Breaking the gender jinx

Gendering and negotiating the spirit of entrepreneurship has become passé. Translating women's voyage for entrepreneurship has slowly heralded in and carved out a niche in the male-dominated domain.

Falguni Nayar, an Indian businesswoman and the founder and CEO of the beauty and lifestyle retail company Nykaa has proved again that given the right opportunities, women can equally perform well as their male counterparts in any given field including entrepreneurship. Falguni Nayar's start-up FSN E-Commerce Ventures, the parent firm of beauty products retailer Nykaa is India's first woman-led unicorn to have hit the stock exchange. The market valuation crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore (USD 13.47 billion) mark on its debut day. Nayar is now the wealthiest self-made Indian female billionaire with her estimated wealth to the tune of USD 6.5 billion, after recent listings, and in the top 20 richest people of India.

To celebrate and support women entrepreneurs all across the globe, November 19 is officially proclaimed as the Women's Entrepreneurship Day, a day initiated by the Women Entrepreneurship Day Organisation (WEDO). However, the space and state of women entrepreneurs in India remain miserable on various fronts.

Globally, women entrepreneurs have been performing significant works in numerous domains. Almost 60 years before Oprah Winfrey became the first black woman to own and run a television network, Lucille Ball became the first woman to head a TV production company. In 1950, Ball found a TV production company, Desilu, with her husband Desi Arnaz. A decade later, after the couple's divorce, she bought her husband's share and became actively engaged as the studio head. According to the data by the US Census Bureau, women-owned firms are having USD 1.8 trillion in sales, shipments, receipts or revenue and employed over 10.1 million workers with an annual payroll of USD 388.1 billion in the year 2018.

Whenever there is a comparison between India and the world scenario in terms of women entrepreneurship, umpteen amount deliberations are getting raised. There's no doubt that women entrepreneurs have the potential to become the biggest force in India's economic growth and help the country to reach a USD 5 trillion economy by 2024-25. Studies also reveal that women's entrepreneurship is capable of creating from 150 million to 170 million new jobs. Similarly, McKinsey finds out that India could add up to 18 Per cent to its GDP by 2025 just by providing women with equal opportunities. Socio-economic and cultural constraints imposed on women, as well as limited employment opportunities, however, continue to affect women's contributions in the sector.

The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2021 ranks India at 140 out of a total of 153 countries. Indian women's contribution to the country's GDP stands at 18 per cent as opposed to the global average of 37 per cent. Statistics suggest that only 14 per cent of women opt for careers as entrepreneurs. 'Initiative for What Works to Advance Women and Girls in the Economy' report points out that nearly 91 per cent of women in India are employed in the informal sector.

Nevertheless, throughout history, it is found that many bold and strong females have proven their mettle of thriving in the men's world. Vandana Luthra and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw are just two of the amazing female entrepreneurs out there. The government machinery is also active in engaging women entrepreneurs in various fields. The Indian government has certain effective schemes to encourage and support women entrepreneurs. Annapurna Scheme, Bharatiya Mahila Bank Business Loan, Mudra Yojana Scheme, Dena Shakti Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana, Udyogini Scheme and Cent Kalyani Scheme are some of the schemes launched by the government to help women entrepreneurs, socially and financially.

The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) has been launched by the NITI Aayog, a public policy think tank of the Government of India, to provide an ecosystem for budding and existing women entrepreneurs across the country. A recent study by Uttam Chakraborty and Santosh Kumar Biswal distinctively identifies four psychological women empowerment dimensions - goal internationalization, perceived control, perceived competency and self-esteem- which are instrumental to attain the sustainable development goals (SDGs) results such as gender parity, reducing poverty and social disequilibrium.

The Self-help groups (SHGs), are also proving to be a powerful means for women to gain empowerment. The SHGs are instrumental in rendering financial services to rural women, which accelerates their entrepreneurial activity and encourages them to start small businesses. Through training and capacity-building programmes, the women are generating income with the loan amount.

It's time women across the country are given the right opportunities and resources to establish themselves as entrepreneurs and take forward the economy. They need to be educated about the available government schemes in order to make them independent. We as a country need to realise the superpower of women to excel at everything, including being an entrepreneur and job provider, to push forward our economy and achieve our desired goals.

The writer is from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune. She writes on contemporary socio-economic issues. Views expressed are personal