Women''s empowerment is one of the key social and economic development objectives articulated in today''s world, almost universally aimed and advocated for. The last two decades have witnessed the debates on women''s economic empowerment becoming increasingly popular and taking over the international development stage, in seemingly convenient ways which leave some critical questions unanswered. This piece of academic enquiry aims to question the conventional wisdom on this subject by critically analyzing women economic engagement and its implications on their empowerment. The underlying objective of this research is to inform the gender and development discourse with first hand experiences and conceptualizations of grass root women about both economic participation and empowerment and their inter-play with each other.