BW Communities

Women Entrepreneurs, Present World And Emerging Business

Pooja Sharma Jan 22, 2022

Entrepreneurship has been a male-dominated aspect from a very early age. The contribution of women business leaders is still imperceptible and should be appropriately explored. A new report reveals that only two Indian urban areas have made it to the rundown of the 50 most encouraging worldwide spots for women to work. Bengaluru, India's Silicon Valley, was ranked 40th, while Delhi was ranked 49th.

As indicated by the National Sample Survey, only 14 per cent of the organisations in India are run by women entrepreneurs. Most of the businesses are bootstrapped and run on a small scale. The global disparity is evident in a report that claims nearly 126 million women own their own businesses worldwide, while Indian women linger around 8 million imprints.

The President of the Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs (FIWE) and Secretary-General of International Federation of Women Entrepreneurs (IFWE), Rajni Aggarwal expounds on the role of the government in encouraging women-led businesses. "The ecosystem is in favour of women entrepreneurs because of the kind of support that the government has given and the financial resources that are available through different sources through the different bank schemes," said Aggarwal.

Measuring the Gap

While being asked about equal opportunities for women in the entrepreneurial landscape, the Founder of Baby Chakra, Naiyya Saggi expresses, "We haven't, but if I were to look ahead, I am very optimistic about what lies ahead." We already know the data, with around 2 per cent of venture funding going to women entrepreneurs. So, while talking about these billions that are flowing into the economy, last quarter we had more than 10 billion in venture funding coming in. But what percentage of that funding goes to women-led start-ups has always been a question."

About 58 per cent of the female leaders were between the ages of 19-35 when they started. In a fiscal year, nearly 73 per cent of the stated revenue is around Rs 10 lakhs. Around 57 per cent of these females began a solo, with no other members or funding. For help and direction, around 35 per cent of the women' organisations had a co-founder. Indeed, even today, 71 per cent of Indian businesswomen employ 5 people or less in the primary stages.

The social structure plays a critical role in ensuring that women have an equal opportunities. The issue of women being willing to do the work but being unable or unwilling to step forward and take control, "So we have a really long way to go in creating an atmosphere in which women can step forward and kind of assume positions of power without being judged, being called bossy, or any of those terms that women get when men get called leaders," said CEO and Co-founder of SaPa, Bindu Subramanian.

During the discussion speaking upon patriarchal boundaries, Upasana Makati, Founder, White Print, states, "Definitely, there is a very long way to go. There is patriarchy, or the germ of patriarchy, in each of our homes in various forms, and we taste it to varying degrees at some point in our entrepreneurial journey."