WOMEN/ ENTREPRENEUR SPECIAL....... The prowess of women in enTrepreneurship

The prowess of women in enTrepreneurship





While defying convention and moving away from stereotypes, more and more women entrepreneurs are making their own mark in the male-dominated bastion

As the current ecosystem in entrepre neurship and startups gets more inclusive, equal and democratic, it is witnessing a slow but steady rise of women entrepreneurs. According to a report, India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can increase from 16 per cent to 60 per cent simply by allowing women to participate in the economy on par with men.

For a long time, women were generally encouraged to take up career options that were considered not so strenuous. Teaching or human resources would top the list among the preferred choice. However, the ballgame is changing, and quite rapidly so. Today, the concept of a successful woman entrepreneur remains a quite acceptable statement. With several women defying convention or moving away from stereotypes while following their passion, they are breaking the glass in the entrepreneurship domain, too.

Generally, women entrepreneurs are known to be extremely passionate about their work and believe they can make a difference to others as well. For instance, fashion and food technology sectors are witnessing a large number of women entrepreneurs in the past few years. These are two sectors that thrive on passion and women are certainly making a distinct mark.

However, there is tremendous scope for women entrepreneurs to tap more untested waters technology, automobile, Software as a Service (SaaS) or gaming are a few of the domains that largely remain untapped by women entrepreneurs.

Despite encouraging numbers over the years, there is still scope for improvement. In a bid to raise the numbers, it is being felt that more role models and mentors for women are required to inspire them and help them ease into a male-dominated ecosystem. An informal network of mentoring would go a long way in this regard.

Besides, the skewed gender ratio manifests in investor circles, too, with only a few women in the business. More representation would help encourage women to come forward. It is believed that one successful woman often starts off a domino-like chain of other successful women. Sometimes this effect is exponential. The environment in India continues to remain quite supportive of startups right equal support from the governmental. So, it is anticipated that in the coming year a number of exceptional women would start on or accelerate their entrepreneurial journey.

This is just the tipping point as there is so much potential still untapped. There is tremendous power in women entrepreneurship and the world is oyster.

Dec 23 2016 : The Economic Times (Mumbai)