Women entrepreneur in India

INTRODUCTION

In the era of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization along with ongoing IT revolution, today’s world is changing at a surprising pace. Political and Economic Transformations appear to be taking place everywhere—as countries convert from command to demand economies, dictatorships move toward democratic system, and Monarchies build new civil institutions. These changes have created economic opportunities for women who want to own and operate businesses.

Today, women entrepreneurs represent a group of women who have broken away from the beaten track and are exploring new avenues of economic participation. Among the reasons for women to run organized enterprises are their skill and knowledge, their talents, abilities and creativity in business and a compelling desire of wanting to do something positive. It is high time that countries should rise to the challenge and create more support systems for encouraging more entrepreneurship amongst women. At the same time, it is up to women to break away from stereotyped mindsets.

In this dynamic world, women entrepreneurs are a significant part of the global expedition for sustained economic development and social progress. Due to the growing industrialization, urbanization, social legislation and along with the spread of higher education and awareness, theemergence of Women owned businesses are highly increasing in the economies of almost all countries.

Women Entrepreneurs may be define as the women or a group of women who commence and operate a business venture. . Like a male entrepreneurs a women entrepreneur has many functions. They should explore the prospects of starting new enterprise; undertake risks, introduction of new innovations, coordination, administration and control of business and providing effective leadership in all aspects of business. Government of India has described women entrepreneurs as an enterprise/venture owned and controlled by women having at least financial interest of 51% of the capital and giving at least 51% of employment generated in the organization to women.

Women Entrepreneurs are highly increasing in the economies of almost all countries. The hidden business potentials of women have been increasing with the growing sensitivity to the role and economic status in the society. The knowledge, Skill and compliance in business are the core reasons for women to come forward into business ventures. Women entrepreneurs engage in business due to push and pull factors which give confidence to women to have an self-sufficient occupation and stands on their foots. Logic towards independent

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decision-making on their life and career is the motivational factor behind this insists on ‘Women Entrepreneur’ is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal desires and turn out to be economically independent.

A strong desire to do enormous positive is an integral quality of entrepreneurial women, who is competent of contributing values in both family and social life. With the introduction of media, women are conscious of their own qualities, rights and also the work situations. The glass ceilings are shattered and women are found indulged in every line of business from aachaar to telecommunication. Right efforts in all areas are vital in the development of women entrepreneurs and their greater involvement in the entrepreneurial activities.

In former days, for Women there were 3 Ks- Kitchen, Kids, Knitting, then came 3 Ps- Powder,Pappad, Pickles and now at present there are 4 Es- Electricity, Electronics, Energy, Engineering .Indian women had undergone a long way and are becoming increasingly visible and successful in all spheres and have shifted from kitchen to higher level of professional activities.

Today’s women are taking more and more professional and technical degrees to cope up with market need and are flourishing as de signers, interior decorators, exporters, publishers, garment manufacturers and still exploring new avenues of economic participation. It is perhaps for these reasons that Government Bodies, NGO’s, Social Scientists, Researchers ‘and International Agencies have started showing interest in the issues related to entrepreneurship among women in India.

Women entrepreneur’s explore the prospects of starting a new enterprise; undertake risks, introduction of new innovations, coordinate administration & control of business & providing effective leadership in all aspects of business and have proved their footage in the male dominated business arena.

This report focuses on the concept of woman entrepreneurs in India; their traits in business, the problems faced by them when they set up and make some suggestions for future prospects for development of Women Entrepreneurs.

The educated women do not want to limit their lives in the four walls of the house. They demand equal respect from their partners. However, Indian women have to go a long way to achieve equal rights and position because traditions are deep rooted in Indian society where the sociological set up has been a male dominated one. Women are considered as weaker sex and always made to depend on men folk in their family and outside, throughout their life. The Indian

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culture made them only subordinates and executors of the decisions made by other male members, in the basic family structure. While at least half the brainpower on earth belongs to women, women remain perhaps the world‘s most underutilized resource. Despite all the social hurdles, India is brimming with the success stories of women. They stand tall from the rest of the crowd and are applauded for their achievements in their respective field.

The transformation of social fabric of the Indian society, in terms of increased educational status of women and varied aspirations for better living, necessitated a change in the life style of Indian women. She has competed with man and successfully stood up with him in every walk of life and business is no exception for this. These women leaders are assertive, persuasive and willing to take risks. They managed to survive and succeed in this cut throat competition with their hard work, diligence and perseverance. Ability to learn quickly from her abilities, her persuasiveness, open style of problem solving, willingness to take risks and chances, ability to motivate people, knowing how to win and lose gracefully are the strengths of the Indian women entrepreneurs.

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HISTORY

Entrepreneurship has gained currency across the sphere and female- entrepreneurship has become an important module. India is one of the fastest emerging economies and the importance of entrepreneurship is realized across the gamut.

“Women Entrepreneurship” means an act of business ownership and business creation that empowers women economically increases their economic strength as well as position in society. Women-entrepreneurs have been making a considerable impact in all most all the segments of the economy.

“Women Entrepreneur” is a person who denies the role of their personal needs to participateand be accepted economically independent. Strong desire to do something positive is a high-quality women entrepreneur who contributes to the position values of family and social life.

“An enterprise owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of 51% of capital and giving at least 51% of the employment generated by the enterprise to women.” - Government of India

According to Kamala Singh," A women entrepreneur is a confident, innovative and creative woman capable of achieving economic independence individually or in collaboration generates employment opportunities for others through initiating establishing and running an enterprise by keeping pace with her personal, family and social life.

According to Medha Dubhanshi Vinze,” a women entrepreneur is a person who is an enterprising individual with an eye for opportunities and an uncanny vision, Commercial acumen, with tremendous perseverance and above all a person who is willing to take risk with the unknown because of the adventures spirit she possesses.”

In the words of Former President APJ Abdul Kalam "Empowering women is a prerequisite for creating a good nation, when women are empowered, society with stability is assured. Empowerment of women is essential as their thoughts and their value systems lead to the development of a good family, good society and ultimately a good nation."

Pandit Jawaharlal Lal Nehru has remarked “When women move forward, the family moves, the village moves and the Nation moves.”

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Women Entrepreneurs have been making a significant impact in all segments of economy of the world. Their willingness for the future is apparent in their growing confidence, in their strengths and in their desire to seek different forms of work in order to achieve a new balance between work and home. Thus a women entrepreneur is one who starts business and manages it independently and tactfully takes all the risks, accepts challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically independent. A strong desire to do something positive is an inbuilt quality of entrepreneurial women, who is capable contributing values in both family and social life and is one who faces the challenges boldly with an iron, will to succeed.

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REASONS FOR WOMEN BECOMING ENTREPRENEURSThe glass ceilings are shattered and women are found indulged in every line of business. The entry of women into business in India is traced out as an extension of their kitchen activities, mainly 3P‘s, Pickle, Powder and Pappad. But with the spread of education and passage of time women started shifting from 3P‘s to modern 3E‘s i.e., Energy, Electronics and Engineering. Skill, knowledge and adaptability in business are the main reasons for women to emerge into business ventures. ‗Women Entrepreneur‘ is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically independent.

A strong desire to do something positive is an inbuilt quality of entrepreneurial women, who is capable of contributing values in both family and social life. With the advent of media, women are aware of their own traits, rights and also the work situations. The challenges and opportunities provided to the women of digital era are growing rapidly that the job seekers are turning into job creators. Many women start a business due to some traumatic event, such as divorce, discrimination due to pregnancy or the corporate glass ceiling, the health of a family member, or economic reasons such as a layoff. But a new talent pool of women entrepreneurs is forming today, as more women opt to leave corporate world to chart their own destinies. They are flourishing as designers, interior decorators, exporters, publishers, garment manufacturers and still exploring new avenues of economic participation. The following flow chart shows the reasons for women becoming entrepreneurs

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REASONS FOR SLOW PROGRESS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIAThe problems and constraints experienced by women entrepreneurs have resulted in restricting the expansion of women entrepreneurship. The major barriers encountered by women entrepreneurs are:

The greatest deterrent to women entrepreneurs is that they are women. A kind of patriarchal- male dominant social order is the building block to them in their way towards business success. Male members think it a big risk financing the ventures run by women

Male chauvinism is still prevalent in many parts of the country yet. Women are looked upon as ―abla‖ i.e. weak in all respects. In a male dominated society, women are not treated equal to men that act as a barrier to woman‘s entry into business.

Women entrepreneurs have to face a stiff competition with the men entrepreneurs who easily involve in the promotion and development area and carry out easy marketing of their products with both the organized sector and their male counterparts. Such a competition ultimately results in the liquidation of women entrepreneurs.

Lack of self-confidence, will-power, strong mental outlook and optimistic attitude amongst women creates a fear from committing mistakes while doing their piece of work. The family members and the society are reluctant to stand beside their entrepreneurial growth.

Women in India lead a protected life. They are even less educated, economically not stable nor self-dependent which reduce their ability to bear risks and uncertainties involved in a business unit,

The old and outdated social outlook to stop women from entering in the field of entrepreneurship is one of the reasons for their failure. They are under a social pressure which restrains them to prosper and achieve success in the field of entrepreneurship

Unlike men, women mobility in India is highly limited due to many reasons. A single women asking for room is still looked with suspicion. Cumbersome exercise involved in starting with an enterprise coupled with officials humiliating attitude towards women compels them to give up their spirit of surviving in enterprise altogether.

Women's family obligations also bar them from becoming successful entrepreneurs in both developed and developing nations. The financial

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institutions discourage women entrepreneurs on the belief that they can at any time leave their business and become housewives again.

Indian women give more emphasis to family ties and relationships. Married women have to make a fine balance between business and family. The business success also depends on the support the family members extended to women in the business process and management.

Women‘s family and personal obligations are sometimes a great barrier for succeeding in business career. Only few women are able to manage both home and business efficiently, devoting enough time to perform all their responsibilities in priority.

The educational level and family background of husbands also influences women participation in the field of enterprise.

Absence of proper support, cooperation and back-up for women by their own family members and the outside world people force them to drop the idea of excelling in the enterprise field. They are always making many pessimistic feelings to be aroused in their minds and making them feel that family and not business is a place meant for them.

Many women take the training by attending the Entrepreneurial Development programme without an entrepreneurial bent of mind. Women who are imparted training by various institutes must be verified on account of aptitude through the tests, interviews, etc.

High production cost of some business operations adversely affects the development of women entrepreneurs. The installations of new machineries during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factors discourage the women entrepreneurs from venturing into new areas.

Women controlled business are often small and it is not always easy for women to access the information they need regarding technology, training, innovative schemes, concessions, alternative markets, etc. Just a small percentage of women entrepreneurs avail the assistance of technology and they too remain confined to word processing software in the computer. They hardly make use of advanced software available like statistical software SAP, Accounting Package like TALLY, Animation software 3D MAX, internet, etc

Lack of awareness about the financial assistance in the form of incentives, loans, schemes etc. by the institutions in the financial sector. So the sincere

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efforts taken towards women entrepreneurs may not reach the entrepreneurs in rural and backward areas.

Achievement motivation of the women folk found less compared to male members. The low level of education and confidence leads to low level achievement and advancement motivation among women folk to engage in business operations and running a business concern. Apart from the above discussed problems there may occur other series of serious problems faced by women entrepreneurs as improper infrastructural facilities, high cost of production, attitude of people of society towards the women modern business outlook, low needs of enterprise. Women also tend to start business about ten years later than men, on average. Motherhood, lack of management experience, and traditional socialization has all been cited as reasons for delayed entry into entrepreneurial careers.

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Traits of Women Entrepreneurs in India

Women are ambitiousA successful woman entrepreneur is dreadfully strong-minded one, has an

inner urge or drives to change contemplation into realism. Knowledge from her previous occupancy as an employee, relying on educational qualifications or lessons learnt from inborn business, she is ready to grab opportunities, sets goal, possess clear vision, steps confidently forward and is ambitious to be successful. Every successful woman entrepreneur is truly determined to achieve goals and make her business prosper. Thorough knowledge of the field is indispensable to success. She comes with new innovative solutions to old problems to tide over issues.

Women are confidentA successful woman entrepreneur is confident in her ability. She is ready to

learn from others, search for help from experts if it means adding value to her goals. She is positive in nature and is keener to take risks. A winning woman entrepreneur uses common intelligence to make sound judgments when encountering everyday situations. This is gleaned from past experience and information acquired over the years. It is essential not to get aggravated and give up when you face obstacles and trials. The aptitude to explore uncharted territories and take bold decisions is the hallmark of a successful woman entrepreneur. A successful woman usually loves what she does. Sheis extremely fervent about her tasks and activities. Her high energy levels motivate her to contribute immensely towards building, establishing and maintaining a prosperous business.

Women is open and willing to learnA successful woman entrepreneur keeps side by side of changes, as she is

fully conscious of the importance of evolving changes. She is ahead of her competitors and thrives on changes. She adapts her business to changes in technology or service prospect of her patrons. She is inquisitive, concerned to learn and accommodative to innovations.

Women are cost consciousA successful woman entrepreneur prepares pragmatic budget estimates. She

provides cost effective quality services to her clients. With minimized cost of operations, she is able to force her team to capitalize on profits and gather its benefits.

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Women values cooperation and allegianceA woman has the ability to work with all levels of populace. She is keen on

maintaining associations and communicates evidently and efficiently. This helps her to negotiate even responsive issues without difficulty. She is sympathetic to people around her and have good networking skills that help her to get better contacts and utilize opportunities.

Women can balance home and work

A successful woman entrepreneur is good at balancing varied aspects of life. Her multitasking aptitude combined with support from spouse and relatives enables her to bring together business priorities with domestic responsibilities competently and efficiently.

Women are aware of her legal responsibility to the social orderA successful woman entrepreneur is eager to share her achievement with the society. She is dedicated to assist others and enjoys her liability.

Women focus on their PlansWomen Entrepreneur’s plan their work and work with plan. Set long-term and short-term goals and take consistent action in moving toward them.

Women are ResourcefulWomen entrepreneurs take advantage effectively coordinating the available factors and resources such as mentoring, training and coaching and build a strong base of education, training and experience which can help lead to success.

An effectual Women Entrepreneur requires certain additional essential qualities, which can be listed as follows.

Innovative thinking and farsightedness. Often relatively comfortable with ambiguity, uncertainty and risk. Quick and effective choice making skill. Strongly influence events (or self-efficacy). Strong determination. Have high levels of work motivation. Preparedness to take risks. Characterized by high levels of social competence and social intelligence Accepting changes in right time. Has an ability to build relationships and to connect with others on a social

and interpersonal level Access and alertness to latest scientific and technological information.

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Single-minded and devoted to their unique passions. Efficient execution of decisions imposed on them. May judge ambiguous business conditions in more positive, enthusiastic,

and optimistic terms. Clear vision and ambition on the improvement of family and children. Takes advantage of resources such as mentoring, counselling and other

small business development assistance. Patience and bearing the sufferings on behalf of others. Has some blend of critical analytical thinking, creativity, and practical

implementation of ideas. Ability to work physically more at any age.

Many women have these traits but they never got a platform to showcase their talents and for this reason they don't know their real abilities. Matching the basic qualities required for entrepreneurs and the basic characters of Indian women reveal that, much potential is available among the Indian women on their entrepreneurial ability. This potential is to be documented, brought out and exposed for utilization in productive and service sectors for the progress of the nation.

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KEY CHANGES IN WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN LAST FIVE DECADES

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE FIFTIES:Compulsive factors led to the creation of women entrepreneurs.

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE SIXTIES:Women began to aspire but also accepted the social cultural traditions.

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE SEVENTIES:The women in this decade opened up new frontier. They had not only aspiration but ambition.

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE EIGHTIES:Women were educated in highly sophisticated, technological and professional education. They became equally contributing partners.

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE NINETIES:This was the first time when the concept of best rather than male heir was talked about.

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE 21st Century:“Jill of all trades”Since the 21st century, the status of women in India has been changing

as a result tomounting industrialization and urbanization and social legislation. Over the years, more and more women are going in for higher education, technical and professional education and their proportion in the workforce has also been increased.

With the spread of education and awareness, women have shifted from the kitchen, handicrafts and traditional cottage industries to non-traditional higher levels of activities. The Government has also laid special weight age on the requirement for conducting special entrepreneurial training programs for women to enable them to start their own ventures.

Financial institutions and banks have also set up particular cells to help women entrepreneurs. This has rebound the women entrepreneurs on the economic scene in the recent years although many women’s entrepreneurship enterprises are

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still remained a much neglected field. Though, for women there are quite a lot of handicaps to enterinto and manage business ownership due to the intensely entrenched conventional state of mind andstrict principles of the Indian society.

Role of women as an Entrepreneur:

Considering the flow of women entrepreneurs in the traditional industries, it is often criticized that the women entrepreneurship is engaged only in handloom and handicraft and in the non-traditional term, now their aspect have broaden into new line like hotel line, Xeroxing, Beauty Parlour business, incense stick making, candle making etc.In the last decade, there has been a remarkable shift it emphasizes from the traditional industry to non-traditional industry and services. Based on this concept, some important opportunities are being identified, considering the socio-economic, cultural and educational status and motivational level of women entrepreneurs, particularly projects with low investment, low technical know-how and assured market are suggested for them such as production of soaps, detergents, ready- made instant food products including pickles, spices, papad, manufacturing of woollen goods, beauty parlour business, typing centre, job contracts for packaging of goods and distribution and household provision etc.

At present they are:

Creative: It refers to the creative approach or innovative ideas with competitive market. Well-planned approach is needed to examine the existing situation and to identify the entrepreneurial opportunities. It further implies that women entrepreneurs have alliance with clued-up people and constricting the right organization offering support and service.

Quality to working hard: Innovative women have further ability to work hard. The creative ideas have to come to a fair play. Hard work is required to build up an enterprise.

Determination: Women entrepreneurs must have an intention to fulfill their dreams. They have to make a dream transferred into an idea enterprise.

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Ability and desire to take risk: the desire refers to the willingness to take risk and ability to the proficiency in planning making forecast estimates and calculations.

Profit earning capacity: she has a capability to get maximum return out of invested capital.

Functions of Women Entrepreneurs:

A Woman entrepreneur has also to perform all the functions involved in establishing an enterprise

Functions for establishment of an enterprise Idea generation and screening Determination of objectives Undertaking a risk and handling of economic uncertainties involved in

business. project preparation Product analysis Introduction of innovations, imitations of innovations. Form of business Co-ordination, administration and control. Raising funds Supervision and leadership. Procuring men, machine and materials and operations of business.

In nutshell, women entrepreneur are those women who think of a business enterprise, initiateit, organize and combine the factors of production, operate the enterprise, undertake risk and handleeconomic uncertainties involved in running a business enterprise.

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Successful Leading Business Women in India

Chitra Ramkrishna, MD & CEO, National Stock ExchangeShe always believe that our women are unique in many ways as they come with stronger social values, ethos, diversity, resilience, etc. Beyond corporate, our own lawmakers - both at Central and several state governments - are also addressing legislative issues related to women, child care, employment conditions, etc. Like NSE, where one-third of the workforce comprises women - even at the entry level, she tries to consciously hire people only on merit - many corporate are gender agnostic.

Aarthi Subramanian, Executive Director, TCSAarthi Subramanian is known for her determination to not settle for anything but the best. One of her most challenging assignments after she became Executive Director was the Passport Seva Project for complete makeover and digitisation of the passport issuing process. This was TCS's first citizen-centric programme in India. Colleagues fondly call Subramanian, who last year became the first woman employee to make it to the board of directors of TCS, as 'Ms Fixit'. 

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Alice G. Vaidyan, CMD, GIC ReAlice G. Vaidyan is known to take up new challenges and making a success out of it. It was this single-minded focus on taking up newer challenges that took her to the top at General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) in a decade that saw many women executives bag top jobs in the country's financial services companies. With this, Vaidyan became the first woman to get the top post at a public sector insurer in the country.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, State Bank of IndiaArundhati Bhattacharya has rolled out several digital banking initiatives to compete with private banks. Three years ago, when Arundhati Bhattacharya took over as the first woman chairperson of State Bank of India, she spelt out some strategic goals - taming asset quality deterioration, improving risk management framework, checking costs, improving delivery standards and non-interest income, and leveraging technology

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Ashu Suyash, MD & CEO, CrisilCrisil's revenue has seen an upswing under Ashu Suyash's innovation-led agenda. Ashu Suyash took over as Managing Director and CEO of rating agency Crisil in June 2015, at a time of great uncertainty for the company. Suyash's appointment evoked mixed reactions as well: not only was she an outsider - unlike all Crisil's past CEOS who were promoted to the position - but she also had no experience of the rating business.

Nita Ambani, Chairperson, Reliance Foundation and Director, Reliance IndustriesNita Ambani is behind the corporate social responsibility initiatives of Reliance industries. Reliance Industries Director Nita Ambani's tour de force lies in the detail, but her hands-on approach does not involve telling members of the 'Reliance family' what to do or how to do it. Instead, she encourages them to be aware of the challenges and empowers them to come up with the best possible solutions.

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Priya Nair, Executive Director, Hindustan UnileverPriya Nair began her innings with Hindustan Unilever in 1995 as a management trainee and has risen through the ranks to become Executive Director (Home Care Division). As VP Laundry, Nair led the entire detergents portfolio and not only helped increase market share in the category but also penetrated emerging segments such as fabric conditioners and liquids. She has proved to be a good learner and has consistently delivered the goods for the company.

Radhika Piramal, Managing Director, VIP IndustriesRadhika Piramal has been busy giving a makeover to family-owned VIP Industries - repositioning it as a youth brand , introducing hip and fashionable luggage, backpacks, gym bags and duffle bags, and relaunching India's first strolley brand, Skybag. Repositioning VIP as a lifestyle brand with a focus on youth has been Radhika Piramal's forte.

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Rekha Menon, Chairman, Accenture IndiaIt is her discipline and passion that has helped her manage the 140,000 employees of Accenture India and ensure the Indian operations continue to remain core to the global technology major. Accenture had merely 300-odd employees in 2000 in India. However, it was quick to realise the potential the country could offer, not merely in terms of cost advantage but for the scale and capabilities it could tap into.

Schauna Chauhan Saluja, CEO, Parle AgroUnder Schauna Chauhan Saluja, Parle Agro is growing despite all the odds. The 40-year-old Saluja, the eldest daughter of company founder Prakash Chauhan, leads the charge of Parle Agro amid growing competition from multinational beverage giants.Saluja counts the construction of a manufacturing plant in Uttarakhand as her biggest achievement this year.

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Tanya Dubash, Executive Director, Godrej GroupGodrej was already a household name, with customers cutting across generations identifying themselves with the soaps and locks, personal care products and household appliances, when Tanya Dubash, the eldest daughter of Adi Godrej, took charge. But she was the first one to notice the early signs of a brand losing its lustre. Dubash wasted no time and took up a rebranding exercise, called Godrej Masterbrand Strategy. 

Usha Sangwan, Managing Director, LICUsha Sangwan's digital initiatives are helping LIC get ready for the future. Sangwan is part of the top team working to make LIC ready for the future. After Chairman S.K. Roy put in his papers abruptly, it is now entirely between the two managing directors, Sangwan and V.K. Sharma, to run the company, which has stood tall despite stiff competition from private players over the past one-and-a-half decades.

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Vanitha Narayanan, MD, IBM IndiaVanitha Narayanan brought global tech major IBM back in the swing. And IBM complements Narayanan well. After all, the global tech major has not only survived for over a century, but has retained its identity and competitive edge in a fast-changing environment. With operations in over 170 countries and annual revenues in excess of $80 billion, it has successfully managed to stay ahead of the curve.

Zarin Daruwala, CEO, India, Standard Chartered BankThis year, this banker made a big career shift, moving from ICICI Bank to a 158-year-old foreign bank in India. "What attracted me is that it is the top job in India," explains Zarin Daruwala, who now heads Standard Chartered Bank in India, the largest foreign bank in terms of branches. Zarin Daruwala aims to give a big push to retail banking at Standard Chartered.

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Neelam Dhawan, Managing Director India, Hewlett Packard

In today's dynamic business landscape, she believes it is imperative to think out of the box and stay relevant to all - customers, employees and partners. As a leader you need to be aware of the changes that are taking place around the world and adjust your business strategies accordingly. It is equally important for you to have the right leadership team - to work and collaborate together, and move the business forward.

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Women Entrepreneurs and Their Problems

Women entrepreneurs face many hurdles. Societal support is a key determinant in entrepreneurial establishment. The most common problem, which a woman faces, is the non-cooperation from her husband or close family members. Majority of the time the family members donot motivate them. Besides they face other problems like mobility constraints, dual responsibility, low managing ability, risk-bearing ability etc. They don’t lack managerial skills but they have less promotional ability, which they need to improve upon.

Scarcity of raw material and finance are another problem faced by the women entrepreneurs. The standard of technology used by the women entrepreneurs is qualitatively low; they are poor in technical know-how. Transportation difficulties, improper power supply and telecommunication are some of the other problem faced by them. Marketing problem is the biggest problem faced by women entrepreneurs.

Highly educated, talented and professionally qualified women should be encouraged for running their own business, rather than reliant on wage service jobs. The uncharted talents of young women can be acknowledged, skillful and used for various types of industries to increase the yield in the business sector. A desirable atmosphere is necessary for every woman to inculcate entrepreneurial values and involve greatly in business dealings.

There are some umpteen problems faced by women at various stages beginning from their initial commencement of enterprise, in running their enterprise. Their various problems are as follows:

Short Of Self-Confidence – In India women have lack of self-confidence in their strength and ability. The family members and the society are unwilling to stand beside their organizational growth. To a certain degree, this situation is changing with Indian women and yet to face an incredible amend to boost the rate of growth in entrepreneurship.

Socio-Cultural Barriers –family and personal obligations sometimes works as a great barrier for succeeding in business career of women entrepreneurship. Only few women arecapable of managing both home and business efficiently, giving sufficient time to perform all their responsibilities in priority.

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Risks Related To Market – tuff competition in the market and lack of mobility of women make them dependent on middleman essential. Many business women find it very difficult to capture the market share and make their products well popular and accepted by customer. They are not fully conscious of the changing market environment conditions and hence can effectively exploit the services of media and internet.

Mobility Constraints – Women in India have to face lot of restriction on their mobility, oursociety still have some conservativeness, and due to that career of women is limited to four walls of kitchen. Though women faced lots of problems being mobile in entrepreneurial activity, the mobility problem has been eliminated to very certain extent by the expansion of education awareness to all.

Business Administration Knowledge – Women must be educated and trained continuously to acquire the skills and understanding in all the required functional areas of business venture. This will make women to excel in decision making and develop good business skills.

Financial Assistance – most of the women especially in rural areas are not aware about the financial assistance provided by various institutions. The efforts taken for women entrepreneurs may not able to reach the entrepreneurs in rural and backward areas.Training Programs – Depending upon the needs, duration, skill and the purpose of entrepreneur there are various workshops and training programs available the social & welfare association. Such kinds of programs are really helpful to new and young entrepreneurs who desire to start a small and medium sized business on their own.

Cost – some business have highly production and operation cost that adversely affects the expansion of women entrepreneurs. The installations of new machineries during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factors discourage the women entrepreneurs from entering into new areas.

Arrangement of Finance: -For every business undertaking Finance is said to be the “life blood”, whether it is large, medium or small enterprise. Women entrepreneurs face the problems of shortage of finance on two important bases. Firstly, women do not in general have property on their own names to use that ascollateral securities for

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obtaining loans/funds from banks and other financial institutions. Thus their access to external sources is very limited .Secondly, obtaining the support of bankers, managing the working capital, lack of credit resources are the problems which still remain in the male’s domain.

Shortage of raw-materials:-Women entrepreneurs encounter the problems of shortage of raw-materials and necessary inputs. On the pinnacle of this, is the high prices of raw materials, on one hand and getting raw materials at minimum discount rates are the other.

Cut-throat Competition:-Lot of the women entrepreneurs have imperfect organizational set up to drive in a lot of money for canvassing and advertisements. They have to face severe competition from organized industries. They have also to face a stiff competition with the men entrepreneurs who easily involve in the promotion and development area and carry out easy marketing of their products with both the organized sector and their male counterparts. Such a competition ultimately results in the insolvency of women entrepreneurs.

Lack of education and prevalent levels of illiteracy amongst women: -In India, around (40%) of women are still illiterate. Illiteracy is the root cause of socio economic barriers or hurdles. Due to lack of Knowledge of latest technological change, know-how and education creates problems before women to set up competitive enterprises.

Family Conflicts:-Women also countenance the conflict of performing of home role as they are not available to spend enough time with their families. Because in India, mainly a woman’s duty is to look after her children and manage the other members of the family. In business they have to spend long hours and as a result, they find it difficult to meet the demands of their family members and society as well. Their incapability to attend to domestic work, time for education of children, personal hobbies, and entertainment adds to their conflicts.

Marketing Problems:-Women entrepreneurs incessantly face the problems in marketing their products. It is one of the core problems as this area is mainly dominated by males and even women with adequate experience fail to make a dent. For marketing the products women entrepreneurs have to be at the mercy of middlemen who pocket the hunk of profit. Although the middlemen exploit the women entrepreneurs, the purging of middlemen is tricky, because it involves a lot of running about. Women entrepreneurs also find it difficult to capture the market and make their products popular.

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High cost of production:High cost of production undermines the efficiency and adversely affects the development of women entrepreneurs. The installation of new machinery during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factor dissuades the women entrepreneur from venturing in to new area. Government assistance in the form of grant and subsidies to some extent enables them to tide over the difficult situations. However, in the long run, it would be necessary to increase efficiency and expand productive capacity and thereby reduce cost to make their ultimate survival possible, other than these, women entrepreneurs also face the problems of labour, human resources, infrastructure, legal formalities, overload of work, lack of family support, mistrust etc.

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Women Entrepreneurship in India

States No of UnitsRegistered

No. of WomenEntrepreneurs

Percentage

Tamil Nadu 9618 2930 30.36Uttar Pradesh 7980 3180 39.84Kerala 5487 2135 38.91Punjab 4791 1618 33.77Maharastra 4339 1394 32.12Gujrat 3872 1538 39.72Karnatka 3822 1026 26.84Madhya Pradesh 2967 842 28.38Other States & UTS 14576 4185 28.71Total 57,452 18,848 32.82

Women Work Participation

Country PercentageIndia (1970-1971) 14.2India (1980-1981) 19.7India (1990-1991) 22.3India (2000-2001) 31.6USA 45UK 43Indonesia 40Sri Lanka 35Brazil 35

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LIMITATIONS

During doing this research I found out that Women entrepreneurs face following limitations:-

1. The greatest deterrent to women entrepreneurs is that they are women.  A kind of patriarchal – male dominant social order is the building block to them in their way towards business success. Male members think it a big risk financing the ventures run by women.

2. The financial institutions are sceptical about the entrepreneurial abilities of women. The bankers consider women loonies as higher risk than men loonies. The bankers put unrealistic and unreasonable securities to get loan to women entrepreneurs. According to a report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization , "despite evidence that women's loan repayment rates are higher than men's, women still face more difficulties in obtaining credit," often due to discriminatory attitudes of banks and informal lending groups.

3. Entrepreneurs usually require financial assistance of some kind to launch their ventures - be it a formal bank loan or money from a savings account. Women in developing nations have little access to funds, due to the fact that they are concentrated in poor rural communities with few opportunities to borrow money. The women entrepreneurs are suffering from inadequate financial resources and working capital.  The women entrepreneurs lack access to external funds due to their inability to provide tangible security. Very few women have the tangible property in hand.

4. Women's family obligations also bar them from becoming successful entrepreneurs in both developed and developing nations. "Having primary responsibility for children, home and older dependent family members, few women can devote all their time and energies to their business" .The financial institutions discourage women entrepreneurs on the belief that they can at any time leave their business and become housewives again.  The result is that they are forced to rely on their own savings, and loan from relatives and family friends.

5. Indian women give more emphasis to family ties and relationships. Married

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women have to make a fine balance between business and home. More over the business success is depends on the support the family members extended to women in the business process and management. The interest of the family members is a determinant factor in the realization of women folk business aspirations.

6. Another argument is that women entrepreneurs have low-level management skills. They have to depend on office staffs and intermediaries, to get things done, especially, the marketing and sales side of business. Here there is more probability for business fallacies like the intermediaries take major part of the surplus or profit. Marketing means mobility and confidence in dealing with the external world, both of which women have been discouraged from developing by social conditioning. Even when they are otherwise in control of an enterprise, they often depend on males of the family in this area.

7. The male - female competition is another factor, which develop hurdles to women entrepreneurs in the business management process. Despite the fact that women entrepreneurs are good in keeping their service prompt and delivery in time, due to lack of organisational skills compared to male entrepreneurs women have to face constraints from competition. The confidence to travel across day and night and even different regions and states are less found in women compared to male entrepreneurs. This shows the low level freedom of expression and freedom of mobility of the women entrepreneurs. 

8. Knowledge of alternative source of raw materials availability and high negotiation skills are the basic requirement to run a business.  Getting the raw materials from different souse with discount prices is the factor that determines the profit margin. Lack of knowledge of availability of the raw materials and low-level negotiation and bargaining skills are the factors, which affect women entrepreneur's business adventures.

9. Knowledge of latest technological changes, know how, and education level of the person are significant factor that affect business. The literacy rate of women in India is found at low level compared to male population. Many women in developing nations lack the education needed to spur successful entrepreneurship. They are ignorant of new technologies or unskilled in their

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use, and often unable to do research and gain the necessary training . Although great advances are being made in technology, many women's illiteracy, structural difficulties, and lack of access to technical training prevent the technology from being beneficial or even available to females . According to The Economist, this lack of knowledge and the continuing treatment of women as second-class citizens keeps them in a pervasive cycle ofpoverty . The studies indicates that uneducated women donot have the knowledge of measurement and basic accounting.

10.  Low-level risk taking attitude is another factor affecting women folk decision to get into business. Low-level education provides low-level self-confidence and self-reliance to the women folk to engage in business, which is continuous risk taking and strategic cession making profession. Investing money, maintaining the operations and ploughing back money for surplus generation requires high risk taking attitude, courage and confidence. Though the risk tolerance ability of the women folk in day-to-day life is high compared to male members, while in business it is found opposite to that.

11.  Achievement motivation of the women folk found less compared to male members.  The low level of education and confidence leads to low level achievement and advancement motivation among women folk to engage in business operations and running a business concern.

12.  Finally high production cost of some business operations adversely affects the development of women entrepreneurs. The installation of new machineries during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factors dissuades the women entrepreneurs from venturing into new areas.

RECOMMENDATIONS

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On the basis of the aforesaid problems faced by women entrepreneurs and various other problems too, there is a provision of a number of Strategies for promoting women entrepreneurship to overcome these problems. Such solutions or remedies can be well understood as under:-

There should be a continuous attempt to inspire, encourage, motivate and co-operate women entrepreneurs.

An Awareness programme should be conducted on a mass scale with the intention of creating awareness among women about the various areas to conduct business.

Attempts should be there to enhance the standards of education of women in general as well making effective provisions for their training, practical experience and personality development programmes, to improvise their over-all personality standards.

Organize training programmes to develop professional competencies in managerial, leadership, marketing, financial, production process, profit planning, maintaining books of accounts and other skills. This will encourage women to undertake business.

Vocational training to be extended to women community that enables them to understand the production process and production management.

Skill development to be done in women's polytechnics and industrial training institutes. Skills are put to work in training-cum-production workshops.

Educational institutes should tie up with various government and non-government agencies to assist in entrepreneurship development mainly to plan business projects.

International, National, Local trade fairs, Industrial exhibitions, seminars and conferences should be organized to help women to facilitate interaction with other women entrepreneurs.

Women in business should be offered soft loans & subsides for encouraging them into industrial activities. The financial institutions should provide more working capital assistance both for small scale venture and large scale ventures.

Making provision of micro credit system and enterprise credit system to the women entrepreneurs at local level.

Promoting entrepreneurship among women is especially important to tackle the problems founder employment and unemployment in the society.

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Education has been instrumental in increasing the participation of women in entrepreneurial activities. The formal education not only helps in acquisition of requires knowledge for a job, which demands non-traditional skills but also imparts knowledge about the different occupational opportunities. Good academic background makes women confident in dealing with problems in business in an effective manner. Although it is a fact that entrepreneurship is not a special preserve for the educated but in the case of women already burdened with many social pressures, education is a powerful tool in breaking down the barriers to successful Entrepreneurship. Thus education is a liberating force and barriers of caste and class, smoothing out inequalities imposed by birth and other circumstances.

There should be an incessant attempt to motivate, give confidence, inspire and assist women entrepreneurs.

Government should provide better educational facilities and schemes to women folk.

There should be continuous monitoring, improvement of training programmers, practical experience and personality development programmes to improvise their over-all personality standards.

Establishment of proper training institutes for enhancing their level of work-knowledge, skills, risk-taking abilities, enhancing their capabilities. Training Centres should provide training to prospective women entrepreneurs free of cost and Entrepreneurship Development Programme should be much more practical oriented. Inculcation of self-confidence amongst women that they can also run a business should be one of the prime motives of these programmes.

Potential women entrepreneurs should be exposed to different types of emerging opportunities.

Housewives should be motivated to learn additional income.

A women entrepreneur should herself set up an example by being successful and should act asa role model. Since children have a tendency to emulate their parents, the resultant effect would be automatic.

Establishment of proper training institutes for enhancing their level of work-knowledge, skills, risk-taking abilities, enhancing their capabilities.

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Finance is sine-qua-non for any enterprise. The banking system is not sufficiently responsive to social banking needs and has not been able to deal with barriers that hinder women from using or gaining access to credit. Adequate arrangements must be made for the supply of credit facility at concession rate for the women entrepreneurs in view of their growing needs.

Creating provision of micro credit system and enterprise credit system to the women entrepreneurs at local level.

A Women Entrepreneur's Guidance Cell should be set up to handle the various problems of women entrepreneurs all over the state.

Positive attitudinal change in the society recognizing the role of women as entrepreneur may lead to the development of appropriate environment in which women will be able to exploit their entrepreneurial talents.

Offering seed capital, up-liftmen schemes, women entrepreneurs fund etc.

To encourage them economically.

To extend confessional rates facilities and schemes for women entrepreneurs to prosper in the field of enterprise.

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CONCLUSIONIndia is a male dominated society and women are assumed to be economically as well as socially dependent on male members. The absolute dependence seems to be diluted among the high and middle class women as they are becoming more aware of personal needs and demanding greater equality.

Women entrepreneurs faced lots of problems at start-up as well as operating stage like, non-availability of finance, restricted mobility freedom and having to perform dual role one at home and other at work. Technological advancement and information technology explosion have reduced the problem of women entrepreneurs. Along with technological revolution, mental revolution of society is needed to change the attitude of the society and provide women with democratic and entrepreneurial platform.

More-over with increasing Government and Non-Government and other financial institutions assistance for various women entrepreneurs within the economy there can be significant increase brought about in the growth of women entrepreneurship process. Still efforts are being made to coordinate with the enterprise activities of women and providing them utmost financial, morale, psychological support by various institutions working within the economy and world-wide.

Thus, Women have the potential and the determination to set up, uphold and supervise their own enterprises in a very systematic manner. Appropriate support and encouragement from the Society in general and family members in particular is required to help these women scale new heights in their business ventures. The right kind of assistance from family, society and Government can make these Women Entrepreneurs a part of the mainstream of national economy and they can contribute to the economic progress of India.

It can be said that today we are in a better position wherein women participation in the field of entrepreneurship is increasing at a considerable rate. Efforts are being taken at the economy as brought promise of equality of opportunity in all spheres to the Indian women and laws guaranteed equal rights of participation in political process and equal opportunities and rights in education and employment were enacted. But unfortunately, the government sponsored development activities have benefited only a small section of women i.e. the urban middle class women. Women sector occupies nearly 45% of the Indian population. At this juncture, effective steps are needed to provide entrepreneurial awareness, orientation and skill development programs to

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women. The role of Women entrepreneur in economic development is also being recognized and steps are being taken to promote women entrepreneurship.

Resurgence of entrepreneurship is the need of the hour emphasizing on educating women strata of population, spreading awareness and consciousness amongst women to outshine in the enterprise field, making them realize their strengths, and important position in the society and the great contribution they can make for their industry as well as the entire economy. Women entrepreneurship must be moulded properly with entrepreneurial traits and skills to meet the changes in trends, challenges global markets and also be competent enough to sustain and strive for excellence in the entrepreneurial arena. If every citizen works with such an attitude towards respecting the important position occupied by women in society and understanding their vital role in the modern business field too, then very soon we can pre-estimate our chances of out beating our own conservative and rigid thought process which is the biggest barrier in our country‘s development process.

We always viewed that a smart woman can pick up a job any day, but if she becomes an entrepreneur she can provide a livelihood to 10 more women at least..!! Highly educated, technically sound and professionally qualified women should be encouraged for managing their own business, rather than dependent on wage employment outlets. The unexplored talents of young women can be identified, trained and used for various types of industries to increase the productivity in the industrial sector.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Entrepreneurship Development –By S.S Khanka. S. Chand & Company Limited. (Ram Nagar, New Delhi-10055).

A Reflection of the Indian Women in Entrepreneurial Worldwww.iimahd.ernet.in/publications/data/2005-08-07indirap.pdf

www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC1073/fc1073.html

www.oppapers.com › Business & Economy Research Papers

www.asiaentrepreneurshipjournal.com/AJESVolIIIss1Malar.pdf

www.academicjournals.org/ajbm/.../Witbooi%20and%20Ukpere.pdf

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