Reality of women entrepreneurs in India

Although the Indian economy is growing rapidly, the country still has an overall backwards view towards the role of women. This is particularly reflected in the lack of woman entrepreneurs in India. They contribute an important role to the Indian Gross Domestic Product (or GDP) and to Indian society.

However, only 14% of all Indian entrepreneurs are female, and aspiring woman entrepreneurs face constant discriminative and unequal challenges. Additionally, many woman enterprises are regulated to stereotypical “women’s work”. In rural India, small woman enterprises are usually classified as either farm or off-farm enterprises. These are almost always agriculturally based and often barely able to sustain the woman or her family.

In more affluent areas of the country, woman entrepreneurs are typically regulated to the fields of women’s rights, education and literacy, and special aid for disabled children.

There are many reasons for these regulations and low numbers which are not only faced by aspiring Indian woman entrepreneurs but aspiring woman entrepreneurs around the globe. The main reasons are as follows.

Part of the reason why many women decide not to pursue entrepreneurship is the myth about how much riskier it is than a salaried job. They prefer the stability of a set schedule and salary, along with the health insurance and paid leave benefits.

However, many woman entrepreneurs discredit those myths of entrepreneurship risk, since they say that things such as flexible work hours are precisely the reasons to become an entrepreneur.

Another part of the reason that women do not often succeed in entrepreneurship is the practical restrictions of society. Women often have difficulty accessing resources such as funds and space, often due to patriarchal laws and conventions about marriage, inheritance, and land.

There is also a lack of awareness startups and schemes to help aspiring woman entrepreneurs, which gives them very little opportunity to start a career in this field.

However, perhaps the biggest reason that there are so few woman entrepreneurs is the cyclical attitude of the patriarchal society.

Since society has revolved around men for so long, women are inherently lacking in the entrepreneurial field, and therefore, there is a lack of women for aspiring woman entrepreneurs to look up to.

Thus, these aspiring women have to push their hardest to break the majorly-male mold if they are to succeed in their career.

However, if more female mentors are around to help give these newcomers awareness and aid in their budding careers, the number of woman entrepreneurs may rise in the future.

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