Role of women entrepreneurs in new emerging economic

scenario in India
Study, analyze and compare problems and prospects
of women entrepreneurship in BRIC nations

Managing New Venture Project Submitted

IN
Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of
Post Graduate Diploma in Management
(Recognized by AICTE, Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India)

By
PRAGYA KUMARI
PG 09-075

Submitted to:
Prof. S. S. Sharma

INMANTEC, Ghaziabad

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 Contents:
Sl. No. Particulars Page. No.
1 Introduction 3
2 The role of women entrepreneurs in the 4
new emerging economic scenario in India
3 Women Entrepreneurship in India 10
4 Problems and prospects of women 11
entrepreneurship in BRIC nations
5 Findings 13
6 Economic Impact of Women 17
Entrepreneurship
7 Conclusion 19

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The role of women entrepreneurs in the new emerging
economic scenario in India
Study, analyze and compare problems and prospects of
women entrepreneurship in BRIC nations

“What we need is an entrepreneurial Society in which innovation &

entrepreneurship are normal, steady& continual”

-Peter.F.Drucker

Introduction
Women Entrepreneurship is both about Women pose in society and the role
of Women Entrepreneurship in the same society. Women are faced with specific
obstacles (such as family responsibilities) that have to be overcome in order to
give them access to the same opportunities as men. Also, in some countries,
women may experience obstacles with respect to holding property and entering
contracts. Increased participation of women in the labour force is a prerequisite
for improving the position of women in society and self-employed women.

Women owned businesses are highly increasing in the economies of almost

all countries. The hidden entrepreneurial potentials of women have gradually been
changing with the growing sensitivity to the role & economic status in the society.
Skill, Knowledge & adaptability in business are the main reason for women to
take up entrepreneurship.

They span generations and are there in every field, From Tractors to
television, from biscuits to banking, from HR to hospitals. Denied entry into a
male bastion, they create another industry like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon .
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According to her, hard work, commitment and caring in word and deed helps
people overcome obstacles.

The role of women entrepreneurs in the new emerging economic

scenario in India

The role of Women Entrepreneur needs to be considered in the economic

development of the nation for various reasons.

Women Entrepreneur has been recognized during the last decade as an

important untapped source of economic growth. Women Entrepreneurs create
new jobs for themselves and others and by being different also provide society
with different solutions to management, organization and business problems as
well as to the exploitation of Women Entrepreneurial opportunities. However,
they still represent a minority of all Women Entrepreneurs. Thus there exists a
market failure discriminating against Women possibility to become Women
Entrepreneurs and their possibility to become successful Women Entrepreneurs.
This market failure needs to be addressed by policy makers so that the economic
potential of this group can be fully utilized. While without a doubt the economic
impact of women is substantial, we still lack a reliable picture describing in detail
that specific impact. Recent efforts initiated by the OECD (1997, 2000) are
responses to this lack of knowledge and have focused the attention of policy
makers and was on this important topic.

Women Entrepreneurship has been largely neglected both in society in

general and in the social sciences. Not only have women lower participation rates
in Women Entrepreneurship than men but they also generally choose to start and
manage firms in different industries than men tend to do. The industries

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(primarily retail, education and other service industries) chosen by women are
often perceived as being less important to economic development and growth than
high-technology and manufacturing.

Furthermore, conventional research, policies and Proposals tend to be “men

streamed” and too often do not take into account the specific needs of Women
Entrepreneurs and would-be Women Entrepreneurs. As a consequence, equal
opportunity between men and women from the perspective of Women
Entrepreneurship is still not a reality. In order to realize the benefits of policy
changes it is important to incorporate a Women Entrepreneurial dimension in
considering all SMEs and growth policies (e.g. meeting Women financing needs
at all stages of the business continuum; take-up of business development and
support services; access to corporate, government and international markets;
technology access and utilization; R&D and innovation; etc.). Moreover this
means periodically evaluating the impact of these measures on the success of
women-owned businesses and exchanging good models and best practices,
through cooperation with leading international organizations such as the OECD,
European Union, APEC, UNCTAD and the ILO, in order to continually improve
policies and Proposals.

Better qualitative information and quantitative data and statistics are

required to profile Women Entrepreneurs (demographic information, barriers to
start-up and growth). This would also assist in promoting awareness of the role of
Women Entrepreneurs in the economy. Using a frame of reference such as that
developed in the report could be valuable for the analysis of this information.

It is observed that Women Entrepreneur networks are major sources of

knowledge about Women Entrepreneur and they are increasingly recognized as a

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valuable tool for its development and promotion. Policy makers must foster the
networking of associations and encourage co-operation and partnerships among
national and international networks and facilitate Women Entrepreneurial
endeavors by women in the economy.

The challenge of world class competition and the attempts at globalization

and Liberalization has tremendously altered the business environment of firms in
India. In contributing to the working of any firm in India, be as a policy maker or
as a person doing business with a firm in India or as a marketing practitioner or as
an academician, it is important to understand how practically the firms have taken
measures to combat the onslaught of these challenges.

What new turns have been made in the actual working system of Women
Entrepreneur? In other words, an understanding of the exact nature of the
paradigm shifts in small and medium enterprises.

That is, from the point of view of an individual firm in India, how the
challenge of the shifting economic environment been perceived and what new
efforts have been adopted towards managing these challenges?

From the above passages, it is worthwhile to mention the major

recommendations contributed by the researchers from the wide-ranging study
about Women Entrepreneur were summarized below:

Increase the ability of women to participate in the labour force by ensuring

the availability of affordable child care and equal treatment in the work place.
More generally, improving the position of women in society and promoting
Women Entrepreneurship generally will have benefits in terms of Women
Entrepreneur. Listen to the voice of Women Entrepreneurs. The creation of

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government offices of Women business ownership is one way to facilitate this.
Such offices could have programmed responsibilities such as providing Women
business centers, organizing information seminars and meetings and/or providing
web-based information to those wanting to start and grow a business. Incorporate
a Women Entrepreneurial dimension in the formation of all SME-related policies.
This can be done by ensuring that the impact on Women Entrepreneur is taken
into account at the design stage. Promote the development of Women
Entrepreneur networks. These are major sources of knowledge about Women
Entrepreneur and valuable tools for its development and promotion. Co-operation
and partnerships between national and international networks can facilitate
Women Entrepreneurial endeavors by women in a global economy. Periodically
evaluate the impact of any SME-related policies on the success of women-owned
businesses and the extent to which such businesses take advantage of them. The
objective should be to identify ways to improve the effectiveness of those that
should be retained. Good practices that are identified in this way should be
disseminated and shared internationally. Improve the factual and analytical
underpinnings of our understanding of the role of Women Entrepreneurs in the
economy. This requires strengthening the statistical basis for carrying out gender-
related cross-country comparative analyses and longitudinal studies of the impact
of important developments and policies, especially over time. Women
Entrepreneur is dependent on both demand side (political and institutional
framework, family policy and market sources) and supply side factors (the
availability of suitable individuals to occupy Women Entrepreneurial roles).
Women Entrepreneur depends on both the situation of women in society and the
role of Women Entrepreneurship in that same society. Both the factors that affect

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the gender system and the factors that affect Women Entrepreneurship in society
are involved.

Women entrepreneurs have been making a significant impact in all

segments of the economy in India, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Australia and
the United States. The areas chosen by women are retail trade, restaurants, hotels,
education, cultural, cleaning, insurance and manufacturing The New Thrust
suggests following two factors pulling or pushing women in an entrepreneurship
Factors leading women to be an entrepreneur: Women entrepreneurs choose a
Women takes up business enterprises to Profession as a challenge and an get over
financial difficulties and respond- adventure with an urge to do some - sibilate is
thrust on them due to family -thing new, liking for business and circumstances to
have an independent occupation. With the spread of education and new
approaches/awareness, women entrepreneurs are achieving higher level of 3E’s,
namely: (i) Engineering (ii) Electronics (iii) Energy.

Though we should not forget certain Psycho-Social Barriers which hinders

the growth of women entrepreneurs.

Opportunities:

 Free entry into world trade.

 Improved risk taking ability.
 Governments of nations withdrawn some restrictions
 Technology and inventions spread into the world.
 Encouragement to innovations and inventions.
 Promotion of healthy completions among nations
 Consideration increase in government assistance for international
trade.
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  Establishment of other national and international institutes to support
business among nations of the world.
 Benefits of specialization.
 Social and cultural development

Challenges:

 Problems of raising equity capital

 Difficulty in borrowing fund.
 Throat-cut completions endangered existence of small companies.
 Problems of availing raw-materials.
 Problems of obsolescence of indigenous technology
 Increased pollutions Ecological imbalanced.
 Problems of TRIPS and TRIMS.
 Exploitation of small and poor countries, etc.

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Women Entrepreneurship in India
Out of total 940.98 million people in India, in the 1990s, females comprise
437.10 million representing 46.5 percent of the total population. There are 126.48
million women workforce but as per the 1991 census, only 1, 85,900 women
accounting for only 4.5 per cent of the total self-employed persons in the country
were recorded. As per a rough estimate the number of SSIs are expected to be2.5
billion having 9% women entrepreneurs in to it. Considering this trend, women
participation in another five years was 20 % more, raising the number of women
entrepreneurs to about 5, 00,000. Combined effect of motivational drive,
preparation of information material, conducting training, creation of women
industrial estates, and training of promoters and use of mass media all together is
bound to accelerate the process of women entrepreneurship development. Some
psycho-social factors impede the growth of women entrepreneurs are as follows:

 Poor self-image of women

 Inadequate motivation
 Discriminating treatment
 Faulty socialization
 Role conflict
 Cultural values
 Lack of courage and self-confidence
 Inadequate encouragement
 Lack of social acceptance

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  Unjust social, economic and cultural system
 Lack of freedom of expression
 Afraid of failures and criticism
 Susceptible to negative attitude
 Low dignity of labour

Problems and prospects of women entrepreneurship in BRIC

nations

It’s a question that policymakers all over the world are beginning to ask
themselves. Nowhere is this need for talent more clear than in high-growth
developing nations, most notably the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and
China), where economic and business growth is dramatically outpacing the
production of talented employees, particularly at the higher ends of the food
chain. Here, the rise of female economic power will be a transformative growth
engine, in large part because education levels among women have vastly
improved from where they were even 10 years ago. It’s a well-known fact that in
the United States, women outnumber men in the attainment of college degrees (by
20 percent), as well as graduate and law diplomas; 72 percent of high-school
valedictorians were women last year. But it’s less well known that the same is
true in many developing nations. In Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia,
the vast majority of college graduates are female. In Russia, for example, 86
percent of women ages 18 to 23 are enrolled in tertiary education. Improving
education for women can have a dramatic impact on economies: the Women’s
Learning Partnership estimates that for every year beyond fourth grade girls
attend school, a country’s wages rise by 20 percent, and the child-mortality rate
dips by 10 percent. And when the average education level of a country’s adult
female population increases by one year, the share of women in the workforce
increases by nearly 1 percent.

Educated BRIC women have already begun to gain workforce traction:

they make up between 30 percent and 50 percent of BRIC workers as a whole,
and in three of the four BRIC nations, female labor-force participation rose from

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2007 to 2008. There’s every reason to believe the trend will only speed up. As the
authors of a new Center for Work-Life Policy (CWLP) study on female talent in
emerging markets note, the women in developing nations are more likely to
describe themselves as ambitious than the men are. Eighty-five percent of women
in India and 92 percent in the UAE consider themselves “very ambitious”; in
Brazil, India, China, and the UAE, at least 75 percent of women aspire to hold a
top job (compare these figures with the mere 36 percent of U.S. women who
consider themselves very ambitious). Certainly, the need for greater economic
parity drives some of this (in poor countries, the gender wage gap is still quite
large). But experts also believe the legacy of communism may have provided a
surprisingly beneficial lesson to today’s capitalists: as one Chinese HR leader told
researchers, “communism has always emphasized that women can and should do
whatever men can do…We often find female candidates to be as competitive, if
not more so, than their male counterparts.”

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 Findings:
1. Comparison of BRIC nation women entrepreneurship:

Brazil: 53%

Russia: 27%

India: 35%

China: 20%

Percetage of Women Entrepreneurs

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
B R I C

Accordingly through graph we can say that with 53% women partnership in
entrepreneurship Brazil leads while India is at third position with only 35% of

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women entrepreneurship. This also shows that China which has the fasted
growing economy has only 20% women entrepreneurs.

2. Comparison of women entrepreneurs’ growth in India and BRIC nation

Growth of Indian & BRIC women entr.

50%
45%
40%
35%
30% India
25% BRIC
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
1981-1990
1991-2000
2001-2010
2011-2020

We see the graph we can analyze that the BRIC nations in total are growing
at faster rate than if we consider India alone thus this implies that in India the
growth opportunities for women entrepreneurs are acute.

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 3. State wise distribution of women entrepreneurs in India:

Percentage of women ent. In states

30.00%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00%
5.00%
0.00%
la t a
UP ra jra nj
ab ad
u tk tra
Ke Gu u iln r na r as
P a
Ta
m Ka ah
M

This graph represents the percentage contribution of women

entrepreneurship in Indian economy. This is clear that U. P. has maximum
percentage with more than 29% followed by Kerala, Gujrat, Mahastra and Tamil
Nadu.

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 4. Growth of women entrepreneurs’ state wise in India:

Growth state wise

30%
25%
20% 1991-2000
15% 2001-2010
10% 2011-2020
5%
0%
UP la t
ra jra ab
Ke Gu nj ad
u a
u tk tra
P iln r na as
am a ar
T K
ah
M

Here we can see from the graph that U. P. is growing faster and is now has
the most percentage of women entrepreneurs and Tamil Nadu and Karnatka are
picking up pace. The growth in Maharastra and Gujrat is consistent. Over all in all
three decades there is persistent increase in total percentage of women
entrepreneurs in all the states in comparison.

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Economic Impact of Women Entrepreneurship

The progress of women’s role in several sectors, including business, could

be seen in some phenomenon mentioned here :

*In line with the improvement of women’s education, women are no longer
the minority in fields that were dominated by men in the past.

* The field of information technology created many opportunities for the

development of women’s talents in this specific field. The increase in the number
of women who lead their own business, especially the ones in small and medium
scale enterprises.

* Women’s leadership is able to gain high loyalty due to the fact that they
are the ones that are able to conduct clean, ethical, transparent and honest
management.

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 It is obvious that the 21" century provides high hopes for the progress in
women role. They do have the opportunity to get strategic positions that
dominated by men in the past.

In Asia, women are the economy driving force. Their contribution in

providing job openings in business sectors continues to rise. They are involved in
enterprises at all levels as managers, entrepreneurs, owners and investors.
Combination of influence of more education, technology and fast economic
growth make Asian women more assertive concerning their right, more
aggressive in reaching their ambition while we already acknowledged that the
number of Asian women in the work force from country to country are almost as
high as those of men. Surprisingly in most countries in Asia, women are
dominating the service sector.

The service sector in Asia also experienced surprising growth, and resulting
a large working opportunity for women. In the business world, women
entrepreneurs play a big role in business development in the Pacific region. In
Japan, 5 out of 6 new businesses are created by women, and they have at least five
employees. The number of women-owned larger companies is not significant, but
they start and manage the smaller companies.

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Conclusion:
Empowering women entrepreneurs is essential for achieving the goals of
sustainable development and the bottlenecks hindering their growth must be
eradicated to entitle full participation in the business. Apart from training
programs, Newsletters, mentoring, trade fairs and exhibitions also can be a source
for entrepreneurial development. As a result, the desired outcomes of the business
are quickly achieved and more of remunerative business opportunities are found.
Henceforth, promoting entrepreneurship among women is certainly a short-cut to
rapid economic growth and development. Let us try to eliminate all forms of
gender discrimination and thus allow ‘women’ to be an entrepreneur at par with
men.

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