Women Entrepreneurs- The Development of our Nation
Ayesha Mehrotra is pursuing her undergraduate degree in Bangalore. She is passionate about the environment and various social issues. Through her writing at this platform, she hopes to encourage the millions of unheard voices to speak out.
Women Entrepreneurs- The Development of our Nation
Successful women entrepreneurs are not only matching their male counterparts – in several ways, they’re even outperforming them.
According to a recent research, it was found that almost 90% of women entrepreneurs expected their companies’ gross profits to increase or remain stable in the next year. More specifically, 61% expected profits to rise, compared to an average of 58% among all entrepreneurs.
Though the changing role of women in business is being acknowledged gradually, the journey is still setback with tedious challenges. The woman entrepreneur faces a plethora of problems when it comes to embarking upon her own entrepreneurial venture. Moving in and around the market is again a tough job for women entrepreneurs in the Indian social system because the lack of motivation and vote of confidence is always due to gender inequality. Many industries don’t take women seriously because they are assumed to have a dearth of financial knowledge and expertise, therefore making them ‘unsuitable applicants’ for entrepreneurial ventures.
One also cannot ignore the impact of family and society on women in India during their formative years. Socialization of girls in the Indian society continues to have elements of repressive methods of upbringing of the girl child, hence affecting the aspirations of women. Young girls are seldom encouraged to take up higher studies as their parents believe that their daughters will ultimately get married and look after the family and have little to do with economy or commerce. There is basically no other future set ahead of them except for being home-makers. It is often perceived that highly qualified girls don’t get marriage proposals easily. Boys are sadly disinclined to marry girls who are more qualified or educated than they are or will potentially earn more than them.
Yet another common misconception is that educated women are less willing to adjust with her spouse and his family. Young girls are encouraged to take up hobbies which would keep them home-bound, as a result of which, their understanding of the external world such as banks, utility services, manufacturing, commercial activities etc. are seldom imparted to them through the experiences of their fathers, brothers or any other male members of the family.
Women are generally perceived as just ‘home-makers’, they are restricted to just doing daily chores at home. However this picture is slowly, but surely changing. In modern India, more and more women are taking up entrepreneurial activity especially in medium and small scale enterprises. Today, when businesses are facing a severe crunch in entrepreneurial talent, if women don’t play a meaningful role in business, then half of the country’s potential talent pool will remain under-utilized.
There is a need therefore for policy makers, Institutions and Social Organizations to project a clear cut outlook on the psychological and social factors that affect the success rate of women entrepreneurship. There is a need to support and facilitate many more success stories of women entrepreneurs before this can gain momentum on a much larger scale. Besides this, the entrepreneurship development agencies should create awareness among them regarding various facilities available to women entrepreneurs from time to time. Some organizations have taken up initiatives to provide an apt environment and funding for women entrepreneurs to develop into entities of success.
Encouragement at both the local and international scale should be provided along with providing special training to women entrepreneurs for harnessing their creative energies into successful entrepreneurial establishments. Be it small-scale industries or large-scale initiatives, both should be given equal consideration and importance to flourish. Keeping the versatility of women in mind and the various roles they can take up without any hesitation, our industries and economy can go a long way. Here are a few women that made it large by fighting against all odds, broke stereotypes and accomplished milestones in their respective fields, to outshine many other male-counterparts running alongside them in the same race.
Girl power all the way! 🙂
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead
