Copyright © 201 Farrah Merlinda Muharam et. al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7 (3.35) (2018) 184-187 International Journal of Engineering & Technology Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET Research paper What drives women into entrepreneurial activities? view from Malaysia and Philippines Farrah Merlinda Muharam 1 *, Marietta C. Israel 2 , Thoo Ai Chin 1 , Zuraidah Sulaiman 1 , Noraini Abu Talib 1 , Umar Haiyat Abdul Kohar 1 , Benita A. Meneses 2 , Eliza O. Daval Santos 2 1 Faculty of Management, University Technologic Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia 2 Institutes of Accounts, Business and Finance, Far Eastern University, Philippines *Corresponding author E-mail: Abstract Women nowadays are actively involved in entrepreneurship and contributing to economy development. In developing country such as Malaysia and Philippines, the participations are increasingly noted, yet the phenomena are still new. This study aims to understand the factors that motivate women to involve in entrepreneurship, in addition to their profiles and industry/business engagement. The study further explores the obstacles faced before/during venturing into entrepreneurial activities. Using quantitative approach, descriptive method and correlation are used to understand the phenomena. Findings from this study will provide a profiling of women entrepreneurs together with their motivational factors and to understand the challenges faced in the course. As both countries are establishing women as part of their economic development player, this study shall provide real inputs for policy building in promoting, encouraging and easing women involvement in entrepreneurial activities and the related industry. Keywords: Women Entrepreneurship; Motivation. 1. Introduction Women contribution in the economy through entrepreneurial ac- tivities is getting noticeable as they are considered as “untapped source” of economic growth (Minniti and Naudè, 2010). Unfortu- nately with equal numbers of participation globally, backed up with numerous support system (GEM, 2012), women entrepreneurs are still unable to contribute as much as male entrepreneurs (Vossen- berg, 2013). Women entrepreneurs, especially from developing countries, have slower growth with high likeliness to fail and be- come entrepreneurs out of necessity (Vossenberg, 2013). In South East Asian countries, entrepreneurship has experienced the same positive development too. Women have played important role in economic development and stabilised the economy during recessions (Ndubisi & Kahraman, 2006), partly through their en- trepreneurial activities. From Malaysian consensus 2005, about 133 new start-ups belong to women entrepreneurs applied for micro credit financing (United Nations Development Programme, 2008). It implies that Malaysian women realised the opportunity to grow their income and living standard through entrepreneur- ship. Meanwhile, in Philippines, nearly 70% of business start-ups are attributed to women entrepreneurs in order to break from pov- erty and local norms. Yet by involving in entrepreneurship, wom- en have to bear multiple responsibility as wife-mother- housekeeper-entrepreneur regardless of the geographical differ- ences. Still, success stories of women entrepreneurs are growing. This paper aims to provide an investigation of women motivation to become entrepreneurs in developing countries, taking insight from two South East Asian countries - Malaysia and Philippines, as both countries provides various support for women entrepre- neurs to bloom. The next section provides a brief background on women entrepre- neurial activities in Malaysia Philippines followed by literature on the issue. The section is followed by an explanation of the re- search method employed in this study, and the analysis of the result in detail. Conclusion is presented in the last section. 2. Literature review Looking at the current trend on the development of entrepreneur- ship and specifically, women entrepreneurial activities around the world, Malaysia and Philippines do not want to miss the oppor- tunity to develop and support women entrepreneurial activities. Currently, both countries have established many platforms to sup- port women entrepreneurship. Malaysian Government for in- stance, has embarked on developing capacity building initiatives through various Ministries and agencies to create, promote and nurture more women entrepreneurs, aiming to develop 4,000 women entrepreneurs by the year 2012. There are various pro- grammes been tailored especially for women such as Women Exporters Development Programme (WEDP) by MATRADE and various support, training and development courses being orga- nized by Women Development Department under the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development? Another platform called Malaysia Young Female Entrepreneur (MYFREN) is available to gather thoughts and ideas of entrepre- neurs and encourage more Malaysians especially the young fe- males to venture into entrepreneurism and businesses. MYFREN aims to create a strong and wide networking platform for young female to contribute in the economy development of Malaysia especially in making Malaysia Economy Transformation Plan and Vision 2020 a success.