Blitzscaling Nation Building: A Case For Greater Women Participation

Given my chosen path of launching a gender smart venture equity fund, we have set an audacious goal for ourselves – helping 30 million women gain agency. I am often asked the why and the how of achieving this. The ‘why’ seems self-evident. As a former student of economics, I often go back to Economics 101. If any economy is not fully utilising nearly 50 per cent of its resources, how can that economy be firing all its engines of growth? As a former student of finance who also built a career in finance, it perplexes me that as savvy stakeholders of the economy, we are leaving immense financial and impact returns on the table.

Truth be told, I did not arrive at the latter intuitively. It was more through a programme which I chaired and led – Project All India Roadshow for Women’s Economic Empowerment through Entrepreneurship (AIRSWEEE), that offered us unique insights into the transformative power of women entrepreneurs. We conducted this programme from 2016-2019 back when not too many people were talking about this. We were amazed at the serious hustle of these women who transformed not only their families but also their communities and have already demonstrated a multigenerational impact. It is heartening to see the new flourish of additional programmes that have been sponsored by motivated changemakers. It was this pan-India project that truly sensitised us to the remarkable power of nation building that is uniquely available to every society but unfortunately ignored by most societies. It’s women. 

We often talk about the labour participation rates being low in India, estimated at 17-20 per cent. We need to peel the onion and try and understand what is feeding this low level of economic engagement.

There is no easy answer. It is a complex web of multiple factors which has brought us where we are. Given this complexity, I will not even attempt to capture all the myriad facets in this one article. But some aspects are very evident, especially when one puts on the gender smart lens.  

The deeply ingrained biases, lack of access to opportunities and education, lack of a
 level-playing field feed into this for sure. If one layers on limited access to networks, mentors, markets, resources, mobility, the picture of inequity become more evident. This in turn feeds the lack of agency that most women experience in their lives. Which in turn reinforces what often becomes a downward spiral.

But it is not all doom and gloom. There is hope. India's G20 presidency was an important opportunity to promote this universal sense of one-ness. The theme – 'One Earth, One Family, One Future' which was rooted in women-led development has shined a spotlight on the potential of including women in the country’s economic development. Under the leadership of Sangita Reddy, EMPOWER G20 set out an ambitious agenda and launched critical initiatives for women such as TechEquity, Financial Literacy and similar initiatives.  These build up on some already great work being launched by Government of India such as Stand-Up India, Mahila E-Haat, Women Startup Programme (WSP), and Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) which offer critical support, financial aid, training, mentorship, networking, and market access. 

Organisations like AWE Foundation, Women on Wings, Internet Saathi, Sheroes, eWOW (Empowered Women of the World), Aspire for Her, Lean In India, among others are contributing to increasing women participation in our economy.   Increased CSR focus is helping, as corporate leaders like Google, LinkedIn, IBM, HSBC launch new initiatives to include women in general and women entrepreneurs in particular. Influencers like Shereen Bhan of CNBC are amplifying not only the severity of the problem but also the solutions through dedicated programming such as CNBC’s Future.Female.Forward.

So there is hope. But can we do more.? The answer is a resounding yes! Which brings me to the ‘how.’ From my vantage point, which builds upon my experience and my world view, a profound way to improve gender equity is by making more funding/capital available to women-centric businesses. These could be women founded, women-led, women-based supply-chains or even women as market makers. Engaging women in any of these capacities builds up the multiplier effect which contributes to more women gaining agency.

It is now widely known that a dismal two per cent of venture funding goes to women. Other sources of funding are no better. It is estimated that only about 8-10 per cent of women-centric businesses have access to formal sources of capital. Which is why many such businesses do not scale.  So, what can help? Promoting women fund managers who are caretakers of capital. 

It should come as no surprise that less than 8 per cent of fund managers are women. There is a strong and studied correlation between this low level of women controlling sources of capital and the lower level of access to capital that most women entrepreneurs are faced with.

This is where development finance institutions and government sources can play a very significant role in catalysing greater numbers of women fund managers by promoting schemes that actively support the launch of women fund managers. To be clear, I am not proposing that a fund manager should get funded just because she is a woman. However, when the numbers are this bleak – proactively helping ‘qualified’ women fund managers can help drive capital to opportunities that not only improve gender equity but can also solve for many of interlinked aspects of climate action and related sustainable development goals. And that is when we blitz-scale nation building.

Seema Chaturvedi is Founder & Managing Partner of AWE Funds – an early growth venture fund investing in innovation to promote climate action and gender equity by investing in Climate, Health, Agri, Fintech & Edtech. 

Seema Chaturvedi

Guest Author Seema Chaturvedi is Founder & Managing Partner of AWE Funds