Womens entrepreneurship By Bharat Popat and Harsha Popat
Ahmedabad
You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women
- Jawaharlal Nehru.
The emergence of women entrepreneurs and their contribution to the
national economy is quite visible in India.
According to Mr. Bharat Popat, the number of women entrepreneurs has
grown over a period of time, especially in the 1990s. Women entrepreneurs
need to be lauded for their increased utilization of modern technology,
increased investments, finding a niche in the export market, creating a
sizable employment for others and setting the trend for other women
entrepreneurs in the organized sector.
While women entrepreneurs have demonstrated their potential, the fact
remains that they are capable of contributing much more than what they
already are. Womens entrepreneurship needs to be studied separately for
two main reasons. The first reason is that womens entrepreneurship has
been recognized during the last decade as an important untapped source of
economic growth.
Women entrepreneurs create new jobs for themselves and others and also
by being different. They also provide the society with different solutions to
management, organization and business problems as well as to the
exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities.
The second reason is that the topic of women in entrepreneurship has
been largely neglected both in society in general and in the social sciences.
Not only have women lower participation rates in entrepreneurship than
men but they also generally choose to start and manage firms in different
industries than men tend to do.
Advantages of Entrepreneurship among Rural Women
Empowering women particularly rural women is a challenge. Micro
enterprises in rural area can help to meet these challenges. Micro
enterprises not only enhance national productivity, generate employment
but also help to develop economic independence, personal and social
capabilities among rural women. Following are some of the personal and
social capabilities, which were developed as result of taking up enterprise
among rural women.
Economic empowerment
Improved standard of living
Self confidence
Enhance awareness
Sense of achievement
Increased social interaction
Engaged in political activities
Increased participation level in gram sabha meeting
Improvement in leadership qualities
Involvement in solving problems related to women and community
Decision making capacity in family and community
According to Mrs. Harsha B. Popat economic empowerment of women by
micro entrepreneurship led to the empowerment of women in many things
such
as
socio-economic
opportunity,
property
rights,
political
representation, social equality, personal right, family development, market
development, community development and at last the nation development.
Opinion by Mrs. Harsha B. Popat: Womens entrepreneurship is both
about womens position in society and about the role of entrepreneurship
in the same society. Women entrepreneurs faced many obstacles
specifically in market their product (including family responsibilities) that
have to be overcome in order to give them access to the same opportunities
as men
