women entrepreneur

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Role played by women entrepreneur

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Entrepreneurship amongst women has been a recent concern. Women have become aware of their existence their rights and their work situation. However, women of the middle class are not too eager to alter their role in fear of social backlash. The progress is more visible among upper class families in urban cities.

Any understanding of Indian women, of their identity, and especially of their role taking and breaking new paths, will be incomplete without a walk down the corridors of Indian history where women have paused, lived and
internalized various role models. Some have taken entrepreneurship roles where some have opted for employment, some in entertainment field and some for leadership roles while millions of others have taken the role of ideal stereotyped social roles. The paper slides from the era of fifties to the 21st centuries and how transformation has occurred in the women roles. Also the paper talks about the status of women entrepreneurs and the problems faced by them when they ventured out to carve their own niche in the competitive world of business environment.



A REFLECTION OF THE INDIAN WOMEN
IN ENTREPRENEURIAL WORLD

INTRODUCTION

Across centuries and across time, the role of women remains rooted into eternity. It forever
remains the same and at the same time goes through many transitions. It takes centuries for
women‘s roles to unfold in different forms, shapes and sizes and to move in new directions. There
are some locales where women live in a bygone century chained and shackled to the social
structures and coding and wishes of others who carve a code of conduct on stone. Whereas there
are other locales where women struggle to find freedom and space to define their roles in a new
context with new occupations and forge a new path for their lives.
Once upon a time the large part of the world was designed such that men could only set up
enterprises. Then there were women who by compulsions of circumstances took up income
generating activities to sustain themselves and their family. The men of these women were either
not there or if they were there would not or could not take the responsibilities of sustaining the
family.
Succession planning, leaving an heir, an inheritor and a continuity of the lineage is for men and
their sons and their sons. It is rare for a man to plan for handing over to the daughter or daughter‘s
daughter. The reality of women entrepreneur and passing the enterprise to a daughter will be the
new reality and phenomenon of Indian business.
The role of Indian women has ranged from that of a deity to that of a devdasi, from being pure to
being vulgar, from being supreme to being downtrodden, and also as innumerable manifestations
of virtue or vice. The role of Indian women has undergone dramatic and drastic changes from era
to era, while within the eras themselves there have existed simultaneous contradictions. This in itself has created problems for contemporary women in experiencing a continuity of their identity with in the society. What a woman growing up in Indian society interjects is perhaps a collage
and a flux of attitudes, perceptions, roles and locations of their identity. It seems to be difficult to take a logical look at all this. To every —yes“ there is a —no“ and to every —no“ there is a —yes“.
The interjected collage does not, therefore, make it easy for women to define their role and take
leadership roles and to enunciate directions and goals for themselves (2).


Then came a time when the order of the world changed. A new form and a new structure
emerged. This took thousands of years and tears of millions of women who with courage moved
the mountain of debris of beliefs and freed themselves from the chains and shackles of centuries.



What was this change?
CONTEXT OF CHANGE
Increasing globalization
Impact of Technology
Impact of Media and Impact of other cultures
Impact of social, economic, and political cross currents of the world
Unforeseen and unanticipated events across the world (3)
Let us look at the context of growing up for women in the last half a century.


Context Of Growing Up For Women

Mass
Education
Social cultural
Political
Context
Ideology
of governance


Industrialization
The socio-cultural context of women‘s growing up remained the same for thousands of
years.
Political ideology and governance of a nation emerged from the 1940‘s in India.
Industrialization took roots.
Mass education for both women and men became a reality.


(7)
SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT OF WOMEN
1
Each country over centuries evolves a cultural heritage, which is carried by its institutions
and people.
2
Each culture evolves a social design with social structures and its processes to maintain the
society.
3
The socio-culture context has institutions, traditions and rituals, which fosters values of
living, modes of making choices and meanings in relationships.
4
Society designs and defines roles for its women and men both in family and home settings as
well as occupational and work settings.
5
Each country has a cultural, social, religious and political history with its ideology and
philosophy. This influences both social and occupational roles that have enduring roots.
6
Each society has economic developmental thrust through industrialisation and thereby
designs new occupational roles for both its women and men.
7
Alternative models of occupational roles are logically and rationally understood but not
emotionally responded to by the society (3).
What are the roles that women played and continue to play?
Context



Women And Social-Role Interface
Community
Membership
Parents
Self-Role
Daughter
Wife
Mother

• Women has to play multiple roles
• Sometimes she has to play the role of either wife or mother
• Or she has to adorn the role of parents or daughter
• Simultaneously in the social setting she has to play the different roles in community
• Playing these roles, women sometimes submerged her own self role and her own real
identity

Becoming an entrepreneur did arouse a little dilemma in many women who have the potentialities
for becoming one. However, to earn quick money was the basic reason for women to start
entrepreneurship. They had a deep-seated need for a sense of independence along with a desire to
do something meaningful with their time and to have their own identity instead of remaining
closeted behind their husband‘s nameplate. Women with high education view at entrepreneurship
as a challenge, while for women with no education background find entrepreneur merely a means
for earning money. These women needed little ”pull‘ and ” push‘ for venturing ahead as their
circumstances forced them. On other hand, women, coming from good financial background need
”pull‘ and ”push‘ as at times they themselves were not aware of their own inner strengths and
resources and wanted their husbands/family members to decide the ways it should be utilized.
Also the women of the upper crust society were hesitating to put forth the idea of taking up a non-
traditional role.
It is also found that compared to men, women were less concerned with making money and often
choose business proprietorship as a result of career dissatisfaction. Secondly, women find
entrepreneurship as a tool of meeting their career needs and childcare role. However, there are
drastic differences in the way the men and women œ owned enterprise views their activities (4).
Most women business owners in Indian organization were either housewives or fresh graduates
with no previous experience of running a business. These women business owners were in
traditionally women œ oriented business like garments, beauty care, and fashion designing, which
either do not require any formalized training or are developed from a hobby or an interest into a
business. The classic example will be of herbal queen Lady Shehnaz Hussain who started her
herbal-based treatment from a relatively small scale. Infact, she started literally from her kitchen

domain to a chain of beauty parlors spread out across the nation and world. Shehnaz started her
business as a hobby on a relatively small budget and made an herbal empire to be inherited by her
family.
In the field of art, Mrinalini œ Mallika Sarabhai story will be apt to cite an example. Mrinalini
Sarabhai, an acclaimed danseuse, whose legacy was carried out by her own daughter. Mallika, an
acclaimed dancer, carved a niche by coming out of her mother‘s shadow. She has also expanded
”Darpana Institute‘, which was initially started by her mother. Mallika then introduced new things
with time and managed to build her own identity first as a woman, daughter, wife, mother, dancer,
and an entrepreneur.
To cite another example of women on succession will be of the Bollywood world. Here women
have reached to the highest plateau and their apparent heir has also succeeded in retaining the
legacy left out by their mother. Shobha Samarat, a reigning actress of the 50‘s who was
considered to be the top most at that time. Her two daughters, Nutan and Tanuja carried out her
legacy. Though having an inlinking influence in the industry, Nutan and Tanuja made their own
identity during 60‘s and 70‘s, and carved their own image, which was much higher than their
mother‘s caliber. Subsequently, Tanuja‘s daughter Kajol too ventures out in the same field and
now she is rated a top most actress. This shows the succession of three generations: mother œ
daughter œ granddaughter.


Figure 3
Succession Of Three Generation
MOTHER
DAUGHTER
GRAND DAUGHTER

However, many times it happens that the legacy, which is left by the first generation, the second
generation may fail to carry out their inheritance to the higher plateau and the third generation has
been successful to relive the family legacy. As in case of Kapoor clan. Raj Kapoor carried out his
father‘s legacy in the entertainment business, his son‘s, which was of the third generation, failed
to carve their own niches. But then their children Karisma and Kareena Kapoor, of the fourth
generation lived up to their great grand father and grandfather‘s caliber.


Kapoor Family‘s Heirarchical Slope
PRITHVIRAJ KAPOOR
FIRST GENERATION
Successful story

RAJ KAPOOR
SECOND GENERATION
Failed to live up to their family name

RANDHIR, RISHI, RAJEEV
THIRD GENERATION
Carried out their family legacy

KARISMA & KAREENA
FOURTH GENERATION

• If the present generation is not able to carry out their family legacy to a successful plateau,
then the chances are their that the next generation will be able to relive their frozen legacy.
• This has also eroded the myth that only the male member of the family will be able to carry
out the family inheritance.
(8)
Women, who had started out their own business without any mentor or legacy, had created their
own plateau and also earned many feats. For example, Shehnaz Hussain, who had neither a legacy
nor a mentor to follow, created her own legacy for her family. Women on other hand, who
inherited a small business from the family, had taken their small business to a greater extent and
turned it out into a large organization. While there are also some women who had inherited a large
organization, had taken the organization to a much higher plateau. We can figure out in the
various spheres of women entrepreneur into the following chart


Women Entrepreneurial Chart
Small
Middle
Large
Mammoth
Enterprises
enterprises
enterprises
enterprises

WIFE œ DAUGHTER

The below chart reflects the inherited legacy:
Figure 6
Small
Middle
Large
Mammoth
Enterprises
enterprises
enterprises
enterprises

Women
Entrepreneur
• Started with a small enterprises from the kitchen domain
• Expanded from middle level to a mammoth level
• This way, women make their own legacy

What motivate these women to venture out in the no man‘s land? The primary motive is for
engaging in some economically gainful activity is:
1. Making money/making more money to support the family and,
2. A desire for gainful time structuring.
The first motive is found at the lower end of the socio-economic scale. However, the factors that
initiate a women to take the plunge are usually environmental, for example, failure of husband
business, sudden death of a father in a women only household like in case of Komal Chabbaria,

daughter of Late Manu Chabbaria, or husband‘ inability or unwillingness to shoulder the
responsibility of the family, and many other similar reasons (8).
What have been the processes of change for women in the context of the tapestry being woven
globally and nationally? Let us look at some of the key changes for women over the last five decades.


WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE FIFTIES
These women fall into two categories. One set took to creating and managing an entrepreneurial
activity where there was no income generating male. The woman gave up her education and any
other aspirations for herself and became the income generator for the rest of the family.
The second category was the one who lived by social roles and woke up one day to find that either
she took charge of the enterprise the husband had left or she and her own family would be the losers.
For both this sets of women, it took enormous courage to break through the social maps and coding.
However, such women in the fifties were few. For many others the businesses were taken away by
relatives and the women and their families lived their lives as dependants while they had the
resources or did not have the resources.
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE SIXTIES
Sixties were the decade when many women educated in schools and colleges began to have
aspirations. These were largely unarticulated. Women accepted the social coding of the socio-cultural
traditions and married. But soon they took small steps to start small one-woman enterprises at home
and from home. These were still activities for self-occupation and engagement but behind these were
the seeds of aspirations to discover a meaning for the self and economic choices. This was still not for
economic autonomy or economic self-sufficiency.
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE SEVENTIES
This was the decade when a critical mass of women completed their education and entered the work
force as professionals. The women in this decade opened up new frontiers. These women were unlike
their mothers and had not only aspirations but also ambitions. The opted for self-employment be the
enterprise a one woman enterprise or who employed several others. This was an active step
swimming upstream and walking uphill. This choice was not out of compulsions or helplessness. It
was an active choice to take charge of ones‘ life. For many this choice began in their parental family
and continued in their own personal homes.
1
Women regarded work as an integral aspect of their life space.
2
Income generation and a career choice where both the social system and occupation were
equally significant
3
Educated and qualified the women aspired for a different role and life vis-à-vis their mothers
and grandmothers.
4
The women wanted homes, marriage and children as well an occupation.
5
The women accepted the social traditional role behaviour from the older generation but from
their husbands, colleagues and children they expected understanding and support in their
occupation choice. They looked for redefinition of systems and redesigned interfaces across
the systems and institutions they worked with.
6
In entrepreneurial roles the women were willing to carry their share of the work
responsibilities and also wanted the enterprise to grow and succeed. They wanted their
voices to be heard as leaders to employees and as managers of the enterprise to the outside
business environment (1)

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INDIA
Research and Publications
Figure 7
Universe of Women in the Enterprises
People within the
Enterprises
Enterprises
Leadership role
External
of women
Environment
Enterprises
All other enterprises
Related interface
An enterprise may be of small, medium, large, mammoth or giant.
Largely, the employees are men.
The external environment also consists of interfaces with global and macro changes.
The enterprise related interfaces with individual and business systems are also with men
(7)
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE EIGHTIES
The women entrepreneurs of 50‘s. 60‘s, and 70‘s had accepted both their social an occupational roles.
They played the two roles and tried to balance both.
However, by the time eighties came around, the women were educated in highly sophisticated
technological and professional education. Many had medical, engineering and similar other degrees
and diplomas. Many entered their fathers or husbands industry as equally contributing partners.
Women in other spheres opened their own clinics and nursing homes and many more opened up
small boutiques, small enterprises of manufacturing and entered garment exports. This was the
decade of the breakthrough for women in many fields and many frontiers. Women made personal
choices, stood up for their convictions and had the courage to make new beginnings. However, all
these choices and beginnings was a not smooth sailing. For many, the society was hostile, the family
was opposing and non-supportive and the woman carried the guilt of not playing the traditional and
appropriate social roles viz. that of being a good mother.
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE NINETIES
The women entrepreneurs of the nineties were qualitatively a different breed of women. These
women already had a role model in the two earlier generations of women.

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The women of the nineties were capable, competent, confident and assertive women. They knew
what choices to make, they were clear as to what they wanted to do and they went ahead and did
it. The nineties have thrown up many names of women who initiated an enterprise, fostered it and
nurtured it to grow. There were many others who entered the big enterprises of their fathers and
husbands and contributed it with their competencies and capabilities. Sometimes they outshone
the names of their fathers and husbands.
This was the first time the concept of ”the best‘ rather than a ”male heir‘ began to be talked about.
The fathers thought of ”inheritance‘ or a ”legacy‘ to a ”daughter‘ than just a son who may have
been incapable and incompetent.
Women in the nineties have often questioned their traditional coding of their roles and have
become conscious of the voice of their own identity. With economic independence, women have
acquired a high self-esteem and have also discovered that they are able to deal with situations
single-handedly. In situations of mis-match in marriages, physical violence, demands for dowry,
pushing the women into socially confirming roles and other forms of social psychological
harassment women do stand up to make their statements and make difficult choices. Today‘s
women are fearless and have learnt to live alone, travel alone, and rear children alone when
failures in marriage and life partnerships occur. Some women have preferred to remain single, are
leading happy and contended lives and are successful in their work. . Many couples today, opt for
leading a life without children, and prefer to focus on work, relationships, and the joy of
experiencing freedom. Many and more and more women in nineties have made up their minds to
have a single child in order to meet the demands of home and work and have very well been able
to integrate their multiple roles in multiple systems (1).
Figure 8
Universe of Women in Multiple Systems
Entrepreneurial
Role
Multiplicity of social
Multiplicity of
Roles in the primary
entrepreneurial
System
interfaces
Self Role
Multiplicity of social
External business
Social roles in one‘s
environment
Own family
Leadership role
With the internal
Enterprise
(7)

THE WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS OF THE 21
ST
CENTURY
This is the century of telecom, IT and financial institutions. Women‘s expertise in all these
industries is beginning to emerge and women are emerging as a force to reckon with.
Many of these new industries are headed and guided by women who are seen as pioneers and
mavericks. The loci of power have shifted away from traditional venues such as Old boys Clubs,
Golf courses and Cigar smoking rooms to power now being vested with energetic new upstarts
working out of their homes or on their computer terminals from homes. This new cauldron of
opportunity can become the proverbial melting pot for professionally trained and enterprising
women. Here there are fewer barriers to overcome, less pre-conceived notions, fewer well-
entrenched assumptions and rules and lesser gender agenda in the secondary environment.
The transition to the next millennium is where the women will create new paradigms of being a
daughter who takes the responsibility of her parents, is a wife who wishes to create a home and a
family, a mother who takes charge of the children to make them the children of the new
millennium. She is also the entrepreneur who builds an enterprise and discovers her relevance and
meaning of her life in herself. She accepts the uniqueness of her identity and is willing to share
the space. Simultaneously with all the dreams of togetherness she searches for mutuality, dignity
and respect. She is also open to a life without marriage and a parenting without a father (1).
Women of today have a new avatar in the free rolling 90‘s. She the Jill of all trades and her
children are tickled by their supermom. Infact, many sons unhesitatingly describe themselves as
”Mamma‘s boys‘, which in the 90‘s is no longer considered to be ”Sissy‘ but ”Savvy‘. The
children, especially their sons have decided to break the age old tradition of following the father‘s
shoes. Instead, the children of 90‘s opt to follow in their mother‘s shoes. For example, Sharmila
Tagore inspired her son Saif to follow her to Bollywood rather than husband Pataudi to Lords.
Similarly, the queen of the chef world, Tarla Dalal‘s son Sanjay Dalal, an MBA degree holder,
decides to make his mom‘s cooking as a career rather than to join his father‘s industrial
equipment business.
These mother-son combination shows that women have been successful in inspiring their son to
follow in their path, where earlier the son were prescribed to ride in their father‘s way (8).
However, the next millennium offers a space beyond the present horizon where, instead of hope
there is active engagement with the world, instead of dreams there are commitments, instead of
aspirations there are choices, instead of ideals there are convictions and instead of searching for
bestowal‘s and affirmation there is the acknowledgement of one‘s own uniqueness of identity. It
is in this discovery that she can create and build an industrial empire from the first steps that she
would have taken.
In the next millennium, Indian women would have to cross a major threshold and enter an
unknown land. They will have to walk a path where none existed with a sense to discover. They
will have to encounter and live with excitement and enthusiasm as well as threat, fears, anxieties
and terror. It is the trust in the self, of the resource to be generated, of the courage to journey
forth in a new land; to live through the terrain‘s of uncharted land that the women of today will
shape the new identity. They will discover the voice, which has been silenced for centuries to
sing the songs of life and living and to discover the joys of experiencing the beauty around (1).


STATUS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Since the 21
century, the status of women in India has been changing as a result to growing
industrialization and urbanization, spasmodic mobility and social legislation. Over the years, more
and more women are going in for higher education, technical and professional education and their
proportion in the workforce has also been increased.
With the spread of education and awareness, women have shifted from the kitchen, handicrafts
and traditional cottage industries to non-traditional higher levels of activities. Even the
government has laid special emphasis on the need for conducting special entrepreneurial training
programs for women to enable them to start their own ventures. Financial institutions and banks
have also set up special cells to assist women entrepreneurs. This has boomerang the women
entrepreneurs on the economic scene in the recent years although many women‘s
entrepreneurship enterprises are still remained a much neglected field.
However, for women there are several handicaps to enter into and manage business ownership
due to the deeply embedded traditional mindset and stringent values of the Indian society.
Lets us look at what these obstacles that are faced by women entrepreneurs.



BARRIERS FACED BY WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

The problems and constraints experienced by women entrepreneurs have resulted in restricting
and inhibited the expansion of women entrepreneurship. The major barriers encountered by
women entrepreneurs are:

LACK OF CONFIDENCE
As women are accepting a subordinate status, as a result they lack confidence of their own
capabilities. Even at home, family members do not have much faith in women possessing the
abilities of decision-making.

LACK OF WORKING CAPITAL
To be women and to do something on their own becomes quite difficult for them because of lack
of access to funds as women do not possess any tangible security and credit in the market. Before
marriage she has to depend on father and after marriage she has to follow the footsteps of the
husband. As such, women do not enjoy the right over the property of any form and they have
limited access over external sources of funds. Even getting loans from either a bank or financial
institution becomes exceedingly difficult.

SOCIO-CULTURAL BARRIERS
Woman has to perform multiple roles be it familial or social irrespective of her career as working
woman or an entrepreneur. In our society, more importance is being given to male child as
compared to female child. This mindset results in lack of schooling and necessary training for
women. As a result this impediments the progress of women and handicap them in the world of
work (8).


However, the women of today will touch the magic of enlivening themselves and say, —this far I
have traveled, there are distances to travel but there are moments here and now where I can be“.
In this statement the past, present and future will emerge to create that space where movement and
stability, where noise and silence, where light and darkness, and chaos and tranquility loose their
absolutism to create a new rhythm and unfolding.
It is in these new beginnings women will create a legacy and a heritage and pass it on to their
daughters and their daughters leave family saga of creating an enterprise and make it grow into an
industrial empire. An empire, which was built with determination, courage and resilience to rise
again and again. A world created from nothing to an institution with values anchored in growth,
excellence and human sensitivity of people. It is only then the girl child of tomorrow will say that
”once upon a time there used to be my mother, or grandmother or a great grandmother, who lived
in a time and today I am proud to follow her footsteps and add my landmark to her footsteps in
the sands of time.
Women need to ask themselves whether they are aspiring for a job, a career, or a ”higher calling‘
in life, since leaders are motivated from the inside out. Their drive comes from within and is
exhibited by their outward behavior. Although a very few women may be privileged to achieve
congruity between the ”calling‘ and their career, since many economically deprived women are
forced to earn their livelihood. Nonetheless, the point is well taken, if one follows one‘s heart, if
one is flying with a tail wind, propelled forward by inner urge and passion. We believe that
counseling / career planning opportunities if available to young women at an early age could go
along way towards incubating the leaders of tomorrow.
Women are experienced in managing one of the most complex organizations imaginable the
household, with its many human interfaces and interplay between the sexes, different age groups
and different stakeholders. Women have learnt over the centuries the art of negotiation and
reconciliation and qualities of patience and understanding, along with an inherent quality of
emotional intelligence. All these transferable skills can be brought to bear upon the workplace
making it the richer, from these valuable experiences (1).
Women are working in this multifaceted world. The organization scenario changes like a
Kaleidoscope with every responsibility, accountability and multiple pulls and pushes, which
women have faced and came out with success.
In the new order, women will put down roots of a family and discover the freedom of sailing in
the open seas. The women will visualize a new horizon and identify directions and make tough
decisions. In the cacophony of sounds echoing of the past the women will cross the threshold to listen to their own voices. The silence of centuries will find the first voice, which will beckon
women to sail into the unknown and unchartered land to lay the foundations of their growth tocontribute to a partnership (5).