the discrimination perpetrated against women by Multi-National Corporations MNCs through exploitation and exposing them to meager wages (Khan & Bhat, 2022;Rubin et al., 2021). Male-dominated society has the tendency to neglect girlchild education which might result in women who lack education and vocational skills due to repression denying them progression and thereby compelling them to accept low wages due to a lack of job opportunities (Khan & Bhat, 2022;Gallo-Cruz, 2021;Adeosum & Owolabi, 2021). A similar study found that women work more unpaid hours than males do in many nations, and they have fewer opportunities to use education and skills to escape poverty (Orkoh et al., 2022). As such, empowering them in these directions means lifting them from vulnerability to sustainability of livelihood.

Findings
Traditions and culture in many nations, including Ghana, prevent women from fully participating in decision-making, which frequently results in their complete deprivation of fundamental and useful knowledge of specific resources that improve their standard of living. To highlight women's empowerment out of vulnerability to sustainability, the following themes were generated from the existing studies.

Education and Participation in Decision-Making
The empowerment of women may also involve the redistribution of power so that they can take part in social and economic decision-making. This goes beyond just reallocating work, resources, and responsibilities both within and outside the house. Njuki et al (2021) indicated that the disproportionate access to information due to lack of education has affected their access to relevant issues on gender-normative roles and responsibilities. The researcher thinks that women's less representation in the decision-making process can be attributed to a lack of formal education, traditions, and cultural beliefs in some jurisdictions, including Ghana. Demedeme, and Opoku (2022) think that education and skills help them become more competent and improve their lives and businesses. The non-participation in decision-making deprives women of some basic network information necessary for certain resources that enhance their living standards (Demedeme & Opoku, 2022). Njuki et al (2021) revealed a positive relationship between the empowerment of women and girl-child education and older children in school. The real transmission channel to overcome vulnerability is the effectiveness of education manifested in the process of women's social and economic empowerment. The higher representation of women in public offices increases spending on education to improve the conditions of the citizens (Asongu et al., 2022). As such, gender inequality and household poverty need much attention to enhance the allocation of family resources. Sustainable empowerment of women amounts to improving the time assigned to household tasks, access to means of production and consumption as well as control over financial resources (Orkoh et al., 2022). Even though women contribute to important areas of economies, many of young girls still lack access to education, and control over resources like land and other productive resources, which is why it is important to empower women.

Agro-Based Entrepreneurship
The extent of women's empowerment in areas like agricultural Information, finances, education, and other resources are fed into the system to directly improve quality of life. Since many people in Ghana depend on agriculture for their livelihood, it continues to serve as their lifeblood, particularly women. The sector employs as much as 46% of the labour force where input supply leads to production, marketing, processing, and consumption. Women predominate in Ghana's agro-processing and business which is the straightforward preservation of food through sun drying or just salting and marketing of the supply chain. The women who produce yogurt or the processing of cassava into gari are examples of their involvement in industrial agroentrepreneurship (Mabe, 2022). Besides, the fisheries, livestock, and forestry subsectors provide the raw materials for women's agro-businesses, which is an agro-based production sector serving their interests and that of families. This engagement has the potential to completely change the socioeconomic life of women by opening new business opportunities and generating long-term income through their investment in micro, small, and medium-sized agri-businesses. For instance, most goods are still consumed raw or exported to other nations in their raw or semiprocessed forms, as such women in agri-businesses can be assured of sustainable livelihood. To sustain women's social and economic well-being, agro-entrepreneurship must be taken seriously in the country as done in other parts of the world.

Control and Access to Household Resources
The livelihood options for women from traditional families include cultivation of land, free-range goat and poultry fowl rearing as well as retail and wholesale trading. As such, making farm produce available to women is crucial to their empowerment. This is possible when concessional policies are put in place, make information available, lower interest rates, and take up collateral issues among others can pave the way for women to excel (Ampadu-Ameyaw & Omari, 2015). For instance, most of the women from traditional homes that are engaged in farming prefer processing the farm produce to be sold in the local market rather than selling them fresh. The power to control and the availability of household resources when made available to women may guarantee their financial liberation and independence. For instance, most women desirous to own farms and cultivate their own crops in commercial quantities are unable to engage in such ventures due to a lack of certain productive resources (Ampadu-Ameyaw & Omari, 2015). Trading in local agricultural produce is enough self-employment activity that is mostly engaged by women rather than men. The inadequate access to household resources and finance by women due to poor financial base is a significant factor hindering their success. If the challenges in encounter in seeking credit are addressed by the government and development partners may lead to the sustainable empowerment of women.

Control and Access to Financial Resources
Studies have shown that women are less likely to afford nutritious diet as they are often engaged in low-paying jobs, earn and control less income, and lack autonomy over financial decisions at the house level when compare with men (Raghunathan et al., 2021;Njuki et al., 2021). The control over and effective ownership of resources may be more important compared with actual ownership for the empowerment of women. For instance, there is a positive relationship between women's ownership of land and the participation of women in cooperative networks. This implies that; resource ownership may have the tendency to bring other resources like power to bargain effectively and access other valued resources. Several studies have linked women's empowerment with social gender norms in the context of culture as such the understanding of its nuances and expectation of roles and responsibilities of women vary from men (Bryan & Garner, 2020;Eissler et al., 2021;Njuki et al., 2021). With this understanding, the empowerment of women cannot be the same as men in a society where the roles and responsibilities are defined based on social gender norms. On this basis, domestic chores, child rearing, preparation of the family's main meals, and other unquantifiable remuneration tasks are the preserve of women while men make all the decisions as the household breadwinner. The researcher thinks that even the appreciation of women's previous non-lucrative house chores starts to appreciate or command higher income the control over such an activity may not be transferred from them to men due to the pride in patriarchal social norms (man is man and woman is a woman). This demonstrates the institutional, cultural, and social barriers to women's access and adoption of services or information that ensure their benefits.

Ability to Mobilize for Economic Engagement
Studies indicated that the involvement of women in economic empowerment programmes and the potential to earn an income encourages husbands to mobilise some resources for their own use (Halim & colleagues 2019;Campo, & Steinert, 2022) The subordinating role of women persisted in programmes for empowerment as it is based on gender, thus it may not be possible without the involvement of male partners which demonstrates the dynamism of gender relationships (Campo & Steinert, 2022;Halim & colleagues, 2019). Women's ability to mobilise for economic engagement shape social and economic change fostering personal growth and wellbeing (Asongu et al., 2022). An economically engaged woman must not only be able to express her conventional political views but also the traditional political views to mobilise collectively and participate in key civil society debates on their liberties (Asongu et al., 2022). Women's ability to mobilise for economic engagement guarantees their effective voice in decision-making due to the quality contribution of ideas. Such economic engagement favourable to women results in mobilisation of capital for their own trading activities. Studies suggest that the pathway to advance gender equality and empowerment is spousal support in the engagement of incomegenerating activities (Wolf & Frese, 2018;Njuki et al., 2021). The effective pathway to provide women with the necessary resources may be through community groups especially farmer-based groups in which they exercise their choices geared towards capability enhancement. Studies have shown that membership in such farmer-based groups enhances women's decision-making over properties, improves the usage of income, and grants a sense of ownership of resources (Mwambi et al., 2021;Abdu et al., 2022). Besides, the gender gap as an empowerment indicator when bridged suggest different gateways have been opened to influence local policy intervention to empower women.

Discussion
Ghana is a practically patriarchal society so the participation of men in domestic chores like babysitting, cooking food, washing dishes, collecting firewood, and drawing water are nonexistent thus, discouraged in some societies, and any men found helping are labeled feeble. Orkoh et al (2022) suggested that the emphasizes should be on how important it is to create gender-aware legislation and challenge the long-standing cultural norms in order to lessen inequity between men and women. Women can mobilise for economic engagement when there is a change in attitude in society towards gender division of labour which may be possible through interventions by development partners to complement the efforts of governments (Mulema, 2018). Women generate income significantly and can mobilise effectively if they are provided with access to loans with low-interest rates, thus in cash and in-kind like improved seeds, farm implements, and skills training to be able to participate in many economic activities. With these facilities, women can engage in commercial farming or start a trade through which they can save their proceeds thus a habit demonstrating that they are empowered. There is variation in control and decision-making patterning to resources between genders based on the gender division of labour, social status in the household, and ways assets are acquired. The mobilization of women for economic engagement starts from the family when not married and from the husband after marriage. In Ghana, men rather than women in most societies acquire resources through inheritance or birth rights which makes them gain control over productive assets resulting in difficulty for women to mobilise for economic engagement. The observation is that women equipped with entrepreneurial skills might be doing better compared to colleagues without skills. Khan et al (2021) found that female entrepreneurs are economically and psychologically better compared with non-entrepreneurs female showing better social empowerment and to a smaller extent in the political field. Empowerment of women is multi-dimensional and encompasses increased access to resources and participation in decision-making, thus expanding their freedom to act and make choices in a sustainable manner.
The woman can have more control over the resources and participation in decision-making if more time and energy was invested than the husband. Orkoh et al (2022) found that household bargaining and power control in the decision to allocate labour between women and men are worsened by gender role division, household responsibilities, and poverty. The authority and control over decision-making powers depend on cultural practices and leadership at the household level. For instance, Mulema (2018) indicated that the issue of control over family income depends on the level of participation in decision-making regarding productive activities, the portion of the income individuals earned, the size of produce and income, culture, and household authority. Unlike the men earning income from wage employment and small businesses, most women in this part of the country invest their time and energy to earn income from petty trading and small businesses. Despite the unequal control over power and control over resources, the researcher thinks that there seems to be an increase in women's participation in the control of income, especially those earned from their petty trading and small businesses.
In such instances, women may be considered empowered when the ability that has been denied them is granted and expanded for them to make life choices in a strategic manner. The major driver of women's socioeconomic empowerment might include education, sharing of natural resources like land, training to build capacity, access to financial services, and socioeconomic networks. Orkoh et al (2022) think that women should be given more chances to participate in the formal labour market in a way that is more productive and beneficial to themselves and society at large. With these participations, women can access other opportunities that are beneficial for themselves, family, and society.
The benefits from women's participation in mainstream socio-economic activities propel governments and development partners in most developing countries, including Ghana, to promote gender equality, design and implement empowerment programs. Economists and politicians are becoming increasingly interested in how gender-based disparities in the amount of time spent on household and work-related activities affect the well-being of women (Orkoh et al., 2022). The researcher opines that women have contributed significantly towards the family and their own well-being should be acknowledged and encouraged as well as deserve public attention thus people need to recognise and appreciate the ability of women to work and earn an income from outside the home. Demedeme and Opoku (2022) suggested that empowering women amounts to increasing and improving their economic, social, legal, and political visibility to ensure equal rights and confidence to demand their rights. Several studies have it that vulnerability to empowerment is about multi-dimensional improvement in every aspect of women's endeavours like boosting their socioeconomic processes, financial and educational inclusions aimed at reducing inequality and poverty (Tchamyou et al., 2019;Nkoa et al., 2022). As one of the sustainable development goals, gender equality is a core element that paves the way for varying opportunities for women in the determination to close the gender gap. As a multifaceted concept, women's empowerment is viewed as power, rights, relationships, achievements, perceptions, and agency. For the UN, women's empowerment is seen in participatory decision-making that increases access to resources, leading to greater choices (Nkoa et al., 2022). A recent study by Demedeme and Opoku (2022) revealed that women are empowered when they acquired power and knowledge and use them to strengthen their natural capabilities to create enabling socio-economic environment for the right decisions to enhance and sustain their well-being.

Conclusion
Empowering women entails attending to household needs including better living circumstances, addressing educational and health needs, and gaining access to and control over resources that increase and sustain livelihoods. The Sustainable Development Goals SDGs in relation to the improvement of women's socioeconomic well-being is the right step to achieve equality by closing the gender gap. In this case, bridging the gender gap is an indication of the enhanced capability of women to make choices that are essential to their lives and can be considered empowerment in a sustainable manner. In fact, investments encourage the mobilization of funds to support initiatives that give women the opportunity to live and work on an equal footing with men. This suggestion is consistent with UN Women's (2018) assertion that investment, through gross fixed capital formation, promotes women's political as well as economic emancipation, which is good for gender equality, the eradication of poverty, and inclusive socioeconomic growth. With this investment, women are more likely to contribute to the economy by starting enterprises and farms that will feed their families and society at large. Despite these increasing changes in women's roles, they have contributed to both the reproduction and production growth of society. For instance, women's involvement in petty trading, in agricultural activities and businesses, and joining the mainstream workforces as secretaries, nurses, or teachers and other fields are sustainably effective. These suggest that the women are enterprising and hardworking to ensure the survival and sustainability of the family through the sale of agricultural produce thus both processed and raw. The sustainable socioeconomic empowerment of women may assist in transforming agrarian societies and industries into technological and industrial societies.