Intro: More and more women are becoming entrepreneurs and bringing in their edge to work for them
Anisha Motwani
Whenever I see the idol of goddess Durga, it reminds me of the fact that women have played multiple roles not only since ages but even in our religious scriptures.
Women know how to double up a spoon as a knife; they know when the man says “I am alright” it means, “just leave me alone”; at work women know who can really deliver and when the need comes women make a quick switch from working for others to being their own boss. All this, while being the nurturing mother and caring wife, all rolled into one.
I do not mean to start the clichéd debate of women and men here. What I want to point out is the way women know how to adapt to situations. The society is going through what I call a metamorphosis of sorts. Nuclear families today are becoming bigger reality than they ever were. And women are proving it yet again that they are adapting and accepting to that change. The change is reflected in the way women want to function today.
Women aspired for corporate careers keen to break many a glass ceilings. But then realities of life catch up. Women get married; a few years down the line have children. And that is when the consequences and problems of a nuclear family impact them. It’s quite possible that while going on their maternity leave they’d marked their calendar on when they want to join back work. But then, life changes.
Corporate careers are demanding. And though there are some corporates doing a lot to make women employees feel comfortable with incentives like extended maternity, half day half pay etc., the reality is that when these women get back to their workplaces, they are torn between being a performing mom or a performing executive.
This is the inflection point that forces them to introspect - at crucial crossroads of life, forced to make a choice between being with the children or getting back to a full time career. Even though advertisers have smartly used the syndrome by giving women ‘ideas’ to manage a job and child – on ground realities are not as smooth as the film.
Innovative as they are, many women have found a solution to the desire of being a good mum, wife and be financially independent. Small or big, women are taking to entrepreneurship that gives them the flexibility of working when, where and how they want. Like they say, ‘Necessity is the mother of all inventions’; some of the best known entrepreneur’s that have emerged are from ‘post-partum syndrome’.
Take for instance Saundarya Rajesh of Avtaar Career Creators. After working in Citi Bank for a number of years, Saundarya quit her job after she had her child. She started teaching MBA students and that’s when she realised that likje her there were many who wanted to do something with ‘flexi-hours’. Her primary goal was to provide career opportunities to people with unique situation in life (women with breaks in career, elderly folks who still had half a decade of service in them post-retirement) required to be presented as an alternate talent source to organisations. Today the company works with more than 400 clients.
Offbeat is the new beat
Recently, I read and interesting article about Dolly Jain. An intelligent young girl who was married off early into a family where women only wear saris. A careful dresser, she always got noticed for the way she carried off herself. Then, on a usual day, she helped somebody in her locality to tie a sari. Soon some more came for help. Then an accidental workshop and before she knew, she had a fulltime, offbeat profession as a sari draper. She loves what she does and has even got featured in Limca Book of Records for the number of styles she can tie a sari in. Her high-profile client list include women like Kokila Ambani and Neeta Ambani to Mrs Rahul Bajaj to Mittals to Jindals to our Bollywood divas (from Sridevi to Katrina Kaif and Kangana Ranaut), to innumerable women and girls.
What they probably draw their drive and innovations from, is the situations they usually go through as a woman. Take for example a typical situation where a recipe book mentions a certain ingredient. While a man would have gone on in a very usual way of finding that particular ingredient, a woman will think out of the box and look for an ingredient close to the recipe or may be just give it her own twist.
And that is exactly what they are doing in today’s time of nuclear families. They want to be around for their family and yet have their financial independence.
Second to none
What probably makes women good entrepreneurs I think is the fact that they have an inborn talent of managing people and situations and multitasking with perfect ease.
Women I feel are the power drivers for entrepreneurial rise. A study entitled ‘Growing role of women Entrepreneur in India’, by Peter F Drucker points out , “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. According to her hard work commitment and caring in word and deed helps people overcome obstacles.”
The societal change
What strikes me most about achievers is their inclusive approach. If they grow, they don’t grow alone.
In fact I’d say the women entrepreneurs must be considered in the economic development of the nation for various reasons. No wonder women entrepreneurs are now being recognised as an important untapped source of economic growth.
Little surprise in the first half of 2011, women angel investors represented 12 percent of the angel market, and women-owned businesses accounted for 12 percent of the entrepreneurs seeking angel capital. While these numbers aren’t outstanding, they do represent progress. More impressive is that 26 percent of the women entrepreneurs seeking angel investment in the first half of the year received it. In fact, the report notes, the percentage of women actually getting angel investments is above the overall average.
Women Entrepreneurs, points our Drucker “tend to be highly motivated and self directed. They also exhibit a high internal locus of control and achievement, possess certain specific characteristics that promote their creativity and generate new ideas and ways of doing things.”
Why we have success stories written in our own country. Look at Shahnaz Husain. A young girl from a traditional family, who was married at the age of 15, emerged from a sheltered life and upbringing, to step into the world of business. She had the will and let nothing come in her way. She started a small parlour from her home four decades ago with a borrowed capital of Rs 35,000 from her father. When the business she decided to get into franchise system and help other women grow. Like she said in an online interview of Business Standard, “A woman manages her different roles of wife, housewife, mother and career woman efficiently. She brings to the work the values of patience, courage, inner strength. The woman’s ability to adapt and adjust is important at work.”
I couldn’t agree more.
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