ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides the sociological analysis, the classifying of data and categorising of the women. A few women among the enterprising women had a negative view of enterprise. Some people working in 'development' have become cynical and argue that to assist women is just another development fad. The discussions initiated during the UN decade for women (1975-1985) led to many 'women in development' programmes, and researchers began to look into all manner of 'women and development', and later 'gender and development' issues. Running a micro-enterprise as a substitute for - rather than an alternative to - employment is also called 'livelihood activity' or 'income generating activity', the latter especially when referring to activities of women's groups. Women therefore tried their best to avoid success.
