In today's India, women's economic empowerment is the most important first step toward equality. Although the female population in the Thoothukudi district is larger than the male population, women remain further behind men in terms of literacy and employment. As a result, this study aims to examine the economic impact of women who work for themselves in the Kovilpatti Taluk in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi district. This inquiry relies on both primary and secondary data. A sample of 120 self-employed women is chosen for the study by adopting a simple random sampling method. The secondary data composed from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, books, magazines, journals, RBI Bulletins, NABARD's Annual Reports, District Collector Office, Thoothukudi, Labour Welfare office, ILO, Ministry of Labour and Employment, NSSO, District Statistical reports census reports, theses, and websites. The field survey was conducted from March 2021 to September 2021 to collect primary data. The mean, standard deviation, 't-test and Garrett's ranking statistical tools were used to analyse the primary and secondary data. The study reveals the monthly income of the respondents before and after employment. Before employment, 26.67 percent of the respondents had a monthly family income of less than Rs.10 000, whereas, after employment, 20.00 percent of the respondents had a monthly household income of less than Rs.10 000. 47.50 percent of the respondents had a monthly income between Rs.10, 001-15,000 before employment, which decreased by 37.50 percent after employment. 18.33 percent, 5.83 percent and 1.67 percent of the respondents had monthly family income between Rs.15, 001-20,000, 20,001-25,000 and above Rs.25, 000 respectively before employment. However, it increased to 23.33, 11.67 and 7.50 percent after employment.

Keywords: self-employment, self-earnings, empowerment, entrepreneurship, economic impact.