Women’s Empowerment through F-Commerce

A Systematic Review of Opportunities, Challenges, and Socioeconomic Impacts

Abstract

Facebook commerce, or F-commerce, has emerged as a significant channel for women's digital entrepreneurship, particularly in developing economies, where women's formal labor-market participation, access to capital, mobility, and market entry remain constrained by gender norms. This is a systematic narrative review of peer-reviewed, credible institutional literature on the role of F-commerce in women's empowerment, focusing on opportunities, challenges, and socioeconomic impacts. This analysis is underpinned by Kabeer's resources-agency-achievements framework, with gender-aware entrepreneurship theory, social commerce, digital entrepreneurship, and digital inclusion studies. The reviewed evidence indicates that F-commerce can enhance women's market access, social capital, income generation, entrepreneurial learning, and household contributions. But the impacts of empowerment are not uniform, as women entrepreneurs face challenges such as limited access to finance, low digital literacy, online harassment, insecure payment systems, logistical difficulties, a lack of formal business status, dependence on the platform, and ongoing burdens of unpaid care work. The article claims that F-commerce has the potential to increase women's economic agency, but it is not a magic bullet that can change structural gender inequality. Safe governance of the platform, gender-sensitive digital training, simplified formalization of business, financial inclusion, reliable logistical support, and enhanced legal protection and social recognition of women's online entrepreneurship are essential for sustainable empowerment.