Empowerment of women is a crucial factor in the sustainable development of a nation. The word empowerment is frequently used in development circles but seldom defined properly. Empowerment is a process of awareness and capacity building which enables women to utilize fully their creative potentials leading to greater participation and decision making and in this process, they can lead a meaningful life with all its dignity and self-respect. Women’s participation in national development is not simply a question of giving any special concession or merely keeping them always in a state of beneficiary alone. It is basically empowering them psychologically, economically, politically and socially.
Empowered women are social capital and the nation’s strength. In fact, woman empowerment is human empowerment. The word entrepreneurship is derived from the French word Entreprendre, which means ‘to undertake’. According to economist J.B.Say, entrepreneurship is a combination of various qualities like organization skills, innovation, risk-bearing, managing uncertainty, ability to bring together & use a factor of production, analyzing market opportunities, observing the change taking place in the market, studying the tastes & preferences of consumers, and produces a product.
Women entrepreneurship can be defined as a woman or group of women who initiate, organize & operate a business enterprise. In other words, any woman or group of women who innovate, initiate or adopts an economic activity may be called a woman entrepreneur.
As per the Government of India, it is an enterprise owned & controlled by a woman or a woman having a minimum financial interest of 51% of the capital in the enterprise. Women entrepreneurs create new jobs for themselves and others and also provide society with different solutions to management, organization and business problems.
Entrepreneurship was once considered a man’s domain, but the tide has shifted: More than 9 million U.S. firms are now owned by women, employing nearly 8 million people and generating $1.5 trillion in sales, as per the data from the National Association of Women Business Owners. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), which monitors 40 economies from around the world, globally, entrepreneurship rates among women increased by 13 percent.
Challenges of women entrepreneurship
Women entrepreneurs often face gender-based barriers to start and grow their businesses, like discriminatory property, matrimonial and inheritance laws and or cultural practices, lack of much awareness to formal finance mechanisms, limited mobility and access to information and networks, etc. Therefore governments and various developmental
organizations are actively undertaking the promotion of women entrepreneurs through various schemes, incentives, and promotional measures. For example in India, the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises development organizations, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), various State Small Industries Development Corporations, the Nationalised banks, and NGOs are conducting various programs including Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) to cater to the needs of potential women entrepreneurs. Under Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY), preference is given to women beneficiaries with a large number of subsidies.
Empowerment and entrepreneurship
Empowerment is measured by both quantitative and qualitative indices. The quantitative indicators are linked with tangible economic variables like levels of income, saving, property, etc. But the quality of life may be poor even in the midst of plenty. So empowerment is something beyond the material requisites. The qualitative indicators of empowerment are the power to make decisions, the ability to interact with the people, the power to create and control the resources, feeling of self-worth, dignity for one’s own life and having a vision that surpasses one’s own life.
So empowerment is, in essence, the quality of life. Women entrepreneurs are initially concentrated in the light manufacturing sector (leather, garments, engineering goods, beauty products). The second most common category is that of services (interior designing, management, and placement, consultancy, nursery school). The third is the retail trade sector including boutiques, home furnishing, automobile dealing, etc. In the 1970s and 1980s women entrepreneurs were generally confined to ‘kitchen-enterprises’ – the three Ps: pickle, powder (spices) and papad.
Later, “soft” traditionally feminine enterprises, such as garments, beauty care, etc. However, from the 1990s and onwards, with increased levels of education, more women have opted for entrepreneurial careers in plastics, electronics, and leather related industries. This is the result of empowerment.
When women embark upon their entrepreneurial journey its genesis can be traced to three types. – ‘chance’, ‘forced’ and ‘created’. In all these cases empowerment strategy may be different. Generally, women should be trained and empowered in areas like
•Work-life family balancing
•Copying with fear of failures
•Facing competition from male counterparts.
•Strengthening opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
•Finance management
•Innovations and branding
The end result is that they should become critical agents for development at the decision-making level. Remember, DEVELOPMENT IF NO ENGENDERED IT IS ENDANGERED. -Dr. Kochurani Joseph
