From being a care taker of the family to being the founder of an organization, women are gaining knowledge through education and discovering various opportunities to flourish. They have defeated all the patriarchal norms by fighting against all the stereotypes & breaking the taboos continuously for decades. Today, the scenario has changed drastically and they have headed towards women empowerment. This transformation of women empowerment leads to the emergence of women entrepreneurs in the cut-throat business world. Woman is an epitome of courage, strength and bravery. Although they are entitled with multitasking capabilities yet their talents remained unnoticed for many years. Now, the scenario is different, women are consistent contributors in the growth and development of economy. They are daringly crossing their horizons and boosting potentiality by enhancing their skills and knowledge. In modern India, the role of women in structuring the nation’s economical norms is indeed phenomenal. Active participation of women in various fields has extremely increased these days. To create an independent infrastructure, women are legitimately pushing themselves into entrepreneurship. On account of understanding deeply, let’s have brief look on women entrepreneurship in India.

“Empowerment of women leads to development of a good family, good society and, ultimately, a good nation”- Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Former President

Evolution of Women Entrepreneurship in India: Today we are living in the era where new industries and startups are booming epidemically. And startups culture is empowering women to be their own boss and pay their own salary. They are deliberately defining how they want to work and balancing the fact of Entrepreneurs contributes huge part in the economical and industrial development of the country, the participation of women added furthermore intense to it. In recent days, women used to occupy more management and leadership roles in industrial sectors. Due to the industrialization and urbanization of the nation, the significance of women owned businesses are rapidly increasing over the country. It shows that how the part of women in society has changed awfully. And they are proving their excellence by directing and establishing businesses extraordinarily.

Most successful women entrepreneurs of India who are inspiring:

“A glowing woman can help other women glow and still be lit” – Christy cole

Richa Kar – Founder of ZIVAME: By realizing the discomfort faced by women in purchasing the lingerie wear in India, Richa Kar created an e- commerce shopping platform to provide comfortable and private shopping experiences for women by allowing to choose their preferences independently. Initially she started the business with lingerie wear, later after the fluctuation of the brand she expanded the product variety in huge norms such as women clothing, casual wear and sleep wear. Due to unique and diversified concept, zivame attracted many customers and investors towards it. By breaking all the external and internal barriers in society, she capitalized her brand to empower women with nobility.

Falguni Nayar - Founder of NYKAA: On account to become entrepreneur with a vision of building multiproduct beauty shopping brand, the founder of Nykaa launched her own brand for cosmetics and personal care products which prominently revolutionized the women cosmetic industry. She launched the brand 11 years ago, which is the period of insufficient platforms for women shopping in online. Holding unique features and enhanced shopping experiences, the brand reached heights in market and running successfully.

Aditi Gupta – Founder of MENSTRUPEDIA: In order to educate the women about menstruation by means of research and studies, Aditi Gupta founded an online website that guides the women with proper knowledge about menstrual and related concepts to spread the awareness among the youths of the nation. It provides information in various forms such as comics, blogs, and stories. She launched Menstrupedia with a vision of eliminating myths and incorrect information about menstruation. And now she is greatly achieving her goals by implementing desired strategies in business.

Major factors that hindering the chances of women entrepreneurialism:

Insufficient funding for business: To start any business or organization capital resource is essential. Meanwhile it comes to women case, it caused even more shortage in funding. Banks are giving preference to men more than women in venture capital financing. They reject women funding request by considering their business as less net worthy and they are not able to meet the financial interest without fail. Women entrepreneurs changed this image gradually in society by achieving success in all aspects.

Imbalance between personal and work life: Over the ages women are supposed to take over the kitchen hold work and family members. They should take care the children and aged in laws in their family. These factors compels them to exhibit a less contribution in business which leads to severe imbalance between work and personal life


Lack of business knowledge: To start or own a business, a considerable knowledge about the respected industry is needed to manage the business. But women in India, especially in rural areas denied to acquire a business knowledge and information. When compared with men the chances of holding experiences in business is very less for women. This results a major hinderance for women at initial journey in building startup or business.

Gender discrimination: Despite there is a gradual breakage of stereotypes these days, still many women entrepreneurs face gender related barriers in starting and developing their business. In typical Indian families there are a patriarchal norms and conditions where certain gender roles are defined for men to do professional work and women to do domestic house hold work. This scenario has been witnessed as changing in recent years by the emergence of many women volunteers running their own business successfully.

Characteristics of powerful women:

Excellence in multitasking – Women are often well in doing multiple tasks simultaneously. They have capability of doing things under pressure since they are used to handle in everyday lives. They are familiar in managing time and resources productively which is most essential quality for successful entrepreneurship.

Self-motivated – Nevertheless women are not receiving considerable motivation to run business or startups, they often self-motivated. They always wait for opportunities and have a desirable will power to make their business stable and successful.

Being Passionate – Basically women entrepreneurs have an extraordinary vision about their business and clear idea about what they supposed to do for reaching success. They are highly dedicated and hardworking to their work with excellent problem-solving skills. The passionate towards their business shows that they are ready to cross miles for make their business succeed.

Risk takers – By analyzing the characteristics of successful women entrepreneurs, they often minded to face new challenges and risks to achieve their goals. They never pull back themselves from going forward after facing failures. In order to achieve success they have daring confidence to take risks to grow ahead.

Role of Indian government in encouraging women Entrepreneurs:

In order to empower women to overcome obstacles and become an independent entrepreneur, Indian government took several initiatives through implementing schemes for women entrepreneurship. Let’s have a look on few schemes that greatly helping woman to set up their own business.

1. Dena shakti scheme: This scheme focusing on offering financial loans for women who are looking to start a business or expand their startup in various sectors including housing, education, retail and manufacturing, beauty salons and home based business. Women can apply in the limit of up to 20 lakhs and the loan gets sanctioned based on capacity of the sector. For women they lean minimum interest rate of 0.25 % which is below than base rate. Women looking to start a new business can apply for this scheme in nearby banks, the respective officers will guide with appropriate documentations.

2. Udyogini Scheme: The main theme of this scheme is to uplift the women who are economically struggling in society by providing assistance to start their own business. Women comes from the background with income less than 1.5 lakhs , widows, physically challenged, single mothers can apply for this scheme. Under the scheme, women can avail the financial loan up to 3 lakhs at low rate of interest.

3. Mudra yojana: The scheme targets aspiring women entrepreneurs to provide financial support. The scheme was highly beneficial for skilled women to start their career in small or micro enterprises such as agriculture, trading and manufacturing services. Through this scheme they can avail up to 10 Lakhs of institutional loans. The ministry of Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana provides loans in three categories.
• Shishu – loans up to Rs 50,000
• Kishore – loans from Rs 50,000 up to 5 lakhs
• Tarun – loans from Rs 5 lakhs up to 10 lakhs

Role of Women in Startups: The high-octane field of Indian startups is going through a massive shift. A sudden entry of progressive women venture capitalists driving remarkable share of success in investments. These grappled and knife-edge brave women are proving women can also give exciting returns in business. Be it Bala Deshpande, founder of NEA venture capital firm, Aarti Gupta, Chief investor officer of VC firm DBR Ventures and many other successful women investors, they are changing the investing landscape with their experience and expertise and creating a template for many women to kick-start their startups in upcoming years. On other side major Indian VC funds such as AWE Funds, Saha fund, Kalaari capital and She capital are taken several measures to prioritize the gender-equity in startups. These VCs focus on recent innovative and full-fledged enterprises led by women thereby providing funds at pre-series A and series A level.

Breaking the stereotypes that real estate is male-dominant industry, nowadays many women are choosing their career as real estate and spreading their shine evidently in many part. Meet Reeza Sebastian, president, embassy group, Kanika Gupta, CEO of Square Yards, Yukti Nagpal, director of Gulshan Homz, the boss ladies of Indian real estate sectors. With strong resilience and determination these wonder women are inspiring other women who are furnished with deep vision and high-tech plans to begin their career in living spaces. Bit-by-bit women entrepreneurs are breaking all the invisible barriers which are stopping to enter in the real-estate arena. Stepping into the world of Indian sports, there are many women wrestlers, cricketers, athletes, badminton players, weightlifters are steadily creating tough competence and filling the gender gaps. But when it comes to women entrepreneurship in sports, the numbers are very minor and even they aren’t evidential to analyze. The arena of sports is also one of the patriarchal areas which are not carved for women.

Despite the challenges, the new-age women entrepreneurs are tapping the lucrative market in Indian sports. Khushi Shah, a football player cum women entrepreneur, started dedicated football academy startup in surat through ‘Young Entrepreneurs Academy’ participation. Nupur Dhingra Paiva, founder of ‘Art of sport’, it is a sports-startup that conducts interference programs for physical grooming of girls to empower them in sports. Apart from women players, these women startups also are marking excel in sports sector. Our beloved IPL cricket teams are currently being held by two women, Rajasthan Royals-Shilpa Shetty, Sunrisers Hyderabad-Kaviya Maran. The indulgence of women entrepreneurship in sports sector steadily increasing. Breaking the glass ceilings, women surely create positive impact for upcoming generation of sports sector.

The bottom line:
It’s essential to give space for women come from the kitchen and fly with their own wings. This scenario not only breaks the patriarchal norms also empowers the economical growth. Encompassing women to hold leadership roles has the potential to bridge the gender gaps in typical Indian society. With a right vision and access of knowledge and information, the contribution of women entrepreneurs in shaping the entrepreneurial ecosystem will hit massive achievements in upcoming days.

“When woman moves forward, the family moves, the village moves and the nation moves.” - Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru