This research aims to examine the impact of societal (cultural, social, and economic) factors on the business performance of the SMEs run by female entrepreneurs while considering leadership style as a moderator. A total of 106 valid responses were attained through a semi-structured matrix-based questionnaire. We employed purposive, convenience, and networking and connection sampling techniques. PLS-SEM was used for quantitative analysis. Findings revealed that societal (cultural, social, and economic) factors significant negatively affect the female-owned enterprises’ business performance. However, social constraints have stronger impact, followed by cultural constraints and economic factors. Moreover, the leadership style statistically significant positively moderates the relationship between societal factors and business performance of SMEs run by female entrepreneurs. In other words, leadership style plays strong role in reducing the negative impact of societal factors on the business performance. Funnel approach revealed that cultural norms sighting female’s role higher in domestic affairs, limited family support, financial assistance from government, and limited mobility and networking opportunities also play vital role in creating negative impact on the business performance. The novelty of this study is a use of leadership role as moderator in a relationship between societal factors and business performance. Thus, this study contributes new knowledge to the existing literature review.