Are you a woman who’s tired of hearing the annoying “Pammi Aunty”
next door ceaselessly suggesting to your parents, “Ab toh ladki badi ho gayi…
Ladka dhundhna shuru kar do”, while the only plans you presently have for the
future are those of staying independent on your own hard- earned money?
If so,
we have a little inspiration for you to keep your ambitions upright, coupled
with facts that will make you feel why dreams like yours do not need to end
within societal boundaries; why the country needs women like you to come
forward and be a strong individual, rather than a submissive bahu.
To begin with a positive note and a high dose of inspiration, no one
would have realized that having a penchant for tea and an acquired knowledge of
spices could get one in the limelight until 26 year old Indian- Australian
lawyer UppmaVirdi won the “Businesswoman of the year” award in Australia for
her tea- business named “Chai Walli”. Citing another example, who would have
thought that a woman’s outrage and frustration over the society’s tabooed idea
of menstruation could compel her to build a website that aids women through “that time of the month” and busts the ignorant myths that revolve
around menstruation. But Aditi Gupta, a girl from Garhwa (Jharkhand) did
exactly that.
Talking about the statistics though, any enthusiast for women
empowerment in India would light up at the fact that about 30 % of the
corporate senior management positions in the country are held by women, which
apparently happens to be higher than the global average of 24%, according to
Forbes India. But what would seem discerning is that when overall workforce in
terms of gender gap is taken into consideration, India sits at an embarrassing
113th position- out of 135 nations. To add to this woe, only 10 per
cent of women contribute towards the total number of entrepreneurs in the
country.
Factors that account for such sorry state of women entrepreneurship in
India are obvious and are something that most of us are already familiar with. It
is apparent that the Indian society has traditionally been patriarchal in its
approach, creating barriers and restrictions to the development of the feminine
population by setting up societal norms, crude and devoid of logic for the fair
sex. Although, over the years the society has evolved into a sensible one, but
only to a certain extent, as imprudent stereotypes still exist deep within its
roots, patronizing women to not venture into the realms of business and
corporate sophistication. Owing to this, many women have accepted their fate of
dreamless living and surviving without unique and promising ambitions, never
allowing the seed of an idea to even grow in their potential minds. Another
factor that contributes to the poor statistics mentioned earlier is the lack of
mentors and role models for the Indian women who can possibly come up with a
great business venture. The reason for this could possibly be the low numbers
of woman- owned businesses to start out with.
Having said this, it also becomes important to know why India needs more
women entrepreneurs. First, it would do a great amount of good to the national
economy. Second, it would do an equal amount of good to our nation’s
contribution to the global economy. Third, because women cancarry out
business.Period. In support of the last argument, I have here some statistics
that show thatfor start-ups with more female
executives, there is a higher success-to-failure rate.
Moreover, as put forward in Forbes India, “women control the vast
majority of household spending… and are more likely to better understand
customer perspective.” They are also more careful about taking risks, and don’t
generally give way to knee- jerk financial and business decisions that could
prove dangerous for their own business.
Also, when it comes to India’s women making it to top managerial
positions, we have names like IndraNooyi , CFO and President of Pepsico; Indu
Jain, chairperson of India’s largest media group,
Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd; KiranMazumdar Shaw, founder Chairman and
Managing Director (CMD) of Biocon Limited. All of these women started
somewhere, and perhaps their circumstances would have
been as rigid and restrictive as those of an average girl in this country. What
made them stand apart was a strong will to move beyond a mere shout for
equality; they believed in doing something unique to win the equality
and non- discriminative treatment every woman deserves, and somewhere in their
endeavours they made it clear that women can undoubtedly run the world.
And... If you're a woman entrepreneur, waiting for an opportunity to take the next step, well, guess what! -->
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