AMITY LAW SCHOOL

NOIDA

PROJECT ON
Women Entrepreneurs
SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY –

Ms. Shweta Arora

BBA LLB(H)
SEC B
 ABSTRACT

In today’s world, women entrepreneurs are playing very vital role

and they have become important part of the global business
environment and it’s really important for the sustained economic
development and social progress. In India, though women are
playing key role in the society, but still their entrepreneurial
ability has not been properly tapped due to the lower status of
women in the society. The main purpose of this paper is to find
out the status of women entrepreneurs in India. This paper
includes rationale grounds behind the women entrepreneurship.
Another main purpose of this paper is to analyze policies of Indian
government for women and also to analyze that are those policies
adequate for the growth of women entrepreneurship. Main reasons
for women to become an entrepreneur, the institutions that are
serving the women to put their views into action are also included
in this study. On the basis of this study some suggestions are given
to encourage spirit of women entrepreneurship to become a
successful entrepreneur.
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Entrepreneurship has traditionally been defined as the process of designing, launching and running
a new business, which typically begins as a small business, such as a startup company, offering a
product, process or service for sale or hire. It has been defined as the "...capacity and willingness
to develop, organize, and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a
profit. Entrepreneurship typically operates within an entrepreneurship ecosystem which often
includes government programs and services that promote entrepreneurship and support
entrepreneurs and start-ups; non-governmental organizations such as small business associations
and organizations that offer advice and mentoring to entrepreneurs (e.g., through entrepreneurship
centers or websites); small business advocacy organizations that lobby the government for
increased support for entrepreneurship programs and more small business-friendly laws and
regulations; entrepreneurship resources and facilities (e.g., business incubators and seed
accelerators); entrepreneurship education and training programs offered by schools, colleges and
universities; and financing (e.g., bank loans, venture capital financing, angel investing, and
government and private foundation grants). The strongest entrepreneurship ecosystems are those
found in top entrepreneurship hubs such as Silicon Valley, New York City, Boston, Singapore and
other such locations where there are clusters of leading high-tech firms, top research universities,
and venture capitalists.In the 2010s, entrepreneurship can be studied in college or university as
part of the disciplines of management or business administration.

Studies have shown that successful female entrepreneurs start their businesses as a second or
third profession.[citation needed] Because of their previous careers, female entrepreneurs enter
the business world later on in life, around 40–60 years old.[citation needed] According to the Global
Entrepreneurship Monitor report, “women are nearly one-third more likely to start businesses out of
necessity than men.” Because women are overtaking their male peers in the level of education
obtained,having higher education degrees is one of the significant characteristics that many
successful female entrepreneurs have in common. The average self-employment rate for women
under 25 years old in OECD countries is 7.2%.

The number of self-employed women has steadily increased over the past three decades, putting
them at an approximate thirty-three percent increase. Many female-owned businesses continue to
be home-based operations. These types of businesses usually have limited revenue with about
eighty percent of them making less than $50,000 in 2002. This group made up for about six
percent of total women-owned businesses. Children of these female entrepreneurs are expected to
boost that number as they contribute to the growing amount of female entrepreneurs. Most
women-owned businesses are in wholesale, retail trade, and manufacturing. Female entrepreneurs
have also made a name for themselves in professional, scientific, and technical services, as well
as in healthcare and social assistance. In the majority of OECD countries, female entrepreneurs
are more likely to work in the services industry than their male counterparts.

Women Entrepreneurs can not only contribute to the GDP, but can also play a key role in
addressing societal challenges. However, the number of women entrepreneurs in India remains
relatively low.
In India, a large percentage of women enterprises are micro enterprises that women undertake as
a forced economic activity. These micro enterprises can be classified into farm and off-farm
enterprises. They rarely achieve scale and serve only to barely sustain the women entrepreneurs
and their families.

In rural India, traditionally, a lot of women primary producers can be classified as entrepreneurs.
For instance, a dairy farmer who supplies milk to a nearby dairy or household is an entrepreneur.
But family responsibilities, traditional social norms and the established patriarchal structure mean
that these women entrepreneurs have limited exposure to the outside world. This restricts their
mobility and makes them dependent on intermediaries to reach the market or achieve scale.

In many situations, the solutions are available and the main hindrance is the entrepreneur’s lack of
knowledge and inability to access the solution. For instance, the StandUp India scheme, launched
by the Govt. of India, aims to facilitate bank loans of Rs.10 lakh-Rs.1 crore to at least one
Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) and one-woman beneficiary per bank branch for
setting up a greenfield enterprise in trading, services or manufacturing sector. But many women
entrepreneurs, and even more so rural women entrepreneurs, are not able to access schemes like
this, due to lack of awareness.

Challenges for Women Entrepreneurs

Across the world, the main deterrent to women entrepreneurship is the lack of confidence and
skills and difficulty in accessing entrepreneurial knowledge. In India, there are four key reasons for
women not choosing to become entrepreneurs:

Entrepreneurial Mindset: Many women prefer to get into salaried jobs, preferring the steady
working hours, income and perks like health insurance and paid leaves. Entrepreneurship is still
perceived as a riskier option, requiring longer work hours and lacking a fixed income every month.
Most women entrepreneurs though attest that this is not true. They cite flexible working hours and
being in control of their schedules as a key reason for becoming entrepreneurs.

Difficulty Accessing Resources: Women have difficulty accessing funds and other resources
due to several reasons: laws regulating the private sphere specifically regarding marriage,
inheritance and land can hinder women’s access to assets that can be used as collateral to secure
a loan; lack of awareness of schemes that are available to specifically support them; few platforms
that specifically support women entrepreneurs.

Lack of Practical Experience: Apart from a few high profile female founders, women do not see
too many entrepreneurs in their lives that they can look up to and learn from. Women
entrepreneurs often know from experience how challenging it is to start up and establish an
enterprise. So when women can reach out to and work with women entrepreneurs, they are more
likely to start up.

Only two Indian cities have made it to a recent ranking of the 50 most favourable global places for
them.

India’s Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, ranked 40th, while Delhi came in at 49 in the ranking by
technology major Dell and consultancy firm IHS Markit.

The ranking is based on inputs from female entrepreneurs, policymakers, venture capitalists, the
media, and academics, and measures a city’s ability to attract and support women who want to
grow their businesses.Entrepreneurship in India, just like in Silicon Valley, is heavily male-
dominated, with less than 9% of startup founders being women.

“India is already a difficult market to do business in because we have too many other procedural
battles to fight, and it is worse for female entrepreneurs,” Sairee Chahal, founder of the women-
only jobs portal SHEROES, said. “From a funding perspective, from a mentorship perspective,
you’re pretty lonely out there. Access to capital is still all-male; there is a barrier there.”

Gender issues
Besides this overall ranking, the report also ranked the top 10 cities on sub-categories such as:

• Talent: The likelihood of finding women with the required training and experience to run and
scale a business.
• Culture: The prevalence of relevant mentors, networks, and role models.
• Technology: Female entrepreneurs’ global connectivity via the internet and social media.
• Capital: The frequency and value of funding received by woman-led businesses.
• Market: Whether a female entrepreneur operates in a market that has sufficient size such that
scale can be achieved.
• In terms of market, Bengaluru featured 10th globally, but no other Indian city featured in any
other category.

This is ironic for a country that has the world’s third largest startup ecosystem in terms of sheer
numbers. Yet, India’s female entrepreneurs are not surprised.

Encouragement

In 1993, "Take Our Daughters To Work Day" was popularized to support career exploration for
girls, and later expanded to Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Hillary Clinton stated that
"Investing in women is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do."[38] Research
shows that there are many support groups for women in business, for female entrepreneurs, and
for women looking for business advice. Women in different areas are willing to show the support
that in some cases, they never had. They offer encouragement, advice, and support to moms who
seek to provide for their families through their own visions for business. HerCorner, is a group
located in Washington, D.C. This groups seeks to bring women business owners together to
collaborate with each other for the betterment of their businesses. There are government backed
programs available to female entrepreneurs and information can be found on their website at SBA
Online and their Facebook group SBAgov. Female-only taxi companies in India, the UAE, and
Brazil support working women.[39] One example of successful female entrepreneurship in rural
villages of Bangladesh is the Infolady Social Entrepreneurship Programme (ISEP). Norway
celebrates Female Entrepreneur of the Year.[40]

Reasons for launching firms

Many studies show that women start their own businesses for a variety of reasons. These reasons
include the following: having an idea for a business plan, having passion for solving a specifically
related career problem, wanting to be more in control of their careers, maintaining a more balanced
life, having a flexible work schedule, and taking a personal vision and turning it into a lucrative
business. Along with the intense desire to see their vision carried out, these women also have a
great ability to multi-task and never feared the risks involved in being self-employed. Women are
still facing many issues in the workforce, and being their own boss certainly is more appealing to
some of the everyday issues they face outside of entrepreneurship. Gender roles are still very
much a part of their lives, but for some female entrepreneurs, they feel more in control when
working for themselves.

Policies and Schemes for Women Entrepreneurs in India

In India, the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises development organisations, various State Small
Industries Development Corporations, the Nationalised banks and even NGOs are conducting
various programmes including Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) to cater to the
needs of potential women entrepreneurs, who may not have adequate educational background
and skills. The Office of DC (MSME) has also opened a Women Cell to provide coordination and
assistance to women entrepreneurs facing specific problems.

There are also several other schemes of the government at central and state level, which provide
assistance for setting up training-cum-income generating activities for needy women to make them
economically independent. Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has also been
implementing special schemes for women entrepreneurs.

In addition to the special schemes for women entrepreneurs, various government schemes for
MSMEs also provide certain special incentives and concessions for women entrepreneurs. For
instance, under Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY), preference is given to women
beneficiaries. The government has also made several relaxations for women to facilitate the
participation of women beneficiaries in this scheme. Similarly, under the MSE Cluster Development
Programme by Ministry of MSME, the contribution from the Ministry of MSME varies between 30-
80% of the total project in case of hard intervention, but in the case of clusters owned and
managed by women entrepreneurs, contribution of the M/o MSME could be upto 90% of the
project cost. Similarly, under the Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises,
the guarantee cover is generally available upto 75% of the loans extended; however the extent of
guarantee cover is 80% for MSEs operated and/ or owned by women.