Internationalisation of women-owned firms is considered a new strategy for unlocking the full economic potential of a country. However, there has been a desultory work on gender and trade, particularly the epistemological and methodological approaches to explore this phenomenon, which has received inadequate attention. Drawing on the institution-based- theory and incorporating the feminist perspective, this study identifies barriers to socio-economic freedom as a multidimensional concept that influences the internationalisation of women entrepreneurship. Using mixed methods and based on findings from focus group discussion (study-1), in-depth interviews (study-2) and a survey (study-3) of SME women entrepreneurs, the study develops and validates a gender-specific model of barriers to socio-economic freedom that women entrepreneurs face in the internationalisation of their firms. The findings confirm that the additional barriers that women entrepreneurs face emerge from three dimensions