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ABSTRACT In recent times, Distance Education has emerged as a boon to women of all ages to equip themselves intellectually through acquisition of knowledge, leading them to new radical methods of thinking, and alternative, lateral perspectives on existing information thus rendering them more autonomous and liberated. It reviews aspects of Gender and distance learning, participatory trends of women in distance learning in India, barriers affecting single lady parent advancement in academia, impact of distance learning on single lady women learners, limitations of distance education technologies, the Indian experience of distance learning. Women form the pivotal point around whom family life and living revolves. When economic level of a family goes down, women are the worst sufferers especially when she is a single mother. The poorer the family the greater is its dependence on women's economic productivity. Also illiteracy among women often leads to a poor self-image, lack of knowledge and self-worth, making them susceptible to being deprived of their rights and playing an active role in the society and restricts their economic productivity. Literacy among women opens the possibility of unlimited exposure to new information and more importantly to new ways of thinking and new perspectives on existing information. The Indian government envisions creating a middle-income, knowledge-based society with a middle class of entrepreneurs as the backbone of development processes in which women and men equally participate. As a result, many women have been starting businesses and the percentage of female owned enterprises in the capital currently is increasing. Nevertheless, a lack of education and skills has been identified as performance barrier of women owned enterprises self-employed women have indicated a need of specially designed MBA for education and training in order to improve their business practices. This study investigates the exact nature of these education needs and identifies what entrepreneurship education programmes are currently offering to look for similarities and discrepancies.