STRUGGLES OF THE WOMAN ENTREPRENEUR

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Times are changing. A few decades ago, most women were confined to their homes. Tending to the family was their main responsibility and everything else took a back seat – their dreams, their aspirations and everything else. With changing times, this outlook is changing. More and more women are looking to be independent. They want to make decisions about their life and their career themselves. They are ready to take up challenges and have an urge to do something new. This has resulted in a rising trend of women in entrepreneurship. Women currently constitute approximately 14% of the total entrepreneurship in India. This may seem to be a small number, but the upward trend over the last few years is very encouraging.

Obstacles Women Entrepreneurs Face

The origin of the word entrepreneur can be traced back to a French word which roughly translates to ‘adventurer’. Surely when a woman embarks on the journey to be an entrepreneur, it is nothing short of an adventure. In India, the problems faced by women entrepreneurs are quite different as compared to their male counterparts.

Entrepreneur – A unisex word, then why the gender inequality?

The greatest obstacle that women entrepreneurs face is that they are women. There is no easy acceptance in our patriarchal society for a woman trying to make way into entrepreneurship, which has been predominantly male-dominated for long. A woman spending time and effort in work other than her home is perceived as being careless towards her family. In fact many a times, her attempt to be independent is perceived as trying to demean her husband and prove her superiority. Her confidence is looked down upon as her “bossy” attitude. These positive traits shown by women are usually admired and encouraged with men, but are viewed with a negative outlook when it comes to woman entrepreneurs.

Being confident about yourself and exuding that confidence can help others, especially your family members believe in you and your dreams. Back that confidence with the right amount of thought and research. Be assertive. Let being a woman be your strength and not something people judge you about.

Financial Woes

Money is important for any business. Starting any new business requires funds. Women have a disadvantage in this regard because they usually do not have extra funds that can be invested in a new idea. Though laws are in place, women do not usually get a share in ancestral property. They do not tend to have property or assets in their name. This reduces the option of women getting loans based on assets from banks. Several reports suggest that it is more difficult for women to secure funding externally as they are considered to be low risk-takers and have more chances of giving up on their project.

There are many organizations out there who look to fund women-founded businesses. The Government of India has also introduced several schemes to encourage women to open their own enterprises –

Standup India facilitates bank loans between INR 10 lakh and 1 crore to at least one woman per bank branch in the country for setting up a greenfield enterprise in manufacturing, services or the trading sector
Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD) scheme for women assists in the form of a grant of up to 30% of the total project cost for promoting entrepreneurship among target groups of women.
Rashtriya Mahila Kosh gives out multiple loans under their schemes to encourage women to create wealth and assets.

Women should be aware of these schemes and should avail these benefits to kick-start their entrepreneurship dreams.

Work Life Balance

Women, especially married women with children shoulder a lot of responsibilities at home. Starting a new business comes with a lot of challenges and can be mentally and/or physically draining. It can also mean long working hours. In addition to this, when the woman has to manage home responsibilities – child-care, elderly care, her husband, her home – things can get very taxing for many women. Achieving the correct work life balance is indeed an art, and mastering the art becomes tougher when you have a lot on your plate.

Planning your commitments and time management is the key. When you are working for yourself, you have the advantage of time flexibility to a certain level. Planning your home and business activities ahead of time and sticking to the schedule can help to make things easier. Having a good support system at home and work is always an added advantage.

More hurdles to cross

There are many more difficulties faced by women entrepreneurs such as low safety standards for women travelling alone, fear of failure and the judgement that would follow, the fight to be accepted by male colleagues, the lack of support system and lack of guidance and mentoring.

Stay motivated and keep going

Over the last few years, we have seen several women entrepreneurs like Vandana Luthra (Founder, VLCC), Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Founder, Biocon Limited), Falguni Nayar (Founder, Nykaa) and Shradha Sharma (Founder & CEO, YourStory) who are on the top in their respective fields. These strong women are an inspiration to all the women who dream to be successful entrepreneurs to stay focussed and always believe that whatever be the odds, anything is possible.

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You know that you are living in a messed up country when a state’s Chief Minister who says, “I feel that the marriage age of daughters should be increased from 18 to 21 years”, also says, “A new system will be used to safeguard working women, under which any woman moving out of her house for her work will register herself at the local police station, and she will be tracked for her safety”.

Main roun ya hasun, karun main kya karun?

While I contemplate if I should laugh or cry, I realize that a surprise reaction is now normal for us as women of this country. How is this a solution, I wonder? Instead of coming up with a system to track harassers, molesters and rape accused, here the onus is again on the woman to sacrifice her liberty, privacy, and her fundamental rights of basic existence to protect herself.

As women continue to pave their way with struggles and difficulties in a man’s world, and while the men in authority struggle to find ways to curb crimes against women, the easiest solution they have found is to cage women. Not just now. Every time. How easy right?!

The idea of always monitoring women, snatching their liberty and privacy is an easier solution than questioning the incapacity of the police to do their jobs. Instead, a system is devised to track working women, just like how animals are fitted with a tracking system or devices with a GPS. This is nothing but an apparatus to make us women conform all the more than we already were.

Being eve teased? Don’t wear provocative clothes.

Getting raped? Don’t go out at night.

Men will be men, they will commit crimes and rapes.

You just need to be more careful as a woman.

Because men can’t keep it in their pants or control their provocative gaze at lady parts, let’s just ask women to cover up themselves, no matter the comfort level or the weather conditions. That way we men won’t get tempted to look at them.

And when women question this we will objectify them by equating them candies and precious stones which need to be covered or protected.

In a country where we already have it hard to live a free life as a woman, think what will happen if this system comes into place?

Imagine these scenarios:

· If a woman refuses to get tracked and later gets harassed, she will be held responsible.

· Moral policing will happen based on where they go, what they do.

· As always, it will be easy to blame women for any untoward incidents because “she meets so many men, goes to clubs, drinks,” etc.

· Parents and husbands will bribe police officers and to monitor their daughters and wives.

Men in authority have mansplained women’s roles to suit their agenda. I really want to know why women are not involved in such decision-making? Oh wait, they are! Remember how a senior member of the National Commission for Women (NCW) suggested, “Women should avoid going out after dark,” after a 50-year-old Anganwadi worker was allegedly gang-raped in a temple, brutalized and killed the village in UP’s Badaun? She even said that this incident wouldn’t have occurred had a male member accompanied her.

Are you laughing or crying now? Wait, here are a few other times politicians have made some bizarre statements that continue to attack basic human rights:

· Boys will be boys, they commit mistakes- Samajwadi Party supremo

· Two men raping a woman cannot be termed as gang rape- Former Karnataka Home Minister

· If a woman is caught (in a rape case), then both she and the boy should be punished- SP’s State President

· Best way to curb India’s population growth is to provide electricity to Indian villages so that couples spend their time watching TV instead of procreating and increasing the population- Former Health and Family Welfare Minister

· Crimes against women won’t happen in “Bharat” or the rural areas of the country. You go to villages and forests of the country and there will be no such incidents of gang-rape or sex crimes- RSS Chief

· Women shouldn’t participate in protests- Chief Justice

· Hindu women shouldn’t do interfaith marriage- UP CM

· Women should just be housewives- RSS Chief

· Girls can reproduce at 15, so why should their marital age be increased from 18 to 21?- MP Congress Leader

Shocked yet? Let me tell you one more.

Daniel Shravan, a filmmaker, had suggested that every woman should carry a condom at a rapist’s disposal so that they can offer them a hassle-free experience. He also took to Facebook (the post has now been deleted) where he posted a number of messages where he proposed a “rape without violence” scheme which will at least assure women that they will not die. This was after the December 2019 Hyderabad’s vet doctor’s rape and murder.

This is the mentality of many. They refuse to see the problem and when they do, they try to shift blame or come up with convenient, easy solutions that benefit the perpetrator instead of the victim. And if they are people in power, the solution should be one that makes their work easier.

Also Read https://infano.care/domestic-violence-cases-see-no-end/