Good scope for women entrepreneurs

Special Correspondent NAGAPATTINAM: There is a good scope for women to become successful entrepreneurs in the Cauvery delta region of Nagapattinam district and educated women should avail of the opportunity to become entrepreneurs under the newly launched Prime Ministers Employment Guarantee Programme (PMEGP), said M. Jayaraman, Collector, on Tuesday. Addressing the entrepreneur development programme for women from the minority community, including Muslims and Christians, organised by the Indian Overseas Bankunder the aegis of ShakthiIOB Chidambaram Chettiar Memorial Trust, the Collector said Rural Business Hub (RBH) programme was being implemented in the industrially backward district by the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj. Bank loans assured He assured that the participants selected under the EDP would be provided bank loans with subsidy for starting their ventures. Mr R.Muthusamy, Chief Regional Manager, Indian Overseas Bank, said that 34 entrepreneur development programmes were conducted by the IOB in the country in the last eight years benefiting 1,239 women including 35 in Nagapattinam. Mr K.S.Kandasamy, District Revenue Officer (Tsunami), Nagapattinam, who distributed certificates, called upon the women to take up the challenge of becoming entrepreneurs. Role of rural women Prof. N. Manimekalai of Bharathidasan University said that her research findings revealed that 90 per cent of rural women were involved in income-generating activities.

WOMEN IN INDIA:

The Indian sociological set up has been traditionally a male

dominatedone. Women are considered as weaker sex and always to depend on men folk in their family and outside, throughout their life. They are left with lesser commitments and kept as a dormant force for a quite long time. The Indian culture made them only subordinates and executors of the decisions made by other male members,in the basic family structure.

The traditional set up is changing in the modern era. The transformation of social fabric of the Indian society, in terms of increased educational status of women and varied aspirations for better living, necessitated a change in the life style of Indian women. Indian families do have the privilege of being envied by the westerners, since women here are taking more responsibilities in bringing up children and maintaining a better home with love and affection. At the family level, the task of coordinating various activities in a much effective manner, without feeling the pinch of inconveniences, is being carried out by the women folk.

Thus, the Indian women have basic characters in themselves in the present sociological and cultural setup as follows.

Indian women are considered as Sakthi, which means source of power. Effectively coordinating the available factors and resources. Efficient execution of decisions imposed on them Clear vision and ambition on the improvement of family and children. Patience and bearing the sufferings on behalf of others and Ability to work physically more at any age.

NEED OF THE HOUR:

Women sector occupies nearly 45% of the Indian population.

The literary and educational status of women improved considerably during the past

few decades. More and more higher educational and research institutions are imparting

knowledge and specialisation. At this juncture, effective steps are needed to provide

entrepreneurial awareness, orientation and skill development programmes to women.

The institutions available at present are very limited. Moreover, their functions and

opportunities available with them are not popularised much.

QUALITIES REQUIRED FOR AN ENTREPRENEUR: An effective entrepreneur requires certain

basic qualities, which can be listed as follows. Innovative thinking and farsightedness. Quick and effective decision making skill. Ability to mobilise and marshal resources. Strong determination and self confidence. Preparedness to take risks. Accepting changes in right time. Access and alertness to latest scientific and technological information.

Matching the basic qualities required for entrepreneurs and the basic characters of Indian women, reveal that, much potential is available among the Indian women on their entrepreneurial ability. This potential is to be recognized, brought out and exposed for utilisation in productive and service sectors for the development of the nation.

ACTION PLAN :

Proper planning and execution are required at all levels. Proper

training in right direction is to be planned meticulously.

The steps to be taken can be listed as follows:

-- identifying women with different literary levels in proper groups and to create

awareness about entrepreneurship and its importance as job providing avenues

rather than job seeking ventures.

-- skills to be provided to selected women group are to be identified.

-- making them to realise the income generation and social status and recognition

-- giving orientation and skill training on selected trades on their choice and suitability.

-- assisting them in preparation of project reports for their own proposed units and helping them to follow up the venture to start the new enterprise.

-- providing consultancy and guidance, continuously.

A training capsule of around 15 days may be provided by expert institutions, voluntary agencies and Govt.departments.The financial resources are to be mobilised to provide this type of programmes, by the government organizations like banks, public sector organizations and voluntary agencies..

The higher education institutions, which are spreading throughout the country, may conduct programmes like this,regularly,in addition to their academic programmes,with or without govt.aid.Young graduates of that area and the final year students of U.G/P.G courses may also be provided with such training.Normally,infrastructures are available with such institutions. Getting expertise and mobilizing other requirements will also be easier for such institutions, since they are already having good establishment facilities.

Voluntary agencies like Rotary clubs, Lions clubs, and etc.Govt. sponsored institutions like UGC, Science and technology Councils may interact with the colleges/universities, through financial assistance, to carry out the programmes.

With proper financial assistance and effectively using them, each college/university may train 300 to 1000 youths, in the area of entrepreneurship development. When women are going to be the target groups, the benefit will reach a larger section of the society.

Thus ED culture is to be developed gradually among the women, in addition to providing educational facilities to use the vibrant women force in right direction. Thus programmes combining, technical skill and entrepreneurship skill, to selected groups, will make the Indian women more self reliant and confident and would lead them to be envied by people at the international level.

TRAINING COMPONENTS : Even though there are very efficient institutions at the national level,likeEDIAhmadabad,NSTED BOARD,NewDelhi,NISIE,Hyderabad and at State level,CED in Madurai and Chennai,TANSTIA in Chennai,such programmes are to be conducted at regional level, at the residential area of the women, in their vernacular language and to the specific requirement of the people of that area.

The essential components of such training may be listed as follows.

Awareness, career building and attitudinal change towards enterprise formation. Effective training on building up self-confidence and communication skills. Skill training on specific trades suitable to their option. Training on quick and effective decision making techniques and managerial skills. Training on marketing strategies. Training on effective financial management.

Training on project formulation and implementation. Scope for increasing access to new technologies and scientific knowledge. Information on persons/offices to be contacted. Interaction with successful entrepreneurs for sharing their experiences

Training in such areas are not going to have much financial burden to the govt., when compared to other developmental projects. This type of programmes can be conducted in all the parts of the country. A consistent and continuous effort in this project will add more dimensions Indian women and their empowerment. and to the economic development of the nation as a whole.

APPENDEX-1

Suggested list of appropriate areas suitable to Indian women entrepreneurs: - Food products manufacturing -Food processing and preservation. -Catering services and fast food centres. -Interior decoration. -DTP and Book binding. -Maintenance of Dairy, Poultry and their products. -Maintenance of house-hold appliances. - Stationeries retailing. - Manufacturing of note books and pads.

- Packing & packaging -Diagnostic lab & pathology clinics. - Communication centers with telecom, fax, browsing, and Xeroxing facilities. -Readymade garments, embroidering and fashion designing. -Retail selling through different methods. -Art and painting works on commercial decorations. -Hiring of warehouses and godowns. -Floral decorations. -Jewellary -Beauty centers -Running old-age homes And so on. The list is only suggestive and not conclusive.

7 STEPS FOR STARTING SMALL-SCALE INDUSTRIES. Steps to be taken

APPENDIX-2

Agency to be contacted

1. Product selection and preparation of Centres/Small

District Industries

Project report.

Industries service Institutes/Technical consultancy agencies,like,CECRI, at Karaikudi, for specialised products.

2. Obtaining provisional or permanent

District Industries centre/Department

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registration

of Industries and commerce.

3. For obtaining developed plots for construction of a factory for obtaining sheds in Industrial Estates on ownership/rental basis

District Industries centers.

4. If agricultural land is to be used for industrial purpose

Small Scale Industries Development Corporation and permission from

Thasildar, to conclude lease deed.

5. Obtaining licenses for the plan,etc.

Respective Corporation/Municipality/ Punchait, where the unit is to be set up

6. No objection certificate from pollution Boards. Control board

Respective State pollution control

7. Registration under the Factories Act

Chief Inspector of factories and Boilers.

8. Finance op.banks. State finance Corporations-for term loans

Commercial banks/Industrial co.

9. Registration for sales tax

State Commercial Tax Office

10. Water supply

Water supply and sewage Board.

11. Power connection

State Electricity Board

12. Processing controlled raw material

Joint Director(SSI)

13. For imported raw materials/machinery components

The Joint Chief Controller of imports and and exports

14. Obtaining machinery on hire purchase

National Small Industries corporation (NSIC)-Regional offices.

15. Foreign collaboration

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board, Ministry of Industrial Development, Govt. of India.

16. ISI Certificate

Bureau of Indian Standards Institution, New Delhi.

17. Patent Right

The Controller of Patent and Designs.

18. Registration of Trade Marks

Registrar of Trade Marks.

19. Marketing Assistance

a) Internal Marketing Industries

Respective State Small

Marketing corporations . b) Export Marketing Export Promotion Council/Cells; Trade Development Authority; State Trading corporation; Export credit

Guarantee Corporation and Export Inspection Agency.

20. Testing, Training and other extension facilities

Small Industries Service Institutes and Regional Testing Laboratories.

21. Product development Assistance

Project and product development centers

References :

.1. Lalitha Iyer : Women entrepreneurs-Challenges And Strategies Frederic exert sifting (FES), New Delhi.1991.

2 .M.Soundarapandian: Women EntrepreneurshipIssues and Strategies. Edited volume. Kanishka Publishers, New Delhi.1999.

3. S.S.Khanka :

Entrepreneurial Development S.Chand & Co. New Delhi.1999.

4. Phamphlets from Small Industries Service Institute, Chennai. 2004.

5. Phamphlets from CANARA BANK-Circle office, Madurai 2004.

WOMEN IN INDIA:

The Indian sociological set up has been traditionally a male dominated

one. Women are considered as weaker sex and always to depend on men folk in their family and

outside, throughout their life. They are left with lesser commitments and kept as a dormant force

for a quite long time. The Indian culture made them only subordinates and executors of the

decisions made by other male members,in the basic family structure.

The traditional set up is changing in the modern era. The

transformation of social fabric of the Indian society, in terms of increased educational

status of women and varied aspirations for better living, necessitated a change in the life style

of Indian women.

Indian families do have the privilege of being envied by the

westerners, since women here are taking more responsibilities in bringing up children

and maintaining a better home with love and affection. At the family level, the task of

coordinating various activities in a much effective manner, without feeling the pinch of

inconveniences, is being carried out by the women folk.

Thus, the Indian women have basic characters in themselves in the present sociological and cultural setup as follows.

Indian women are considered as Sakthi, which means source of power. Effectively coordinating the available factors and resources. Efficient execution of decisions imposed on them Clear vision and ambition on the improvement of family and children. Patience and bearing the sufferings on behalf of others and Ability to work physically more at any age.

NEED OF THE HOUR:

Women sector occupies nearly 45% of the Indian population.

The literary and educational status of women improved considerably during the past

few decades. More and more higher educational and research institutions are imparting

knowledge and specialisation. At this juncture, effective steps are needed to provide

entrepreneurial awareness, orientation and skill development programmes to women.

The institutions available at present are very limited. Moreover, their functions and

opportunities available with them are not popularised much.

QUALITIES REQUIRED FOR AN ENTREPRENEUR: An effective entrepreneur requires certain

basic qualities, which can be listed as follows. Innovative thinking and farsightedness. Quick and effective decision making skill. Ability to mobilise and marshal resources. Strong determination and self confidence. Preparedness to take risks. Accepting changes in right time. Access and alertness to latest scientific and technological information.

Matching the basic qualities required for entrepreneurs and the basic

characters of Indian women, reveal that, much potential is available among the Indian women

on their entrepreneurial ability. This potential is to be recognized, brought out

and exposed for utilisation in productive and service sectors for the development of the nation.

ACTION PLAN :

Proper planning and execution are required at all levels. Proper

training in right direction is to be planned meticulously.

The steps to be taken can be listed as follows:

--identifying women with different literary levels in proper groups and to create

awareness about entrepreneurship and its importance as job providing avenues

rather than job seeking ventures.

-- skills to be provided to selected women group are to be identified.

-- making them to realise the income generation and social status and recognition

-- giving orientation and skill training on selected trades on their choice and suitability

-- assisting them in preparation of project reports for their own proposed units

and helping them to follow up the venture to start the new enterprise.

-- providing consultancy and guidance, continuously.

A training capsule of around 15 days may be provided by expert institutions, voluntary

agencies and Govt.departments.The financial resources are to be mobilised to provide this type

of programmes, by the government organizations like banks, public sector organizations and

voluntary agencies..

The higher education institutions, which are spreading throughout the country, may

conduct programmes like this,regularly,in addition to their academic programmes,with or

without govt.aid.Young graduates of that area and the final year students of U.G/P.G courses

may also be provided with such training.Normally,infrastructures are available with such

institutions. Getting expertise and mobilizing other requirements will also be easier for

such institutions, since they are already having good establishment facilities.

Voluntary agencies like Rotary clubs, Lions clubs, and etc.Govt. sponsored institutions like

UGC, Science and technology Councils may interact with the colleges/universities, through

financial assistance, to carry out the programmes.

With proper financial assistance and effectively using them, each college/university may train 300 to 1000 youths, in the area of entrepreneurship development. When women are going to be the target groups, the benefit will reach a larger section of the society.

Thus ED culture is to be developed gradually among the women, in addition to providing educational facilities to use the vibrant women force in right direction. Thus programmes combining, technical skill and entrepreneurship skill, to selected groups, will make the Indian women more self reliant and confident and would lead them to be envied by people at the international level.

TRAINING COMPONENTS : Even though there are very efficient institutions at the national level,likeEDIAhmadabad,NSTED BOARD,NewDelhi,NISIE,Hyderabad and at State level,CED in Madurai and Chennai,TANSTIA in Chennai,such programmes are to be conducted at regional level, at the residential area of the women, in their vernacular language and to the specific requirement of the people of that area.

The essential components of such training may be listed as follows.

Awareness, career building and attitudinal change towards enterprise formation. Effective training on building up self-confidence and communication skills. Skill training on specific trades suitable to their option.

Training on quick and effective decision making techniques and managerial skills. Training on marketing strategies. Training on effective financial management. Training on project formulation and implementation. Scope for increasing access to new technologies and scientific knowledge. Information on persons/offices to be contacted. Interaction with successful entrepreneurs for sharing their experiences

Training in such areas are not going to have much financial burden to the govt., when compared to other developmental projects. This type of programmes can be conducted in all the parts of the country. A consistent and continuous effort in this project will add more dimensions Indian women and their empowerment. and to the economic development of the nation as a whole.

APPENDEX-1

Suggested list of appropriate areas suitable to Indian women entrepreneurs: - Food products manufacturing -Food processing and preservation. -Catering services and fast food centres. -Interior decoration. -DTP and Book binding. -Maintenance of Dairy, Poultry and their products.

-Maintenance of house-hold appliances. - Stationeries retailing. - Manufacturing of note books and pads. - Packing & packaging -Diagnostic lab & pathology clinics. - Communication centers with telecom, fax, browsing, and Xeroxing facilities. -Readymade garments, embroidering and fashion designing. -Retail selling through different methods. -Art and painting works on commercial decorations. -Hiring of warehouses and godowns. -Floral decorations. -Jewellary -Beauty centers -Running old-age homes And so on. The list is only suggestive and not conclusive.

7 STEPS FOR STARTING SMALL-SCALE INDUSTRIES. Steps to be taken

APPENDIX-2

Agency to be contacted

1. Product selection and preparation of Centres/Small

District Industries

Project report.

Industries service Institutes/Technical consultancy agencies,like,CECRI,

at Karaikudi, for specialised products.

2. Obtaining provisional or permanent registration

District Industries centre/Department of Industries and commerce.

3. For obtaining developed plots for construction of a factory for obtaining sheds in Industrial Estates on ownership/rental basis

District Industries centers.

4. If agricultural land is to be used for industrial purpose

Small Scale Industries Development Corporation and permission from

Thasildar, to conclude lease deed.

5. Obtaining licenses for the plan,etc.

Respective Corporation/Municipality/ Punchait, where the unit is to be set up

6. No objection certificate from pollution Boards. Control board

Respective State pollution control

7. Registration under the Factories Act

Chief Inspector of factories and Boilers.

8. Finance op.banks. State finance Corporations-for term loans

Commercial banks/Industrial co.

9. Registration for sales tax

State Commercial Tax Office

10. Water supply

Water supply and sewage Board.

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Women entrepreneurs making their mark

Sayanti Banerjee, ET Bureau Sep 23, 2008, 12.00pm IST

Management and interpersonal skills come naturally to women as expert homemakers. The progress of the fairer sex in India has been remarkable over the past few decades. A very capable woman is the President of India today. Hence there should not be an iota of doubt as to whether an Indian woman can spearhead a small and medium enterprise successfully or not.

Scope for women in the SME sector India has certainly emerged as the testing ground for budding Indian women entrepreneurs. Indian women are not only educated, talented, confident, assertive, ambitious, career oriented but they also know their minds! This helps them to juggle the tasks, manage all the chores and strike a fine balance between the professional and personal lives. Hence, foresight, time-management ability, patience, negotiating and budgeting skills of an entrepreneur are ingrained in the modern woman.

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Hinaa Shah, Director of International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Career Development (ICECD) explains, "It is the zeal that gets an entrepreneur started! Before imparting our training for SME ownership, we select women on the basis of their goal setting ability and a desire to grow. Interestingly, our training programmes are designed for women between the age group 18 to 80 and their educational qualification is no bar for most of our course modules. Small and medium enterprise (SME) is probably the only sector in which a woman can enjoy being a mother, wife and a self employed individual at the same time." Once a woman has enrolled with ICECD, she can expect full support for making her business plan, networking and looking for channels to generate capital fund. Today banks offer schemes for women who want to set up their own ventures, and our government too offers support in the form of various women empowerment schemes. Avenues to explore When it comes to tapping the business verticals for setting up an SME, the sky is the limit. All they need is creativity and entrepreneurial skills, which can be fine tuned with time and experience. Shahnaz Husain, Chairperson and Managing Director of The Shahnaz Husain Group of Companies, elucidates, "I have always felt that entrepreneurship is one area that offers much scope for the Indian woman. That is why very early in my career I started encouraging women to open beauty salons in their own homes in a small way. I trained them and gave them the Shahnaz Herbal franchise." Of course, it goes without saying that professional training or vocational courses are crucial for budding entrepreneurs. Business management skills, client handling, networking ability have to be reinforced in the individual in order to make her venture profitable and successful in the long run. Ms Shah explains, "Textile, food processing, block printing, or even IT business, are some of the popular SME domains for women. We have also trained women who are helping in the body building of private buses in Gujarat. There are women making cycle paddles, tube-light chokes, ohmmeter and the likes. Well, these are some of the non-traditional domains, so the competition is less and the investment need not be as high as five crores."
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Present Status Of Women Entrepreneurship In India

IMPACT OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS ON SOCIETY PRESENT STATUS, GROWTH AND IMPACT OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS Abstract Women constitute around half of the total world population. So is in India also. They are therefore, regarded as the better half of the society. In traditional societies they were confined to the four walls of houses performing house hold activities. In modern society they have come out of the four walls to participate in all sort of activities. The Indian women are no more treated as beautiful showpieces. They are also enjoying the fruit of globalization marking an influence on the domestic and international sphere. They have carved a niche for themselves in the male dominated world. Indian women well manage both burden of work in household front and meeting the deadlines at the work place. In a recent survey it is revealed that the female entrepreneurs from India are generating more wealth than the women in any part of the world The primary objective of this paper is to find out the status of women entrepreneurs in India. In Hindu scriptures, woman has been described as the embodiment of shakti which means source of power. This paper includes rationale behind the women entrepreneurship and to analyze policies of Indian government for women and also to analyze that are those policies enough for the growth of women entrepreneurship. Main reasons for women to become an entrepreneur, the institutions that are helping the women to put their thoughts into action are also included in this study. This study includes the success stories of most successful women entrepreneurs of India. On the basis of this analysis some recommendations are given to promote spirit of women entrepreneurship and helping the women to become a successful entrepreneur. Research Methodology for this study is based on secondary data.

Women as Entrepreneurs in India: 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 and economic status in the society. Skill, knowledge and adaptability in business are the main reasons for women to emerge into business ventures.Women Entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically independent. A strong desire to do something positive is an inbuilt quality of entrepreneurial women, who is capable of contributing values in both family and social life. With the advent of media, women are aware of their own traits, rights and also the work situations. The glass ceilings are shattered and women are found indulged in every line of business from pappad to power cables. The challenges and opportunities provided to the women of digital era are growing rapidly that the job seekers are turning into job creators. They are flourishing as designers, interior decorators, exporters, publishers, garment manufacturers and still exploring new avenues of economic participation.In India, although women constitute the majority of the total

population, the entrepreneurial world is still a male dominated one. Women in advanced nations are recognized and are more prominent in the business world. But the Indian women entrepreneurs are facing some major constraints like a) Lack of confidence In general, women lack confidence in their strength and competence. The family members and the society are reluctant to stand beside their entrepreneurial growth. To a certain extent, this situation is changing among Indian women and yet to face a tremendous change to increase the rate of growth in entrepreneurship. b) Socio-cultural barriers Womens family and personal obligations are sometimes a great barrier for succeeding in business career. Only few women are able to manage both home and business efficiently, devoting enough time to perform all their responsibilities in priority. Ads by Google

c) Market-oriented risks Stiff competition in the market and lack of mobility of women make the dependence of women entrepreneurs on middleman indispensable. Many business women find it difficult to capture the market and make their products popular. They are not fully aware of the changing market conditions and hence can effectively utilize the services of media and internet. d) Motivational factors Self motivation can be realized through a mind set for a successful business, attitude to take up risk and behavior towards the business society by shouldering the social responsibilities. Other factors are family support, Government policies, financial assistance from public and private institutions and also the environment suitable for women to establish business units. e) Knowledge in Business Administration Women must be educated and trained constantly to acquire the skills and knowledge in all the functional areas of business management. This can facilitate women to excel in decision making process and develop a good business network. f) Awareness about the financial assistance Various institutions in the financial sector extend their maximum support in the form of incentives, loans, schemes etc. Even then every woman entrepreneur may not be aware of all the assistance provided by the institutions. So the sincere efforts taken towards women entrepreneurs may not reach the entrepreneurs in rural and backward areas. g) Exposed to the training programs - Training programs and workshops for every type of entrepreneur is available through the social and welfare associations, based on duration, skill and the purpose of the training program. Such programs are really useful to new, rural and young entrepreneurs who want to set up a small and medium scale unit on their own. h) Identifying the available resources Women are hesitant to find out the access to cater their needs in the financial and marketing areas. In spite of the mushrooming growth of associations, institutions, and the schemes

from the government side, women are not enterprising and dynamic to optimize the resources in the form of reserves, assets mankind or business volunteers. Highly educated, technically sound and professionally qualified women should be encouraged for managing their own business, rather than dependent on wage employment outlets. The unexplored talents of young women can be identified, trained and used for various types of industries to increase the productivity in the industrial sector. A desirable environment is necessary for every woman to inculcate entrepreneurial values and involve greatly in business dealings. The additional business opportunities that are recently approaching for women entrepreneurs are: Eco-friendly technology Bio-technology IT enabled enterprises Event Management Tourism industry Telecommunication Plastic materials Vermiculture Mineral water Sericulture Floriculture Herbal & health care Food, fruits & vegetable processing Empowering women entrepreneurs is essential for achieving the goals of sustainable development and the bottlenecks hindering their growth must be eradicated to entitle full participation in the business. Apart from training programs, Newsletters, mentoring, trade fairs and exhibitions also can be a source for entrepreneurial development. As a result, the desired outcomes of the business are quickly achieved and more of remunerative business opportunities are found. Henceforth, promoting entrepreneurship among women is certainly a short-cut to rapid economic growth and development. Let us try to eliminate all forms of gender discrimination and thus allow women to be an entrepreneur at par with men.

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Working conditions and the nature ofemployment tend to have major repercussions on the health of a workman. The concept ofOccupational health has evolved from work-related ailments. The Factories Act, 1948, has been formed to ensure health and safety of workers at work. Read More>>>

Leave Policy in India

One of the most important components of an employees work life is leave entitlement. However, there is always a confusion how much leave can one avail, what is one legally entitled to, the consequence of the same on wages/salary etc. Take a look at leave policies and the leave provisions under various Acts.

Overtime Pay

Overtime is the excess number ofhours worked by the employee in comparison to normal working hours.Get to know overtime pay provisions applicable under various Acts

Women Entrepreneurs Now and in the Future

6 New industrial policy initiatives

The Governments industrial policy strategy .dk21 contains proposals for strengthening Denmarks position in the global knowledge economy17. This includes a number of proposals for the promotion of entrepreneur culture and improvement of the framework provisions for entrepreneurs. Collectively, the proposals are called Entrepreneur Package II. The proposals in Entrepreneur Package II are partly a follow-up of the entrepreneur policy from 1996 and 1997, where the action plan for the promotion of young peoples entrepreneur culture and innovation as well as the Entrepreneur Package were launched. It is still too early to evaluate the effect of the initiatives up to now, but an increase can be noticed in the number of new registrations, and young peoples desire to become entrepreneurs has risen. The Government wants these positive initiatives to continue, but this would involve stronger industrial policy effort if Denmark wants to compare itself with the best countries, as for instance the US. Therefore the Government wants,

to contribute to making the establishment of ones own enterprise more prestigious. The way to do

this is to start a number of activities to arouse interest, for instance by focusing on role models, by awarding entrepreneur awards, and publishing discussion books about entrepreneurs, to make Danish upper secondary school pupils more aware of the opportunities that exist for a career as self-dependent or as an innovative employee in existing enterprises by means of a nationwide road show to all Denmarks secondary schools and business educational institutions on innovation and entrepreneurs, to establish contact points for entrepreneurs (one stop shops) in order to give all entrepreneurs a coordinated entrance in their local area to all relevant offers., to improve the access of entrepreneurs to loan capital, especially to small loans, to induce the banks to improve their knowledge ofentrepreneurs and thereby their competence in evaluating entrepreneur projects.

The proposals are relevant to all entrepreneurs, but some of them are especially relevant to women. Based on the new insight provided by the analyses, the proposals may be further elaborated so that they appeal to women entrepreneurs. The following chapter gives a brief description of the proposals: Promotion of the entrepreneur culture, a coordinated entrance to counselling, education and sparring, and better access to financing, especially to small loans. 6.1 Entrepreneur culture The entrepreneurial spirit may be promoted in a positive direction by directing more attention to being an entrepreneur and making it more prestigious. This can be done through a number of initiatives to attract

attention to entrepreneurs. This is where politicians, business people, and the media can play an important part. Therefore, at the beginning of the year 2000 the Government established a think tank, which, together with the Danish Agency for Trade and Industry, is intended to support the Danish entrepreneur culture. The think tank consists of the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Education, the Danish Entrepreneurs Association, the Confederation of Danish Industries, the Danish Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Industries, Danish Commerce and Services, and the Danish Association of Managers and Executives. In addition, a person with special insight into and an interest in the relations of entrepreneurs has been appointed. The Danish Agency for Trade and Industry is chairman. The think tank will put forward proposals for activities that may focus more positively on entrepreneurs. As a part of the current marketing of entrepreneurs via the media, one of the proposals could be the institution of an annual entrepreneurs day, where prizes are awarded to a number of promising and successful entrepreneurs who can function as role models. The Government finds it important that also women entrepreneurs in the various branches of trade are singled out and made visible. The branches are to be those where women traditionally have their competences in order to whet the appetite of adult women. But also in untraditional branches in order to inspire young girls in the educational system The aim of the current marketing will be to make the young girls more conscious of the fact that there are many career prospects, and that perhaps some of the courses on offer may be a better starting point for establishing an enterprise than others, as for example engineering instead of a librarianship. 6.2 One stop shop for entrepreneurs to counselling,

education and sparring The many offers to entrepreneurs on a governmental, regional, and local level may be advantageously coordinated both to exploit the resources a better way, and to make it easier for entrepreneurs to find out about for instance counselling and sparring in connection with establishing an enterprise. The Government wants a collective upgrading of the resources for the promotion of entrepreneurs by involving municipalities and counties direct in the financing. Secondly, the general counselling of entrepreneurs known from the Free Counselling Scheme before and after the start of an enterprise is to be continued in a new and improved shape.18 Thirdly, offers of counselling, sparring, and training on the national, regional, and local levels will be coordinated more efficiently than they are now. In co-operation with counties, municipalities, and the other players offering services to the entrepreneurs, the Government will establish 14-20 contact points for entrepreneurs, which in each region will be the entrance to all offers to the entrepreneurs (one stop shops). The contact points are a further development of the model from Viborg Countys regional Trade and Industry House, which, for example, assumes the following tasks: 1. Counselling

Basic counselling in connection with the establishment of an enterprise Information meetings Distribution of information material

2. Course activities

Entrepreneur courses Courses on financing, marketing, etc.

Dialogue meetings with local banks

3. Networks for entrepreneurs

Networks for local entrepreneurs Mentor schemes Physical entrepreneur houses Caf for entrepreneurs Local fairs

4. Entrepreneur culture

Cooperation with educational institutions and local business people Supplementary training of advisers Participation in governmental initiatives to promote the entrepreneur culture.

The majority of the tasks at the contact points are already carried out by the regional and local players today. The novel feature is that they are asked to be part of a team where the efforts are coordinated, and where they jointly offer new, relevant services. It is important that each contact point should cover a certain geographical area, which constitutes a critical mass so as to ensure the necessary professional depth in the counselling. The aim is to establish contact points for entrepreneurs all over the country. However, the extent and the nature of offers to the entrepreneurs will depend on the will of the regional and local players to participate in the financing, and the various regions may differ in that respect. In the course of the autumn of 2000, 14-20 consortiums will be asked to tender for the handling of the tasks, which will cover the most important of the offers to entrepreneurs in each area, such as for instance counselling, courses, entrepreneur sparring, information meetings, etc. The regional and local players may be municipalities, counties, trade information offices,

business information offices, TIC, private consultants, educational institutions, providers of courses, etc., where several of the players become compulsory participants in the various consortiums. When it has been awarded a contract, each consortium establishes a virtual and possibly also a physical contact point for the entrepreneurs in the local area, based on a result-oriented contract with the Danish Agency for Trade and Industry and is based on results. The co-financing by the Government is the stimulus for the regional and local players to coordinate their efforts in creating a contact point for entrepreneurs. In 2001 funds will be earmarked for co-financing of the establishment of the contact points. Over a period of two years, the Governments cofinancing will be gradually reduced. It is expected that the local and regional players will gradually increase their financing until in 2003 they match the Governments financing. The results presented in the previous chapters show that for several reasons the establishment of these contact points may be an advantage for women entrepreneurs. In the first place, the women entrepreneurs want a one stop shop which can provide them with relevant, brief and goal-oriented courses on the problems arising in connection with the establishment of their enterprise, but also in relation to the operation and development phase of the enterprise, for instance in connection with employment of staff, management, marketing, purchasing, choice of corporate form, contact with lenders, investors, etc. In the second place women entrepreneurs more often than their male counterparts use counselling and attend courses in connection with the establishment of their enterprise. In the third place, women entrepreneurs want special offers, which might be a natural part of the total package

of services at the contact points. A special offer might be competent sparring when the enterprise has been started. Many of the women in the survey state that they need such sparring. Another special offer might be courses on personal development. The women are aware of their strong points, but they are equally conscious of having some weak points. They may become better at marketing themselves, for instance by appearing more selfconfident, not least at the meeting with the bank. The use of IT and the Internet are also areas that women entrepreneurs could develop. For instance they use the Internet less for retrieval of information and networking to partners than male entrepreneurs, and even though they are eager participants in courses, they participate less in courses on IT and the Internet. Due to the widespread use of information technology in commercial life, this may slow down women entrepreneurs unless they go more actively into this area. Finally, women entrepreneurs are interested in the setting up of professional networks for entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs are good at establishing social networks, but they are lagging behind when it comes to professional networks. In connection with the establishment of the contact points, the Government wants this new insight into the needs and motives of women entrepreneurs to be integrated into the offers being made to entrepreneurs. Course activities The contact points should offer courses that appeal to women entrepreneurs. They might be courses on Internet trading, personal development, marketing, etc., which by their title and content appeal to women entrepreneurs, for instance by providing answers to the very questions that

women find relevant. Entrepreneur sparring (the mentor scheme) The contact points may also consider recruitment of experienced usually former owners of enterprises from various branches also typical womens branches, who are willing on a voluntary basis to counsel and guide entrepreneurs in the first, difficult years. In the US a similar scheme has been successfully established, where an experienced owner of an enterprise offers personal counselling to a women entrepreneur with regular meetings for up to one year. Participation in national activities for the encouragement of entrepreneur culture The contact points could also play a role in making women entrepreneurs visible in their local area. This might be done by finding and recommending local, successful women entrepreneurs for a national entrepreneur award. Networks and local fairs for women entrepreneurs Another possibility is the creation of the framework and organisation for the involvement of women entrepreneurs in professional networks in their local area either in networks consisting of women only or of mixed networks. The aim is to take up subjects of common interest, such as the engagement of the first employee what does it involve? Expansion of the firm how can it be financed? How do I maintain a good family life as the owner of an enterprise, etc.? Local or international fairs for women entrepreneurs or for all entrepreneurs, where they can exhibit their products and create a network to customers, suppliers and other partners such as importers, might also be considered. Caf for entrepreneurs and physical entrepreneur houses Finally, in connection with the contact points, the establishment of an informal meeting place for

entrepreneurs where for instance they might bring their children might be considered. Here it would be possible to have a talk with people in the same situation, to exchange views and to create informal business connections. Or to establish a physical entrepreneur house where entrepreneurs could set up their enterprise, draw on each others experience or be sub-suppliers to each other. 6.3 Improved access to financing, especially small loans State guaranteed micro loans Typically, new and small enterprises find it difficult to provide security to the banks, which may therefore be reluctant to finance development activities in these enterprises. This applies in particular where the activities are based on immaterial assets, which are unsuitable as collateral, or where the entrepreneurs have not yet built up capital resources and a reputation. By an amendment to Act on the Growth Fund (the loan guarantee scheme), entrepreneurs in Denmark are given an opportunity to obtain state-guaranteed loans as small as 75,000 DKK through the banks. The bill was passed in July 2000. As mentioned before, women entrepreneurs are reluctant to borrow money for their enterprise. Their business strategy is cautious, and they typically establish themselves in lines of business calling for small investments in immaterial assets, which the bank therefore cannot use as security. Therefore the possibility of obtaining state guaranteed micro loans may prove to be of special appeal especially to women entrepreneurs. In the US a similar scheme has been successful. The micro loan programme (MicroLoan Demonstration Program) meets womens requirements for small loans. Sums from 100 to 25,000 USD can be borrowed. The

average loan sum is 10,000 USD. 46 per cent of the borrowers are women. Micro loans are also offered in Finland, including loans of particular interest for women entrepreneurs. Without providing security, women entrepreneurs may borrow between 20,000 and 100,000 FIM for the operation and development of their enterprise. Improve the dialogue between banks and entrepreneurs One element in the improvement of the financing opportunities of entrepreneurs is the creation of a basis for better knowledge about entrepreneurs. The aim is to make the banks better at advising and evaluating the projects of the entrepreneurs. Therefore the Government, acting jointly with the banks, will consider strengthening their readiness to enter into a dialogue with the entrepreneurs. One way to do this is that selected banks, possibly with co-financing from the state, develop an information concept for the benefit of entrepreneurs, for instance in the form of educational material directed towards the staff of the bank, about the special motive and barriers of entrepreneurs, appointment of special entrepreneur advisers in all branches of the banks, etc. Here it is possible to draw on experience from the Ulster Bank in Ireland. The project in the Belgian bank Gnrale de Banque may serve as a source of inspiration for the development of the concept, which is meant in time to be used by all banks if they want to do so, cf. box 1.
Box 1. Entrepreneur service in the Gnrale de Banque

In Belgium Gnrale de Banque offers potential entrepreneurs a Starter service, which includes preparation of business plans and an analysis of business projects. This means that the bank helps customers to present themselves.

The target group is people with sufficient personal capital who consider starting their own enterprise or taking over an enterprise. Persons who are chosen to participate must accept

professional counselling and support during the first three years. The counselling is provided by an experienced adviser selected by the customer from a list provided by the bank. In order to facilitate the planning and administration of this support, the bank has set up a group of advisers from the university world and the business community who are responsible for their recruitment and training. The group also coordinates support schemes for entrepreneurs.

The proposal may prove to be especially useful to women entrepreneurs if the information concept is framed so that the banks are also informed about womens special motives and barriers. When banks make credit ratings, they attach great importance to the personal qualities of the customer. Women are more cautious and less good at selling their business idea than male entrepreneurs, cf. section 4.2. This does not mean that their idea is less viable, but it may be a barrier at the meeting with the bank, which may see it as a sign of weakness. A better understanding of and dialogue with women entrepreneurs may contribute to breaking down these barriers.

Footnotes

Incentives for Entrepreneurship at University: Differences between Men and Women

Natalia Martin Cruz, Juan Hernangomez Barahona and Ana Isabel Rodriguez Escudero Abstract In this paper, our aim is to determine what type of additional training, other than regular university courses and work experience before graduation, can be promoted by universities to encourage an entrepreneurial orientation in men and women. For this purpose, we analyzed a total of 2,012 Spanish university students who were in the final years of their degrees in 2003/2004. Using a logistic binary regression analysis, the results show that for the group of men, extra-curricular training is particularly relevant in shaping their desire to create new business ventures. However, for women, the University of Valladolid should create more policies to facilitate work experience opportunities rather than formal training. Key words: entrepreneur, gender, age, training, experience, university education Theoretical Background In the context of current society, which is characterized by equal opportunities for men and women, gender is of interest for entrepreneurship research (Hisrich et al., 1996; Duchnant and Orhan, 2000; Orhan and Scott, 2001). It has been demonstrated that the motivation of women towards managerial activities is varied and can stem from diverse factors, such as the influence of the environment or the necessity or desire for achievement (Orhan and Scott, 2001). The comparison between male and female entrepreneurs demonstrates the existence of significant differences in relation to such aspects as the capacity of socialization or personality (Fagenson, 1993; Fisher, Reuber and Dyke, 1993; Envick and Langford, 2003). Following research carried out by Peters (2004), the role of women in the economy is one of the most representative phenomena of the beginning of the new century. In the United States, the number of women managing firms increased from nine million in 1997 to approximately ten million, six hundred thousand in 2004 (Center for Womens Business Research, National Numbers, 2004). In spite of these figures, it seems that at present, men are still more likely to create new business ventures and start-ups.

What, then, should be done at university level to ensure that equal numbers of men and women demonstrate an inclination towards business creation? Should different entrepreneurial

mechanisms be used for men and women to encourage them to become entrepreneurs? In other words, should different tools be developed to stimulate the entrepreneurial frame of mind of these two groups of students? Generally speaking, the attributes or characteristics of the individuals that influence their perception of the expected value of an opportunity and, thus, their ability to exploit this opportunity, can be classified into two groups: psychological factors and non-psychological factors (Shane, 2003). We focus on the non-psychological factors and we aim to evaluate whether gender is important in the relationship between entrepreneurial determinants and entrepreneurial orientation, that is to say, if men and women are influenced differently by formal training and work experience sociological variables to have a positive orientation to create a new venture. Both variables formal training and work experience have been widely verified in the literature as the main factors of entrepreneurial orientation and managerial success (Bats, 1990; Robinson and Sexton, 1994; Cressy, 1996; Lorrain and Dussault, 1998; Henderson and Robertson, 1999; Lazear, 2003; Pleitner, 2003; Fayolle, Vernier and Djane, 2004). We test these variables to find out if they influence men and women in the same way. The results will be useful when advising the Rector of the University on the best training strategies for students men and women who wish to create their own firms. ___________________________________________ Insert Figure 1 about here ___________________________________________

Methodology

The information which we used to test the empirical model here proposed was provided by the General Foundation (www.funge.uva.es) of the University of Valladolid (Spain). The Foundation has initiated a study called the Professional Observatory of the University of Valladolid. The aim of this study is to conduct an extensive analysis of the current situation and problems of degrees/studies and educational subject areas taught by the University of Valladolid with regard to their professional development, as

well as to identify complementary education that might help graduates to adapt better to current labor market requirements.

In order to achieve this objective, various data-collecting tools have been developed by the Foundation. One of these tools consists of a questionnaire aimed at students from cycles 3-5 of the various degrees/studies[i]. This is the source of information used in the current study. The number of completed questionnaires for the year 2004 was 2,012.

The mean of the age and gender variables shows that more than half of the students surveyed are women, and that their average age is approximately 23 years. The group of educational variables includes the acquisition of knowledge complementary to university studies, such as the level of foreign language proficiency, the number of trips abroad, the level of computer skills, and receiving other types of complementary non-university education (for instance, courses for developing job research skills, courses for developing teaching skills, sports training and music lessons, among others). To evaluate the students previous work experience, we considered firms internships, voluntary/social work, contractual work (in a position either related or unrelated to the students degree), non-contractual work and previous experience as a self-employed businessman/businesswoman. The dependent variable of the study is a dichotomous variable measuring the students orientation to creating their own firm after graduating. Table 1 provides more information about the measurement of variables and their average values for the individuals in the sample. Table 2 reports the correlation matrix. The analytical methodology used was binary logistic regression, in which the dependent variable was the students propensity to set up their own firm. Logistic regression analysis is suitable when the dependent variable is non-metric and consists of just two groups. Compared to discriminant analysis, choosing logistic regression is justified by the fact that the multivariate normality assumptions do not need to be met. Logistic regression is much more robust when these assumptions are not met. Even if they are met, many researchers prefer this methodology to discriminant analysis, because the interpretation of the results is similar to that of regression analysis.

Logistic regression also tests the hypothesis that a coefficient is different from zero as is done in multiple regression, where the t value is used to assess the significance of each coefficient. Although the logistic

regression uses a different statistic, the Wald statistic, it also provides the statistical significance for each estimated coefficient so that hypothesis testing can occur just as it did in multiple regression.

Specifically, we used a hierarchical logistic regression. This methodology allows us to sequentially introduce different blocks of variables and to check their respective explanatory capacities. First, we included the block corresponding to the main effects of all the independent variables (Model 1). Finally, we added the age variable squared to these variables, to test for the existence of an inverted U-shaped relation (Model 2). The relevance of the inverted U-shaped effect cannot be rejected if the corresponding Wald-statistic is significant. To observe the existence of a moderating effect of gender, we divided the sample into two groups (one group representing men, the other representing women) and we conducted a hierarchical logistic regression for each group.

We used three global goodness-of-fit indices. First, the log-likelihood (-2LL), for which low values indicate a better model fit. This index is similar to the residual or error sums of squares value for multiple regression. In our model, the logistic regressiom for the group of men fits better than that for women. Second, we used the Hosmer and Lemeshow test, which measures the correspondence between the observed and expected results of the dependent variable. A non-significant value indicates a good fit, as in our case. Finally, we employed the Nagelkerke R2, which is interpreted similarly to the R2 of any multiple regression model. In logistic regression, there is no true R2value as there is in OLS regression. However, because deviance can be thought of as a measure of how poorly the model fits (i.e., the lack of fit between observed and predicted values), an analogy can be made to the sum of squares residual in ordinary least squares. The proportion ofunaccounted for variance that is reduced by adding variables to the model is the same as the proportion of variance accounted for, or R 2. An index that reflects this basic idea has been developed by Nagelkerke.

Results

In Table 3, we present the results. The logistic regression for the group of men shows the importance of the education variables. Three of the four education variables are significant in explaining the mens entrepreneurial orientation: the number of trips abroad (0.05, p<0.05), computer skills level (039, p<0.01) and complementary non-university education (0.13, p<0.10). With respect to the significance of

work experience variables, only non-contractual experience (0.46, p<0.05) and experience as an entrepreneur (1.17, p<0.05) are found to be significant. With regard to age, our expectations were not met. This variable does not have an effect on entrepreneurship, neither when we consider the linear effect, nor when we consider the quadratic effect. Including the age variable, the 2LL index barely changes and the Nagelkerke R2 doesnt change at all.

For the group of women, however, the education variables do not seem to be as relevant, since only the level of computer skills has an explanatory power among this group of variables (0.36, p<0.05). In the other group of variables related to work experience, nevertheless, important significant relationships exist. Internship experience (0.38, p<0.05), volunteer work (0.37, p<0.05) and non-contractual experience (0.60, p<0.01) are found to be significant in explaining the womens entrepreneurial orientation. Finally, we observe that age has an inverted U-shaped relation (-0.01, p<0.10) with the entrepreneurial orientation in the sample of women only. For this group, the entrepreneurial propensity grows with age until reaching a specific maximum point, at which time the increase in age causes a reduction in the entrepreneurial orientation.

Conclusions Work experience and formal training are significant in explaining entrepreneurial orientation, for both men and women, as is recognized in the entrepreneurship literature. But the explanatory profile is different for each gender.

For the group of men, extra-curricular training is particularly relevant in their entrepreneurial orientation. Hence, it is very useful to promote the multiple dimensions of personal training for this group in the development of entrepreneurial characteristics. In particular, training is one of the major drivers for their entrepreneurial orientation if it is related to traveling abroad and opening their minds to new ways of thinking. Initiatives such as exchange programs will be essential in developing the entrepreneurial spirit. Computer skills are necessary due to the technological evolution of business. The results show that these skills encourage the students entrepreneurial initiative, irrespective of the gender. Finally, the significance of the complementary non-university education for men implies that for

this group of students the cross-over subjects must be a complement to formal education in order to develop entrepreneurial traits in students.

Overall, work experience influences men and women in a different manner. The only work experience that influences both genders similarly is non-contractual work experience (i.e. agency work). The instability of this type of work seems to stimulate the students to create their own professional environment. However, the contractual experiences are not related to the desire to become an entrepreneur. This result can be explained by the absence of risks provided by a contract whereby individuals get used to stability, instead of trying to create their own start-up business. As a consequence, in order to improve entrepreneurial initiative, work experience must not to be too formal.

For women, internships in firms and volunteer work are very important for fostering entrepreneurial orientation. This is not the kind of experience that makes men more active in terms of business development. Bringing women closer to the working environment helps them to develop entrepreneurial skills. It is important for women to carry out this type of work experience at an early age in their working life, as negative effects have been observed amongst women in terms of the propensity to start up a company as they get older. In general, given the importance of work experience for entrepreneurial orientation, universities should, then, attempt to promote collaboration with firms with the aim of creating groups of business angels who support and advise university students regarding their entrepreneurial ideas.

The training needs of female entrepreneurs

by Warren Martin, John Sandefur Next More Articles of Interest Women's status in the US workforce 2000+ The Big-Five Personality Model: comparing male and female entrepreneurs Are entrepreneurs optimistic, realistic, both or fuzzy? Relationship between entrepreneurial traits and entrepreneurial learning Future compensation of the state and local workforce: are compensation and benefit packages ready to address the occupational needs of the next decade? John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do / The Real Work of Leaders: A Report from the Front Lines of Management ABSTRACT This study investigated the training/consulting needs of entrepreneurs, looking in particular at how the training needs of female entrepreneurs may differ from those of male entrepreneurs. A statewide mail survey was used to collect importance scores on 23 training/consulting areas. The importance scores on training/consulting needs for the total sample revealed that the areas of Complying With Regulations And Taxes (the highest rating) followed by Cash Flow Management, Accounting/bookkeeping, Financial Relationships, then Advertising, Marketing, and Sales had the highest importance ratings. Recommendations on the use of the overall sample's importance scores are presented. Significant differences were found for seven of the 23 areas tested between males and female business owners. The female entrepreneurs had significantly higher scores on the training/consulting areas of Feasibility Analysis, Strategic Planning, Financial Relationships, Obtaining Business Licenses, Initial Processes and Procedures, Advertising and Government Procurement. Further analyses were performed to explore these findings. In additional significance tests conducted using a sub-sample of males and females matched on age, type of business, number of full time employees and age of business; no differences were found. The implications of these findings are discussed along with suggestions for future research. INTRODUCTION (1) In the last three decades, the growth of women-owned businesses in the United States has been phenomenal. The cultural trend of a strong desire for more independence by women combined with an 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

increasing awareness of opportunities and political support has resulted in an escalating number of women-owned businesses. Females have increased their share ofbusiness ownership from 5 percent in 1972 to 34 percent in 1992 (Bureau of Census, 1976; 1996). In the same time period, the percentage of total sales attributable to women-owned businesses has soared from less than one percent to nearly 20 percent. The percentage of total sales is lower than the percentage of women-owned businesses because female entrepreneurs are concentrated in small service and retail businesses. The percentage of women-owned businesses has continued to grow, to 38 percent in 1999 as reported by the National Foundation of Women-Owned Businesses (cited in Bernstel, 2000). The percentage of total sales is also expected to grow as more women aspire to business ownership in industrial sectors. In an area where the situation is changing so dramatically there is a need for current information. The growth in women-owned businesses is not limited to the United States. Female business owners are an international trend. Accountancy Age (2001) reported that one in three start-up businesses in Great Britain are run by women. Maysami & Goby (1999) documented the importance of female business owners in the economic growth in Singapore. This paper adds to the information on this major national and international trend by evaluating the training/consulting needs of women entrepreneurs. BACKGROUND LITERATURE First general background literature on female entrepreneurs will be summarized. Next studies comparing the financial concerns of male and female business owners are discussed. Then, studies on the training/consulting needs of women entrepreneurs will be reviewed. As females migrated to ownership status, there was a concurrent increase in research on women-owned businesses. Several studies reported problems and concerns female entrepreneurs faced in starting and running a business (Aldrich, 1989; Brophy, 1989; Brush, 1989; Davis & Long, 1999; Hisrich, 1989; Hisrich & Brush, 1983, 1984, 1987; Nelson, 1987; Pellegrino & Reece, 1982). Two major areas of interest grew: the financial relationships of female entrepreneurs and the related training/consulting needs of female entrepreneurs. Several of these studies had conclusions containing suggestions on what needed to be done to create a better environment for female entrepreneurs. The results from these studies combined with the national strategy of enhancing economic growth by encouraging entrepreneurship was used as a rationale for allocation of government funding and influence. More specifically, financial institutions were questioned about their treatment of women loan applicants. Some advocates suggested government oversight was needed. Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) were challenged about the ability of their training/consulting to meet the needs of women. Special SBDC services and centers for women were suggested. However, the conclusions from these studies could be strongly challenged. Many of the first group of studies used only a sample of female business-owners. Because the first wave of studies looked only at women, the study design was flawed. The researchers didn't investigate the possibility that the problems faced by women in new business ventures are the same as problems faced by men in new ventures or the relative importance of the problems for men and women entrepreneurs. This flawed design could result in misleading conclusions. For example, if the problems are the same, there is no need for the expense of separate services. Additional work is needed on this important question. The concerns about the first wave of research investigating female entrepreneurs led to a second group of studies that had more scientific rigor and better survey methodology. Coleman (2000), Haynes and Haynes (1999), and McKechnie, Ennew and Read (1989) explored the financial relationships of male and female entrepreneurs. Sexton and Bowman-Upton (1990) investigated psychological characteristics of males and female entrepreneurs. Chrisman, Carsrud, DeCastro and Herron, (1990) studied training/consulting needs of a SBDC. These studies have found little, if any differences between the problems faced by men and women entrepreneurs. The general finding is that being an entrepreneur is very difficult regardless of gender. These divergent findings call for more consideration of this area. Next the studies on the financial needs of entrepreneurs will be reviewed, then the studies on training/consulting needs will be addressed.

Financial Needs Problems in dealing with bankers are a repeated theme in past literature on female entrepreneurs (Hisrich & Brush, 1987; The National Foundation of Women Business Owners, 1993). At first reflection, it appears that the bankers may be losing out on a great opportunity to finance a rapidly growing segment of business owners. But a review of the supporting documentation in these studies indicates an over-reliance on perceptual and anecdotal data (that are often subjective). Furthermore, since the studies are based on female-only samples, it is not possible to separate the specific problems of women from those faced by all entrepreneurs. In a well-constructed study, McKechnie, Ennew and Read (1998) compared the banking relationships of male and female entrepreneurs. Although the profiles were generally similar, the interesting finding was that the female entrepreneurs perceived the bank managers as more approachable. On average both genders agreed that bankers did not understand the small business environment. There was no quantitative evidence that female business owners had a poorer banking relationship. The general direction of these findings was supported by a study on the access to capital and terms of credit by Coleman (2000). She used a database of 4,500 respondents and did not discover any difference between the treatment of male and female entrepreneurs by lenders. This finding differed from earlier studies (Brophy, 1989; Brush, 1992; Hisrich, 1989), which had used smaller and more limited samples. The different conclusion again supports the need for large and general samples. In a third well-designed study, Haynes and Haynes (1999) used a large national sample of 2,284 respondents with comparative data on male- and female- business owners. The authors concluded that women-owned businesses have similar access to lines-of-credit as men-owned businesses do. The overall conclusion from the second wave of research is that there are few, if any differences, in banking relationships for male and female entrepreneurs.

Successful Indian Women Entrepreneurs

chillibreeze writer Amrita Radhakrishnan

Every corporate environment is said to have a glass ceiling when it comes to women moving up the ladder of success. However, these go-getters have surely proved this notion wrong by achieving success through sheer hard work and dedication. Profiling some g the top 10 women entrepreneurs India has seen Indra Nooyi Strong-willed, with an acute acumen for financial strategizing, Nooyi is the CFO and President of PepsiCo. Her strong acumen for business has helped the company garner as much as 30 billion dollars worth of crucial deals within the last couple of years. With a Masters Degree in Public Management from Yale University and Masters in Finance and Marketing from IIM, Kolkata, Nooyi held several senior positions at Motorola and Asea Brown Boveri before joining PepsiCo.
Indra Nooyi the most well-known face amongst Indian women entrepreneurs (Image: http://ledienduc.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/indra_nooyi.jpg)

Naina Lal Kidwai From being Head of Investment Banking at ANZ Grindlays during 1982-1994 to Vice Chairman JM Morgan Stanley, Naina Lal Kidwai is one of the most successful and famous Indian businesswomen of today. The first Indian woman to graduate from the elite Harvard Business School, she is currently Country Head and Group General Manager HSBC Group India. Apart from working at HSBC, Kidwai has also held other eminent positions such as that of Global Advisor, Harvard Business School, non-executive director at Nestle SA and as a member of Governing Board NCAER, Auditor General of India and several other positions. Naina has received the distinguished Padma

Shri award for her contributions in the segment of Trade and Industry.
Naina Lal Kidwai one of the most successful Indian women entrepreneurs (Image: http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/naina-lalkidwai.html)

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is one of the richest women in India studied zoology at Bangalore University and brewery at Ballarat University. She started her career as trainee brewer at Carlton & United Beverages in 1974. Four years later she started her own company, Biocon, in her garage with an investment of Rs 10000. Three issues biotechnology was nascent at the time in India, she was a woman and her organization had almost nil assets made financial institutions turn down her loan application. However, with hard work and commitment, Shaw transformed Biocon into one of the leading biopharmaceutical firms in India.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw From humble beginnings to being the richest woman in the country! (Image: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/canvas/2002/04/27/ images/2002042700090401.jpg)

Indu Jain This multi-faceted lady used to be the Chairman of The Times Group the most powerful and the largest media house India has known. Indu Jain is known by many different identities such as that of a spiritualist, humanist, entrepreneur, an aficionado of culture and the arts, an educationalist but her most prominent and eminent role has been that of Chairman Times Group.
Indu Jain the perfect picture of the successful Indian woman entrepreneur (Image: http://im.in.com/connect/images/profile/ b_profile3/Indu_Jain_300.jpg)

Priya Paul

Armed with a Bachelors degree specializing in Economics from the Wellesley College in US, Priya Paul, entered the family business and is currently Chairperson, Apeejay Park Hotels. The Apeejay Surrendra Group has many different subsidiaries such as hotel, tea, retail, shipping, financial services and real estate. Her contributions in the segments of commerce and industry and her efforts have been recognized through various citations and awards Young Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Federation of Hotels and Restaurants Association of India, Businessperson of the Year, Economic Times Awards and the Park Hotel being rated as one amongst the best 101 Hotels Worldwide by Tatler magazine in the UK.
Priya Paul one of the most prominent personas amongst women entrepreneurs of India (Image:http://www.abtn.co.uk/files/abtn/Accommodation/ Hotels/Park_Hotels/ParkHotels_PriyaPaul_150sh.jpg)

Sulajja Firodia Motwani Sulajja Firodia Motwani, the Joint Managing Director of Kinetic Motors and Managing Director Kinetic Finance, is responsible for Kinetics transformation from a moped company to a manufacturer of great versatility. Sulajja has single-handedly designed and developed marketing strategies to spearhead the companys growth forward. The recent collaboration with Italjet Moto has provided Kinetic complete rights to launch 7 brand new models of scooters in India. India Today has honored Sulajja by naming her the Face of the Millennium and she has been selected as the Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.
Sulajja Firodia Motwani Responsible for single-handedly changing the face of Kinetic as we know it today (Image: http://inhouse.digitaltoday.in/cmswoman /images/stories/woman/84_150_1041.jpg)

Simone Tata

Holding the coveted title of being the cosmetics czarina of India Simone Tata has been instrumental in changing a small subsidiary of Tata Oil Mills into the largest cosmetic brand in India Lakme, synonymous today with Indian fashion. She became part of Lakme during 1961 and has been responsible for the metamorphosis of the company into the biggest brands of fashion in India. She became Chairperson of the company during 1982 and is now the Chairperson of Trent Limited, a subsidiary of the Tata group.
Simone Tata the force behind Lakme as we know it today (Image: http://im.in.com/connect/images/profile/ feb2010/Simone_Tata_300.jpg)

Neelam Dhawan Neelam Dhawan, the Managing Director of Microsoft India and is the head of marketing and sales operations of the company throughout India. At the start of her career she yearned to be a part of major players in the FMCG space such as Asian Paints and Hindustan Lever. Unfortunately, these organizations did not want a woman to be a part of their marketing and sales efforts and hence she was rejected at the time. Before joining Microsoft, Neelam has been part of many prominent companies such as IBM, HP as well as HCL.
Neelam Dhawan from initial rejection in sales and marketing to heading Microsofts sales marketing division, Neelam has come a long way (Image: http://www.ciol.com/slideshow/50years/images/ Neelam%20Dhawan_1613.jpg)

Ekta Kapoor Love them or hate them, you just cannot ignore Balaji serials and Ekta Kapoor is the woman who single-handedly founded and made Balaji Telefilms the household name it is today. This baby-faced teenager, who once dreamed of marrying and settling down just like any other woman in India, is the creative head of Balaji Telefilms and counted as one of the top 10 women entrepreneurs of today. Her production house has many hit serials to its credit Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki and many others, making her the Queen Bee of the Indian soap opera scene. She has won the Hall of Fame award at the 6th Indian Telly Awards during 2006 for her

contribution to the Indian television industry. Known to be fiercely protective of her company and brand, Ekta is also very professional and has strong business acumen.
Ekta Kapoor the woman who changed the face of Indian television (Image: http://www.indiantvtoday.com/wpcontent/uploads/2008/08/ekta_kapoor.jpg)

Mallika Srinivasan Mallika Srinivasan, currently the Director TAFE India, was honored with the title of Businesswoman of the Year during 2006 by the Economic Times. She joined the company in 1986 and has since been responsible for accelerating turnover from 85 crores to 2900 crores within a span of two decades. Mallika has an MBA from Wharton School of Business, Pennsylvania.
Mallika Srinivasan responsible for spearheading TAFEs growth and revenue potential (Image: http://media2.intoday.in/businesstoday/images/ stories//oct19_08/080930040402_women6.jpg)

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Home Policy Forum Policy Forum Blog Empowering Women Entrepreneurs

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Posted by: Mark Marich on March 24, 2010Source: Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship
Susanne E. Jalbert, Ph.D. has contributed an article to the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) focusing on women entrepreneurs and the role of womens business associations.

Women comprise more than 50 percent of the worlds population. Yet in spite of their numbers, they own only 1 percent of the worlds wealth, and 75 percent of women cannot obtain a formal bank loan because they lack permanent employment or property rights to land or housing required for collateral, or because the laws of their countries make them ineligible for legal transactions, explains the article.

In spite of the serious challenges for women entrepreneurs stemming from political and socio-economic instability and weak institutional infrastructure in many developing countries, Jalbert argues that womens business associations are well-positioned as community change-makers and stakeholders. Particularly, by maximizing the entrepreneurial and leadership skills of their members, womens business organizations can help improve gender equality and economic growth and development.

lead poisoning tillany museum healthcare projects community development women's empowerment o overview o objectives o area covered o activities o expectations journalism institute critical issues

Women's Economic Empowerment through Cooperative Farming, Vocational Training & Business Development Due to the lack of specific implementation plans and faulty representations, local communities have not adequately accepted government and private schemes for the upliftment of women. Women have not actively participated in their own emancipation due to their lack of economic independence and rampant illiteracy. Therefore, The George Foundation decided to address this important issue of women's empowerment in India by raising the status of women in Hosur Taluk through economic empowerment and education. Krishnagiri District is the most backward district in Tamil Nadu. In the geographical location selected, there are no high schools, no private schools, inadequate primary health sub-centers, and no NGOs. Roads, water supply, drainage and communication network are inadequate to augment economic development. Fragmented land holdings are not conducive to commercial farming. Child labor is rampant in this socially backward area. Population statistics of our country clearly indicate that quality education is out of the reach of the poor and marginalized irrespective of their innate potential. Women are often exploited by their communities. They have very little voice and no knowledge or means of improving their social and

economic status. In the villages of the area, the caste system is deeply entrenched. The lower caste colonies are ostracized and basic facilities are denied to them. Female infanticide is a common practice and women are punished socially for bearing girl children. Gender biases are very evident in the preferential treatment given to the male child. Rain-dependent agriculture, home-based animal husbandry, silkworm rearing and brick making are the main income generating activities. Fisheries, horticulture and industries have been established in a few select areas such as Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and Hosur. Rural folk find it difficult to travel to these cities in search of jobs. The average family income level is below the poverty line. One of the popular schemes employed by several NGOs, and supported by some international and bilateral agencies, is the so-called "micro-finance" or small loans that usually range up to $100 (Rs. 5,000) per woman to start some form of business. Notable successes have been recorded, and the program has received considerable world attention. Most poor women entrepreneurs are said to have been able to make their businesses successful, and repay the loan. However, our experience in this area with lower caste poor women has been somewhat different. Poor women, especially from backward communities and lower castes, are mostly illiterate, untrained, and have very little social and economic status. In India, there are over 350 million such people, mainly in rural areas. The unemployed are nearly 200 million people, a great majority of them belonging to these deprived sections of the society. Without meaningful skills, social status, and economic power, they are unable to do any business on their own even with financial assistance. To start even a small rural business, it takes no less than $500. According to some studies

conducted by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad, the average capital need for a one-person small business is in excess of Rs. 1 lakh ($2,000). Further, the chances of making any business successful is very small - the odds are barely 1 in hundred for an educated person. Uneducated lower caste rural women find it almost impossible to initiate any such entrepreneuring work without adequate capital, proper training, and on-site daily support. Based on our understanding of the problem faced in our rural community, we have devised a scheme for empowering poor and socially deprived women. The key ingredients of this program can be summarized as follows: 1. Adequate training in an area where the women have natural abilities and understanding (for example, farming and cattle rearing) 2. Use of superior technology to obtain better output and higher profits (modern farming techniques, such as use of proper fertilizers, deep ploughing, drip irrigation, etc.) 3. Creation of financial assets through savings (from profits generated from sale of produce, over and above wages received) 4. Ownership of physical assets (use of financial assets to purchase cultivable land acre per family) 5. Sharing of resources such as wells, tractor, etc. among several farmers 6. Provide a support system that addresses concerns, difficulties, know-how, etc. 7. Access to information and markets (knowing what high-value crop to grow and when, which markets offer higher prices on a given day, tie up export contracts, etc.) Only when these requirements can be met, we believe poor illiterate rural women can be expected to turn into entrepreneurs. The George Foundation has purchased/leased 250 acres of land. An executive committee comprised

of representatives of The George Foundation, village panchayath, and agricultural consultants has been formed. Under its direction, the soil is being prepared for crop cultivation. Superior seeds of selected crops have been purchased. The panchayath members are highly motivated about this project. People from the surrounding villages are participating in the preparation of the land for farming. This program will be expanded to cover the neighboring state of Karnataka in its later stages. Members of the village panchayat, the village administrative officer and the block development officer have been with the project from its planning stage. The geographic community and the community of beneficiaries, particularly poor rural women, were involved in planning and implementation of the project.

General overview of woman entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan

At the beginning of the 1990's immediately after proclaiming independence, Uzbekistan faced a boom in entrepreneurship. Many women, both from urban and rural areas, started their business activities doing what was called "charter trade" (micro scale import / export, very active between Tashkent, Beijing and Bangkok). Many women could then open small shops and enterprises selling goods and providing services. BWA (Business Women Association), the first Uzbek women NGO, has contributed to the development of the private sector by encouraging Uzbek women initiatives.

Unfortunately, the road is long and difficult. Women still face many constraints impeding their access to self-employment. Some of these constraints are shared by both men and women, but other, like in many developing countries concern specifically woman empowerment. The solidarity chain established by the tutorship system and the women oriented activities should ensure a multiplier effect within the country and is expected to bring to the economic empowering of women at large. Dissemination of Project outcomes should increase the knowledge of business opportunities in Uzbekistan. And encourage trans-national business partnerships between business circles of Uzbekistan and Europe. Political constraints for the development of entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan:

From 1995 until 1998 the Government decided to restrict and control entrepreneurship to avoid chaotic and unregulated development of the private sector. The lack of adequate legislation to regulate the emerging market efficiently, led to the reinforcement of governmental control. Although the law "On state guarantees and support of the private entrepreneurship" enacted in 1999, lifted some restrictions for private entrepreneurship, independent private businesses still face many administrative constraints. A number of resolutions and decrees have been adopted, weighting down private business development. For example, it has become very difficult for an Uzbek company to open a bank account in hard currency and use foreign currencies for international trade. The lack of legal knowledge of the organisations supposed to protect the rights of small entrepreneurs impeded the full recovery of entrepreneurship initiative as well as the expression of the propositional power that NGOs could and should have. Today, women represent 20% of high-level business structures in Uzbekistan, but they are being left aside from the privatization movement and, depending on the region, only 0 to 15% of the women have access to credit. Specific needs and constraints for women:

Women have been disproportionately affected by the negative aspects of the current socioeconomic transition in Uzbekistan: increasing poverty, rising unemployment, reduction of the financial ability to educate both girls and boys, greater pressure to marry at younger ages, more visible domestic violence, etc. These problems are exacerbated by the fact that many Uzbek laws designed to protect and promote women's rights and gender equity are not widely known, implemented or enforced. Or if they do, they can have the opposite effect, like for example the three-year maternity leave, adopted to relieve the pressure in the labour market and protect women's rights but that created a discrepancy in the labour market by increasing women employment costs. Although Uzbek legislation recognizes the equality of men and women and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, the reality relies more on traditions than on legislation. Uzbek traditional cultural and religious practices do not encourage women to have a public role in the society. This cultural pressure is a very strong deterrent to women empowerment, above all in the economic sector, preventing them from taking advantage of the equal opportunities encoded in the Uzbek law. Specific barriers impeding women full-insertion in the private sector:

The effects of transitional economies have been particularly sensitive on women. One of the major social consequences of the economical transition was that women were left aside from the new economic development scheme. Out of an employed population of 9 million in 2000, women represented only 44% of the active population (Source: Statistics Division, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, ESCAP,2000). Being more vulnerable, they face specific gender sensitive barriers impeding their effective empowerment. - Cultural barriers: As mentioned, the traditional Uzbek society does not encourage women empowerment. The concept of gender equity is not uniformly known nor accepted. Woman entrepreneurship, above all, can be perceived as a questioning of male predominance. This barrier, though being informal, has a strong effect on women determination to undertake entrepreneurship activities. Besides, this discrepancy in the treatment of men and women is also reflected in other sectors where women have to face prejudices and employment reluctances. - Educational barriers: Although women are generally more present than men in the Higher Education system, their curriculum is not adapted to the new requirements of the labour market. According to the ADB RETA Project "Sub-regional cooperation in managing education reforms" (2002), Uzbek women are almost totally absent from Management, Financial and Information Technologies courses. The specific educational programs preferred by women, such as Education, Health or Culture, are not well linked to the existing demand of the labour market, and thus disadvantage female professionals. To maintain a well-developed human skills base, that is a major asset for the future development of the country; a stronger link between women's higher education preferences and labour market demands needs to be established. - Economical barrier: Women are mostly present in the less well-paid sectors of the economy. Their concentration in the public "non-productive" sectors of Health, Education and Culture has seen their wages fall further below the national average over the past 10 years. Despite efforts deployed towards economic empowerment of women, the majority of the active female population continues to be confined in the micro and small-scale enterprises and the informal sector (like cross-border trade, subcontracting work at home or street trading). Clearly, women's entrepreneurial potential remains untapped in transition countries, especially when compared to global trends. Like, for example in most countries of Western Europe, where the number of women entrepreneurs has rapidly increased during the last ten years, contributing to GDP growth and the creation of new jobs. - Financial barriers: The integration of women into the formal sector is still constrained by limited access to credit and property. This barrier, effective for many entrepreneur men and women, is even more sensitive for women. Apart from the gender prejudice limiting their access to traditional sources of funding, women are more accurately disadvantaged by their lack of; technical knowledge in the redaction of business plans, the absence of efficient high level networking (for string-pulling and guarantees). Besides, even if women are seen as more rational in their choices, they are restrained by their lack of ambitions and selfconfidence.

There is, today, mounting concern that poverty is undergoing a process of feminization. It is hard to evaluate women unemployment, based only on official data. But more than unemployment, women are facing a situation of underemployment. A large part of the population is relatively highly skilled (according to the UNESCO, the literacy rate of the population in 2000 was 99.6%), nevertheless, skilled women are more and more underemployed if not unemployed. Among unemployed women, 55,6% are graduated, whereas graduated men are only 44,4% to seek employment. But it has been reported that more and more professional and skilled women are looking for unskilled labour which implies wasting of valuable human resources. A new category of poor people is emerging from the traditional educated middle class. The real decline of the wages paid to professional and skilled women, particularly in the public sector, where women are over-represented, has led to the growth of what is usually termed in CIS countries, as the "new poor". Highly trained professional women are, more and more, seeking badly paid and non-prestigious work to improve their families' material well-being.

Economic Empowerment of Women United Nations Economic and Social Council Economic Comission for Africa
Sixteenth meeting of the Technical Thirtieth session of the Commission/ Preparatory Committee of the twenty-first meeting of the Conference Whole of Ministers Addis Ababa, Ethiopia / Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 24-28 April 1995 / 1-4 May 1995 Economic Empowerment of Women: Progress Report on the Proposed African Bank for Women and Promotion of Women Entrepreneurship I. Introduction 1. By resolution 792 (XXIX) on "an integrated approach to women's empowerment", the ECA Con-ference of Ministers requested the secretariat of the Commission to complete the final study on practical modalities for setting up a regional financial institution for women and to ensure its establishment and take off. The same resolution stressed the need for governments to generate mor e economic opportunities for women and requested member States to take the necessary legislative, monetary and banking measures which would facilitate the promotion of African women's entrepreneurship. It further requested the Commission, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the African Development Bank (ADB) to give full support to the African Federation of Women Entrepreneurs (AFWE). 2. In the same resolution, the Conference urged that special attention be given to increasing employment opportuni ties and productive resources of women through the establishment of a financial intermediary, building

women's competitiveness and increasing economic exchanges among women entrepreneurs. The present report highlights the activities undertaken in response to the resolution. II. Action taken towards the Establishment of an African Bank for Women 3. Women in Africa constitute 52 per cent of the total population, contribute 75 per cent of the agricul-tural work and produce and market 60 to 80 per cent of f ood. According to the United Nations Develop-ment Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report, the female labour force in subSaharan Africa in 1993 was about 73 million, representing 34 per cent of those employed in the formal sector, earning only 10 per c ent of the income while owning 1 per cent of the assets. These figures clearly indicate the need for increasing women's access to both formal and informal resources. 4. Despite efforts deployed towards economic empowerment of women, the majority of the a ctive female population continues to be confined in the micro and small-scale enterprises and the informal sector. There are some indications that women are increasingly seeking self-employment in the formal private sector. Women are organizing themselves into associations of entrepreneurs or bankers in order to enhance their economic status and have an impact on economic policies. However, their integration into the formal sector is still constrained by limited access to credit, property, technology and technical skills. 5. In this regard and pursuant to the above-mentioned resolution, the Commission has intensified efforts to strengthen the resource base for women's economic activities. The ECA African Centre for Women (ACW) organized an expert group meeting in Kampala, Uganda from 24 to 29 August 1994, to consider modalities for establishing an African bank for women. The meeting was chaired by Mrs. Theresa Owusu, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana and was attended by 19 high-level experts invited in their personal capacity from Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Their range of expertise included finance and banking, economic planning as well as improvement of women's access to financial resources. Th ere were also observers from Kenya, Uganda, UNDP, the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) and the Lusaka-based Multinational Programming and Operational Centre (MULPOC). 6. The objectives of the meeting were to: (a) Devise a financial institution which would cater for specific financial needs of African women at all levels; (b) Define the most appropriate mode of operation; and (c) Recommend measures which would ensure its viability and sustainability as well as mobiliza-tion of financial resources. 7. The meeting recommended the establishment of a privately owned regional financial institution called "Africa-Women Bank (AWB)" or "Afric aBanque des Femmes (ABF)" with affiliates at national level and with women holding the highest percentage of shares. The meeting stressed the

importance of mobilizing the capital from the region for greater sustainability. 8. Major conclusions of the experts meeting are reproduced below. A. At national level 9. The meeting recommended a full-fledged commercial bank for women as the ultimate institution in each country. The services and products offered by the bank will be open to the general public. It also agreed that the institution will: (a) Set up branches within each country; (b) Establish links and networking with existing women institutions and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs); (c) Provide services which other banks do not provide. (a) Functions of the women's bank at national level 10. The functions at the national level will be: (a) Mobilization of savings; (b) Mobilization of resources at local and international levels; (c) Capacity building and technical services; (d) Strategic planning, both short and long term. The bank should be established in accordance with the legal framework which regulates the establishment of banks in each country; (e) Research, information, gender disaggregation of data and training; (f) Facilitation of imports and exports; (g) Marketing and public relations; (h) Corporate services; (i) Monitoring of loans; (j) Advisory and support services; (k) Discounting services; (l) Collaboration with existing banks and women's institutions and NGOs; (m) Credit guarantee arrangements; (n) Actively soliciting for trustee services; and (o) Advocacy. (b) Services to be offered by the bank in each country

11. The divisions of the bank will carry out the following: (a) Operations Division: banking; savings mobilization; resource mobilization; discounting ser- vices; imports and exports; lending and recovery; (b) Finance, Administration, Personnel and Legal Division: finance; administration; personnel; public relations; legal support; (c) Capacity Building and Technical Services: training, advisory and support services; provision of non-banking information; (d) Research and Development: marketing; research; data (DIS); information; (e) Development Financing: project appraisal; re-financing and project evaluation. (c) Sources of funds 12. Initial funds will be raised from shareholding from individuals, groups, organizations or corporate bodies who will subscribe to shares; bonds; and grants (with no conditionalities). 13. Sources of funds for its operation will thereafter be: (a) Profits from operations and investments; (b) Reserves; (c) Retained earnings; (d) Fixed deposits; (e) Savings schemes; (f) Social security for the informal sector; and (g) Insurance reserves. (d) Share cost and distribution 14. The cost of shares and their distribution will be as follows: (a) The minimum share-holding should be 10 shares at $US10 per share; (b) Sixty per cent must be owned by women. The remaining 40 per cent could be raised from the public. No individual or group should own more than 20 per cent of the total shares; (c) Governments or parastatals should not participate in the ownership of the bank, but could provide grants and political support; (d) Shares should be open to the public through prospectus, where required;

(e) Not all shares should be floated at the same time; (f) There should be pre-emptive rights and bonus shares to members, subject to the provisions of (b) above. B. At regional level (a) Type 15. The experts recommended a universal bank handling business accounts. (b) Objective 16. The main objective of the regional organization should be to meet the financial needs of women at all levels by availing business funds to women, thereby filling up the gap left by existing institutions. T he apex should be charged with networking with existing institutions. (c) Functions 17. The finances raised through contributions, grants or debt conversion swaps should be used to support the following functions of the bank without using customers' deposits: (a) Mobilize funds at all levels, i.e., national and international; (b) Provide technical services to the national intermediaries, e.g., training, managerial services, etc.; (c) Harmonize operations of the regional and national institutions; (d) Mobilize funds for lending to large-scale regional and subregional projects; (e) In collaboration with existing institutions, introduce appropriate technologies at regional and national levels to ease overburdening of the woman, and consequently improve her performance; (f) Facilitate export/import services, insurance services, etc., for clients, i.e., the national unit; (g) Set up a section to trade in shares and securities; (h) Provide services to discount loans; (i) Source seed money for refinancing and replenishing capital; (j) Provide a credit guarantee scheme for the national institutions. (d) Modalities of establishing the bank 18. At the initial stage, ECA is expected to identify a team of founding members who will act as pro-moters of the bank with the specific mission of mobilizing funds for start-up activities. ECA should also sensitize women from member countries on the nee d to have such a bank and invite

investors and/or share-holders. 19. At the national level, promoters sh ould sensitize donors and companies to mobilize resources. The promoters will seek shares and grants for financing technical services from national governments, institu-tions, other agencies and the general public. ECA will also seek shares, grants and o ther forms of assistance from international organizations such as the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the United Nations Trust Fund for African Development (UNTFAD), UNDP, ADB, etc. (e) Proposed structure 20. The promoters (founding members) will serve the role of vice board members. After establishing the bank, the shareholders will hold an annual general meeting (AGM) to appoint the board of directors to formulate policies of the bank. The board will, i n turn, appoint a managing director and a team of func-tional general managers to handle the management and day-to-day running of the bank. The bank will have two arms of operations one for inspectorate and support services for the national capital units, and the other for setting up management assistance programmes such as training. Promotional activities for both the apex and the national units should run parallel. (f) Location 21. The criteria recommended for hosting the apex regional body included the following: (a) Political stability and an enabling environment for promotion of business; (b) A clear and positive policy on women in development; and (c) Provision of the following facilities and services: (i) Premises and other facilities: a. the host government should be able to provide facilities free of charge for the bank's headquarters premises; b. the host government should be able to provide land free of charge for con-struction of permanent buildings and/or for any modifications or expansions that may be required; c. the host government should be able to make provisions for accommodation facilities for personnel of the bank; d. social, athletic and school facilities for the officials of the bank and their children; (ii) Transport, communication and accessibility: a. the institution should be able to enjoy and have the right to use host govern-ment means of transport at the same rates and in the same conditions as other international and permanent diplomatic missions; b. the host government should be able to provide local and external post

and telecommunication facilities. The institution should be able to receive official communication without any limitations and restrictions; c. accessibility by air and other means, i.e, rail and water. To this end, the host government should ensure free movement to and from the headquarters officials of the bank and members of their family, persons on mission for the organization and visit ors invited; d. exemption from any immigration restrictions, any taxation and customs duties; e. the relevant government should facilitate the right to import, free of duty and other levies; (iii) Financial, banking facilities and taxation: The bank should not be restricted by financial controls or regulations, and should freely: a. operate accounts in any currency; b. acquire negotiable currencies and through authorized channels acquire, hold and dispose of funds, securities, etc.; c. transfer its funds, securities and currencies from or to any other country or within the territory of the country. 22. As a follow up to the expert meeting, ECA has sent all the informatio n to the experts but so far, only the Kenyan expert has communicated the names of 18 individuals who have formally committed themselves to be members of the bank. The same expert has also made preliminary contacts with the World Bank. Reports from other e xperts had not been received at the time of writing this report. III. Promotion of Women Entrepreneurship 23. Consistent with the objective of promoting women's private initiatives for their effective contribution to sustainable economic growth, ECA has continued to give full support to African women entrepreneurs. A forum of women entrepreneurs was organized at the same time as the fifth Regional Conference on Women in Dakar, Senegal at the initiative of the West African Women's Association. The Forum w as very well attended by business women and women entrepreneurs from all over Africa. Women from all sectors of economic activities at the informal, small-, medium- and large-scale level were present. The Forum offered an opportunity for an indepth exch ange of information on business opportunities in the manufacturing, trade and services sectors and for creating new ties among women entrepreneurs. Business contracts were also exchanged. 24. Similarly, the African Federation of Women Entrepreneurs (AFWE) and the Ghana Association of Women Entrepreneurs are planning to hold the first All-African and North American Women Trade Show and Exhibition of Exportable Products and Services in Accra from 22 June to 6 July 1995. The main pur- pose of the trade fair is to promote women's exportable products and foreign private investment in women businesses. ECA and USAID are members of the planning committee.

25. All member States have been invited to take part in the trade fair as well as attend workshops and seminars which will be held during the fair with a view to open a debate on investment opportunities in the global market and the role of women in the ec onomic transformation and recovery of their countries.

IV. Conclusion 26. The importance of the African bank for women and the African Federation of Women Entrepreneurs as instruments of effective economic empowerment of women cannot be overemphasized. Women constitute a strong labour force which only needs to be mobilized and encouraged to make an effective contribution to the development of Africa. These two institutions will contribute to economic empowerment of women and to ensuring their effective participation in the process of economic transformation and integration. 27. The Conference of Ministers is therefore called upon to provide suggestions and advice, as neces-sary, on the name of the bank, its structure and criteria for hosting the apex organization and to give full support to the two institutions in order to ensu re that they become fully operational.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Encouraging women entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs - people willing to take the risks and make significant commitments to get a new business off the ground or build on an existing one - are not common enough in Europe. For many reasons, not enough Europeans see running a small business as sufficiently more attractive than working as an employee of a firm, large or small, or in a public organisation. These reasons apply as much to women as to men, but there are certain additional factors which make entrepreneurship an even less attractive or viable option for women (in addition to those factors which count against women in all sections of the labour market). Although there has been an encouraging upturn in women running businesses in the past decade or so, much more needs to be done to overcome the specific factors which discourage women in particular from starting or taking over small firms. Today women entrepreneurs in Europe are only 30% of all entrepreneurs. And even more importantly, we have to create an environment in which those women who do run a small business can more easily grow their firms.

The European Network of Mentors for Women Entrepreneurs

The European Network of Mentors for Women Entrepreneurs is one of the actions proposed in the 2011 SBA Review and aims at promoting female entrepreneurship in Europe. The Mentors Network enforces and complements the actions to promote, support and encourage female entrepreneurship that started with the creation of the European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors (ENFEA) in 2009. The Mentors Network will provide advice and support to women entrepreneurs on the start-up, running and growth of their enterprises in the early phase of their life (from the second to the fourth year of existence of a new woman-run and owned enterprise). 17 CIP countries will be welcomed to the Mentors Network: Albania, Belgium, Cyprus, FYROM, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The Network has been inaugurated in Warsaw, Poland under a Polish Presidency event on 15 November 2011. Press release: Female mentors to help woman entrepreneurs to get started

Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors

The European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors was inaugurated on 5 October 2009 in Stockholm during the Swedish Presidency by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Vladimir pidla, the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and Maud Olofsson Minister of Enterprise, Energy and Communications and Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden. The Network is made up of around 270 entrepreneurs coming from 22 European countries.

Built on the Small Business Act

The Ambassadors network is just one of the many initiatives foreseen in the Commissions 2008 Small Business Act designed to boost the growth of SMEs across Europe. Other measures on the SBA agenda include a mentoring scheme, and steps to promote entrepreneurship among women graduates. The Act urges Member States to offer mentoring and support to female entrepreneurs and to exchange good practice. It also makes proposals for legislation: for example, the General Block Exemption Regulation on State Aid (GBER) permits state aid of up to 1 million for new, women-led companies.

Promoting opportunities

Measures to encourage women to give greater consideration to running small firms, and to make it easier for them to do so, can take many forms. Different Member States have tackled many different aspects of the problems, in a range of ways, but no one Member State has all the answers. And since improving the situation requires so-called 'soft' actions besides legislation, it is an area ideally suited to exchanging good practices and experiences between Member States. A key problem is access to finance. All entrepreneurs find it difficult to find the investors they need to secure their business, and specific measures are needed to make it easier for women to obtain the funding required for business ventures. And whilst legislative action is appropriate in some areas, in others the main need is to enable women to gain better information. One of the main initiatives the Commission is undertaking is to support networking amongst women entrepreneurs, amongst potential women entrepreneurs, and amongst government agencies and other support organisations which can play a role in encouraging women entrepreneurs. A study was undertaken by the Commission in 2008 on women innovators and entrepreneurship.

The aim of the study was to perform a literature review for informing new policies and actions in the promotion of women's innovators/inventors' entrepreneurship. In addition, the study provided policy recommendations with a view to promote entrepreneurship of women innovators/inventors as a way to reach the goals of the Lisbon Agenda. The study shows that women's obstacles to innovative entrepreneurship are of 3 types: 1. 2. 3. Contextual obstacles: educational choices, traditional views and stereotypes about women, science and innovation; Economic obstacles: innovation sector requiring substantial investment and women being seen less credible financially than men; Soft obstacles: lack of access to technical scientific and general business networks, lack of business training, role models and entrepreneurship skills. Study: Evaluation policy: Promotion of Women Innovateors and Entrepreneurship

Advice and support

The Commission has already opened a Womens Entrepreneurship Portal, with links to contacts, events and networking opportunities within and between Member States. While the European Network to Promote Womens Entrepreneurship (WES) brings together government representatives from 30 European countries to provide advice, support and information for female entrepreneurs, helping them to raise their profile and expand their businesses. It publishes an annual report of activity by national governments.

Strides 2011: Women Entrepreneurship Key to Women Empowerment

Written by Nina Rai
Tuesday, 12 July 2011 10:39

Narendra Singh, Executive Director of Corporation Bank seen lighting the lamp. On his right Dr S. Sridharan, Dean: Dayanand Sagar Business Academy, Bangalore. Looking on from left to right is Sadhana Kini, POWER President; Madhura Chatrapati, Trustee Director, ASCENT; B N Bhat, Corporation Bank GM; G G Mohandas Prabhu, KCCI President and others. Empowerment of women can be achieved through motivating women entrepreneurship, this statement was highlight in a seminar on women entrepreneurship which was organized by the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI). With the support of Corporation Bank and knowledge partners ASCENT (Asian Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiatives) and Manipal based Platform for Women Entrepreneurs (POWER), the event was held in Mangalore at the KCCI office.

The major focus of the one-day workshop entitled STRIDES 2011: Opportunities for women in Service and Trading Enterprises, was to provide valuable inputs to women entrepreneurs with regard to technology, banking, marketing, finance, etc. Strides 2011 was inaugurated by Narendra Singh, Executive Director of Corporation Bank. At the outset GG Mohandas Prabhu, President, KCCI welcomed the gathering, while Vice-President Latha R Kini and Mohammed Ameen Hon. Secretary, KCCI introduced the guests on the dais. Sadhana Kini, President, POWER was the chief guest on the occasion. Speaking to such an assorted bunch of women entrepreneurs, Narendra Singh opined that womens empowerment can only become a reality when they become financially independent. Singh also touched upon the various schemes initiated by Corporation bank to help women entrepreneurs. According to him there were a plethora of opportunities in small and medium scale sector, with the government too announcing various schemes. It is now up to women entrepreneurs to avail of such schemes and move forward, he exhorted. Key resource person Dr Madhura M Chatrapathy, Trustee Director, ASCENT opined that a data bank on women entrepreneurs was the need of the hour. According to her in the absence of a proper data base it was not possible to bring women entrepreneurs into the mainstream. With regard to industries too, its crucial to register it, Chatrapathy advised. Further she spoke about a large number of women doing good business at the household level who were not in the mainstream. In this context she referred to the case of a female food-joint owner, who made Rs. 20,000 per day, yet didnt have a bank account nor did she pay tax. Its imperative to bring this kind of women entrepreneurs into the mainstream business, Chartrapathi pointed out. In his address B N Bhat, Corporation Bank GM spoke about his bank offering loans to lady entrepreneurs in the small enterprises segment. He said they would offer loan-linked savings bank account designed specifically for women entrepreneurs. According to him the bank was ready to offer loans up to Rs. 1 crore that too without security or collateral. This is provided an aspiring entrepreneur can convince them that the project was viable economically and technically. In such cases, he promised to give clearance for loans on the spot. Further he informed that provision has been made to gather relevant information about the kind of business being envisioned and planned by aspiring and current women entrepreneurs who are participating in the seminar. After another meeting as part of second phase, loans will be disbursed to the aspirants, Bhat added. Other resource persons to speak at the seminar were Dr S. Sridharan, Dean: Dayanand Sagar Business Academy, Bangalore and Dr. Sunanda Easwaran Dean Entrepreneurship & Research, WE school, Bangalore. The afternoon session comprised of women achievers sharing their success stories. Among these were Marjorie Texeira of Canam Consultants and Nirmala Kamath of the immensely successful Nirmala Travels. Speaking on the sidelines of the workshop Lata Kini, KCCI Vice President, informed that over the years the Chamber had organized several interactive meetings and seminars for the benefit of the entrepreneurial class. However, this seminar meant for women entrepreneurs exclusively, is the first of its kind effort undertaken by the Chamber since its 75 years of inception, she informed. The aim of Strides 2011 was to basically mobilize all practicing and aspiring women entrepreneurs in the city, as well as motivate them for their betterment and progress in the business arena, she added.

Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs Empowerment Tips

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1. Enlightenment Have Faith In a Womens Entrepreneur Success Survey I conducted, the #1 category chosen out of 44 to define Success was Faith. It can be assumed that accountability to God, or a higher purpose, helps you work with strong values, ethics and morals; based on charity, kindness, compassion, and the genuine passion to help others. Also, having faith may help you learn from your failures quicker, have less fear, and take more educated risks, because every experience (good or bad) is one step closer to goal attainment for all the right reasons. 2. Empowerment of Self The Ability to Chose Empowerment is about learning there are choices, in which you have the right to be the healthiest and happiest person you can be today. One critical choice in the self-empowerment process is to enter into self-discovery process that leads to self-acceptance and results in self-love. You will reach your personal and business greatest potential, once you master this equation: Self-Love = SelfDiscovery + Self-Acceptance. 3. Exercise Balance with Your Family Since your family gives you the most personal fulfillment, it is important to always prioritize your business accordingly. Choose to live life with your family, not because of, or for them by making excuses to yourself, such as work comes first. After almost facing death, I learned that I must always: Work Wisely + Play Plenty = Rest Reassured. 4. The Enterprise Must Include the Power of Power Networks As a conductor of your own enterprise, you can not see yourself as a one-woman-show. You must choose to utilize the power people in your life, by asking for help when you need it, and effectively delegating in order to capitalize on your strengths and that of your power network. When certain experts are not represented in your power network, you must actively seek advisors or mentors and develop a team of specialists, so the benefits are received by everyone involved in the power network the true Power of Power Networks. 5. Experience Success through Principles That Work

Rather than re-invent the success cycle; read, study and try different principles proven to have worked in the numerous businessimprovement resources available to you. Choose to learn something(S) new every single day. Give this one a try: The Empowerment Equation to Success: Desire + Action = Success Action = 5 As: Acquisition, Affirmative Attitude, Accountability, Asking, and Accomplish. Visit EmpowerWomenNow.com often for updated professional empowerment tools as well. 6. Exclusive Business Brand Brand yourself as the exclusive business in your target market. The more you invest your time, money, efforts, and human resource in developing your Unique Selling Proposition, once your clients start rolling intheir loyalty will last for their lifetime and that of their offspring. The power of being the first and only means you have no competition. Therefore, your clients have no one else to turn to. Always chose to be a specialist at somethingnot a generalist in everything. Dare to be Your Best Self! [Beware: Once you start succeeding at what you do, you WILL have competition. At which time, it's critical to build alliances...not enemies.] 7. Establish Systems to Maximize Time You must establish as many systems as possible (i.e., priority planning, to dos, office hours, meeting days, etc.) to be time-efficient. Streamline all your business protocols for maximum productivity that includes but not limited to your daily, weekly, monthly and annual duties and responsibilities. 8. Expand Your Marketing Reach Diversify your online and offline marketing portfolio. Always be open to try something new, different and creative, but never stop at a one-time opportunity. Repetitive efforts are rewarded the most. Areas include: website, blog, article submission, local and internet press release campaign, venture partnerships, link exchanges, charity sponsorships, public speaking, radio interviews, teleseminars, volunteerism, search engine optimization/marketing, building power networks, and hosting local events. 9. Experiment for a Positive Bottom Line For every new formula, system, or marketing campaign you try, you must always test and track your results. Stay accountable to your bottom-line by being patient enough to see results and persistent enough to gain the most from your efforts. Dont give up too easily, and dont let dead-weight pull you down. Always be cost-conscious. 10. Envisioning Goes beyond Goal Setting Envisioning your goals means being able to apply all your senses to the moment when your goal is achieved. Basically, you need to touch, taste, smell, feel, and hear your goal already accomplished, so that moment becomes so vivid in your mind, that you will become happy and empowered right now.Your positive focus will fill your workdays with fun, and youll always be proud of your efforts rather than disappointed with your unfinished tasks. Coming from a Type-A personality, this is easier said than done; but having just written this down, Im now accountable to you. Now, I challenge you to stay empowered and keep our power network alive!

Women Entrepreneurs: A Critical Review of the Literature

by Tara Fenwick, Asst. Professor Department of Educational Policy Studies University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA T6G 2G5 tara.fenwick@ualberta.ca
Abstract Increasing numbers of women are becoming leaders of their own businesses, and many are struggling to achieve success. A growing body of theory and research is exploring how different women come to business ownership, their unique leadership challenges and strategies for success, their personal change and the processes of leadership development they experience. This paper reviews literature addressing women business owners from the general perspective of understanding their leadership. Within this frame, existing studies of women business owners are classified and examined according to four themes that appear to be most prominent. These four themes are (1) Women business owners characteristics and development; (2) Womens motives for starting and leading a business; (3) Womens leadership styles and management strategies in small business; and (4) Barriers and conflicts encountered by women business owners. The article argues that further study and critical analysis is required, particularly examining relationships between changing economic contexts and cultural meanings of work, and womens unique ways of crafting entrepreneurial leadership. Questions are suggested for future research continuing the inquiry into womens leadership as small business owners. Women Leaders in Small Business: A Critical Review of Existing Literature and Questions for Future Inquiry Womens leadership in contexts of small business ownership [1] can be argued to present different models of leadership style, values, and challenges than those developed by women in organizational leadership roles. Recent studies of women in business ownership (i.e. Business Development Bank of Canada, 1999; Industry Canada, 1999) suggest that these women business owner-leaders exercise a large degree of control over the vision and purpose of the enterprise, and often deliberately craft working environments and cultures that support their personal values and preferences. They can

cultivate their own working relationships with greater freedom. They can seek as much challenge and take as much risk as they can personally manage. For some women, these freedoms come at a high cost of fears and insecurities, unpredictable workload and isolation (Canadian Advisory Council, 1991). In sum, small business ownership creates leadership issues for women that are different in kind than those shared by their sisters in senior management positions located in corporate or government settings. In the 1990s across North America, women increasingly have been entering ventures in selfemployment. In the USA, by 1992 women already owned 27 percent of small businesses (National Women Business Owners (NFWBO), 1992). In Canada, this figure in 1996 was 40 percent (Industry Canada, 1999). Statistics collected in 1997-98 found that women were starting businesses in North America at two to five times the rate of men (National Foundation, 1999; Industry Canada, 1999) and that increasing numbers of these were home-based. There is also evidence of a trend of women in senior management leaving or wanting to leave their corporate positions to try business ownership (Catalyst, 1998; Sharp and Sharp, 1999). In the U.S. from 1987-99, womens businesses increased 103%, their sales grew 436% and their employee ranks swelled 320% (NFWBO, 1999a). Various estimates claim that by the year 2000, almost 50 percent of all new businesses in North America will have been started by women (Business Development Bank, 1999; Industry Canada, 1999; NFWBO, 1999a). World-wide, similar patterns are becoming evident. Women-owned businesses are increasing to comprise one-quarter to one-third of businesses in the formal economies of Brazil, Equador, Mexico, Australia, Ireland, Italy, England, Germany, France, and certain African countries, and women business owners of these countries share similar concerns, according to surveys conducted 1997-98 at international conferences by the National Foundation of Women Business Owners (1998). A growing body of literature is emerging to study the phenomenon of womens leadership as small business owners along a wide variety of dimensions, drawing from perspectives ranging from market models of business economic development to womens psychological development and feminist studies of womens leadership. Qualitative studies in the past five years have indicated contested issues related to values, identity and the meaning of leadership emerging in this trend of women business ownership (Gay, 1997; Robertson, 1997; Thrasher and Smid, 1998). For example, women dont always accept the dominant formula that success equals money and power. Women who start their own business sometimes do so to craft a new way of working, and many continue to fight barriers related to traditional constructs of economic power and expectations. Many women business owners claim that the whole experience changes them profoundly. The purpose of this paper is first to provide a critical overview of selected literature exploring womens small business ownership, and second to pose questions arising from the existing literature to guide further research and theorizing about womens leadership in small business contexts. In her 1992 review of existing literature, Brush concluded that womens business leadership cannot be understood using traditional (male-oriented) frameworks of business analysis. She writes, Significant differences have been found in reasons for business start-up, educational background, work experience and business skills . . . business goals, management styles, business characteristics and growth rates. These variations suggest that women perceive and approach business differently than men (p. 16). Research related to womens leadership in business ownership has produced findings and theory that can be divided into four general themes outlined briefly below. These

themes were selected for discussion because of their prevalence in literature of the past two decades addressing womens business ownership, much of it published in recognized journals of small business management. This paper argues that there are two main difficulties with some of this literature. First, comparisons of women to men business owners continue to be prevalent in business ownership literature. Gender-comparative studies have focused on psychological characteristics such as propensity to take risks (Masters and Meier, 1988; Sexton and Bowman-Upton, 1990), leadership dimensions such as levels of experience and education (Bowen and Hisrich, 1986), and networking styles (Aldrich, Reece, and Dubini, 1989). The problem lies in the legacy of this comparative approach: many constructs applied to analyse womens small business leadership approaches and needs continue to be derived from male orientations. Feminist writers such as Hart (1992) have shown the limitations and incongruence of male leadership patterns applied to womens experiences. Meanwhile in small business literature women are sometimes portrayed as deficit, requiring training to compete with traditional (male) business models measuring success according to profit, growth and size. Second, much of this literature continues to rely upon assumptions grounded in individualist psychology. Attributes of women business owners are often presumed inherent, and leadership styles are sometimes generalized as if there existed womens ways of leading. Also neglected is specific attention to relationships between the emergence of womens leadership in small business, and the changing cultural and political-economic dynamics of the marketplace [2] . What may be helpful is a more critical analysis of the discourses within which different women in particular cultural-economic contexts are construing their meanings of leadership and success and the possibilities available to them. Finally, the nature of gendered work and barriers in both leadership and business ownership need to be analysed within these frameworks. The four themes are briefly introduced in the following paragraphs. Within each theme, more recent literature is expanding the scope of issues being explored and the depth and richness of the exploration. These themes are discussed in detail in later sections. Women business owners psychological characteristics were a focus of many early studies (Hisrich and Brush, 1987; Watkins and Watkins, 1983), showing the historical interest in relationships between psychological profile and leadership success. More recently, studies of womens personal development and change related to their small business leadership experiences is a recurring theme. These tend to highlight the importance of womens struggles with identity and personal change in leading their own business, including shaping their own role in the venture (Albert, 1992; Fenwick, 1998; MacKeracher, 1996; Wells. 1998). Womens motives for starting and leading a business have been documented in many studies (Lee and Rogoff, 1997; NFWBO, 1999b) to help illuminate the desires and needs of women leaders who choose business ownership over organizational management positions. Womens reasons for business start-up reasons encompass a wide range: desiring greater work-life flexibility, seeking challenge, fulfilling a long-felt desire, or escaping an organizational glass ceiling.

Womens leadership styles and approaches have become prominent in studies situated in larger organizations. However in small business literature, the focus tends to be womens business management strategies rather than their visions, values, and relational processes. Management strategies often tend to be reported from statistical studies grounded in market models which examine womens business growth rates, business planning ability, and possession of management training against traditional expectations of small business management (i.e., Carlsrud and Olm, 1986; Fagenson and Marcus, 1991). While a few have drawn attention to the possibility that womens leadership approaches in small business are unique (Chell, Haworth, and Brearley, 1991), there is still little substantial research exploring this area. Value choices in leadership of women entrepreneurs, including women entrepreneurs meanings of success and values respecting work, money, and family, is a theme emerging in some recent writings on women entrepreneurs that embraces many tensions and dilemmas. Barriers and conflicts encountered by women business owners are sometimes studied from a feminist perspective which critiques the structural and ideological discrimination built in to the existing economy and tacitly-agreed western models of business growth. Reports include isolation and gender-based discrimination of various kinds (Canadian Advisory Council, 1997), exclusion from male networks (Shragg, Yacuk, and Glass, 1992), and limited access to capital (Buttner, 1993). Work-family conflict experienced by women business owners has been a focus of recent studies. These four themes will be discussed in more detail in the following sections, and suggested directions for further inquiry will be posed at the conclusion of the paper. This review is intended to be representative, not comprehensive. Any categorization like this one makes compromises to produce a certain clarity. Such a broad review may blur important internal differences within each perspective, and build the illusion of static reification of these dynamic themes. Hopefully these limitations may be overlooked in face of the potential usefulness of this review. The overall intention of the article is to outline scholarly understandings of womens entrepreneurial leadership that are accumulating in the four themes outlined here, to challenge certain apparent limitations in existing research, and to present questions for further study of womens leadership as small business owners. As the following paragraphs should make clear, womens experiences as owner-leaders are not unitary, nor should women business-owners be treated as a monolithic group in some sort of misguided search for womens ways of doing business. A critical theme threaded throughout this discussion is the need to resist any urge to homogenize women into clear patterns (often through contrasts with men), and to emphasize their differentiated opportunities, approaches, and perceptions of leadership. Women business owners characteristics and development Studies of business-owners characteristics continue to compare women to men. Most studies have concluded that women are more similar to men business owners than they are different, in terms of both psychological and demographic characteristics. Marital status (married), age (30-45), birth order (first born) and having a self-employed father are characteristics reported to be similar across men and women business owners (Chaganti, 1986; Hisrich and Brush, 1987). General personal characteristics of so-called successful women business owners identified through survey research

include autonomy, persistence, hard work, competitiveness, orientation to personal achievement and higher income, belief in ones own vision, goal-setting, risk-taking, and natural leadership qualities (Buttner, 1993; Carlsrud and Olm, 1986; Fagenson and Marcus, 1991). Caruana, Morris, and Vella (1998), in their study of Maltese export firms, found that women and men business owners show similarity in demonstrating three characteristics deemed key for business owners: innovativeness (creative ability to create purposeful change or develop novel products, services, and processes); risk-taking (active willingness to pursue opportunity notwithstanding reasonable chance of costly failure); and proactiveness (the perseverance, adaptability, and assertiveness to initiate rather than react to the environment, and do whatever it takes to bring the venture to fruition). Masters and Meier (1988) found womens entrepreneurial risk-taking to be almost as high as mens, although they did not consider respondents personal meanings of what constitutes risk in a particular situation. Sexton and Bowman-Upton (1990) found that in comparison to men, women have higher willingness to accept change and greater need for autonomy while having lower energy levels and risk-taking propensities. The first problem with such studies of characteristics is their assumption that observable behaviors emanate from inner traits. This psychological view has been challenged by critical cultural writings of the past two decades which claim that peoples so-called characteristics are in fact produced within a web of cultural practices, social interactions, images and language. [3]Second, such studies appear to be motivated by a fundamental belief that personal traits are significantly linked to organizational development and success in a cause-effect relationship. However, critics of leadership trait theory have shown the weaknesses in this link, arguing that leadership is enacted in socially constructed contexts and cannot be attributed to inherent characteristics. **Third, these characteristics are all reported as broad dimensions in isolation, lacking situatedness in particular local histories, and cultural and socio-political contexts which women business owners must confront. These psychological dimensions unfortunately present a static, cookie-cutter model which implies an entrepreneur is born, not developed and continually developing. Chell (1991) questions whether the heffalump of entrepreneurism actually exists, arguing that entrepreneurs present different characteristics in different lights at different times. From gender perspectives, an essentializing approach tends to contribute to assumptions that a unitary set of womens ways of doing business can be identified. This not only obscures important distinctions and inequities, but leads to unfortunate assertions of womanliness . . . accessing femininity offering new hope for corporatism (OBrien, 1998) with kindness and gentleness. Fourth, several of these business owner characteristics studies, in comparing women to men, fail to attend to individual womens needs, development, meanings, and changing responses to their contexts. Many feminist writers argue that approaches and descriptors suitable for exploring womens experience are incommensurate with those that might be useful for analysing mens patterns. For example, MacKeracher (1996) observes that womens self is not single and solitary but woven into relational networks, and Clark and Dirkx (2000) argue that multiple selves emerge and shift according to circumstance. Research and theory of womens development consistently report that their workplace learning is significantly rooted in self and relationships (Enns, 1991; Caffarella and Olson, 1993; Leroux, 1996; Pearson, 1992; Schaef, 1992). Identity and intimacy appear to be central issues throughout womens lives (Caffarella and Olson, 1993), and women tend to develop their self-concept in a way that is intimately linked to their interactive relational

connections with other people (Gilligan, 1992; Lyons, 1987; Schaef,1992). In her comprehensive review of literature describing women entrepreneurs, Brush (1992) argues strongly for a new model through which to view and understand women business owners, one which recognizes that women view their business as a network of relationships in which the changing self is woven. Some researchers have called attention to the wide variation in women business owners characteristics and approaches to their business (Barrett, 1995; Chell, 1991; Gay, 1997; Robertson, 1997). Robertson provides case studies of diverse women who started a business through financial need or personal change, rather than because of desire for achievement or personal vision. Some worked more collaboratively than competitively, sought relational more than autonomal ways of working, and were oriented more to service and contribution than to higher-income goals. Gays narratives illustrate women business owners developing certain characteristics according to the circumstances of their history and the nature of business challenges they experience. Characteristics are contradictory: some women describe their low self-esteem, tendencies to personalize relationships and shoulder others problems along with challenge-seeking, proactive aggression (Gay, 1997). In any case, the whole area of womens development has grown to contribute more differentiated, dynamic models from which women leadership as business owners can be better understood. Yet as Chell (1996) argues, a stereotypic view of individualism, aggressive competitiveness and self-interest, while inaccurate, somehow continues to be reproduced. Meanwhile, feminist poststructural perspectives advanced by writers such as Lather (1991), Orner (1992), and Tisdell (1998) have called for analysis of the ways womens subjectivity isproduced through cultural discourses. Thus the characteristics of human subjectivity (including their sense of identity, actions, vision, risk-taking, creativity, etc.) emerge through engagement within the practices, discourses, moralities and institutions that lend significance to the events in their worlds. Lather (1991) explains that through discursive struggle for subjectivities people occupy conflicting subject positions, some received and others created, marked by contradictory meanings and pleasures. Especially in an age of semiotic glut, humans are constantly figured and refigured within a context of bombardment by conflicting messages (Lather, 1991, p. 113). This feminist poststructural frame encourages discursive analysis of how subjectivities are regulated through positionality, knowledge construction, voice, and authority, and makes gender prominent in the analysis. As Tisdell (1998:146) explains, the connections between ones individual (constantly shifting) identity and social structures are the focus in poststructural feminism. This conceptual view holds promise for reframing what formerly have been accepted as women business owners innate characteristics, and analysing womens negotiations as owner-leaders in business start-up and development among the discursive meanings and practices swirling around them. One study (Fenwick, 2000) has examined how women business-owners and these contradictory discourses inform and shape one another [4] . Womens motives for starting and leading a business Studies of reasons given by women for starting their own business have been prominent especially in the early studies of female entrepreneurship, claim Carter and Cannon (1992), although few studies developed sophisticated taxonomies. Womens start-up motives may be particularly instructive in understanding womens leadership needs and preferences. Among the reasons, workplace dissatisfaction seems significant: much literature has documented womens struggles with what

they perceive to be inflexible workplace structures and expectations (Finlayson, 1995; Lynn and Todoroff, 1995), incompatible communication styles (Gougeon and Hutton, 1993), and ethical conflicts (Helgeson, 1990). From a feminist perspective Hart (1992, 1993), among others, argues that many workplaces provide a miseducative context for women. She claims that women seek environments where they may find (or create) communality, validate their subjectivity, engage concretely in work that matters, and root their work in reciprocal, caring networks. The Business Development Bank (1999) found significant differences between mens and womens business goals: for men, financial gain is a primary objective. Although there are variations, many women emphasize that their primary goals in starting a business are not financial (Chaganti, 1986; Cromie, 1987; Holmquist and Sundin, 1988; Lavoie, 1992). [5] So why would women give up income security, job status and stability for the high risk, hard work and often low income of business ownership? One dominant motive reported by women surveyed in past studies was to create greater flexibility for balancing work and family (Chaganti, 1986; Kaplan, 1988). In more recent studies women continue to emphasize flexibility as a primary motivator for business start-up, along with other personal reasons: need for more challenge, independence, passion for a particular idea, and desire for greater fulfillment and meaning in their work (Business Development Bank, 1999; NFWBO, 1999a). Women also represent the fastest-growing group of home-based business-owners, entering five times more than men. Reasons appear to include low start-up costs, a perceived significant increase in personal productivity working at home, and the fact that personal skills that may not be marketable to an outside company can be used to start a business from home (Soldressen, Fiorito, and He, 1998). Self-actualization is the most important reason given by women in a survey of 223 business owners (Lee and Rogoff, 1997), including goals of maximizing personal skills/abilities, contributing to society, and gaining respect and recognition. Interestingly, this study also found that women who have lost their jobs through restructuring tend more than men to turn to self-employment instead of pounding the pavement in search of another job. In Gays (1997) interview study, women business owners stated frequently their desire to prove I can do it. Fasci and Valdez (1998) found business ownership attracts women accountants as a viable avenue to achieve career success, gain control of their destiny and the respect of their peers, create their own work environments, and ensure their advancement is truly based on merit -- all dimensions that women perceive to be less available to them when employed in someone elses enterprise. Many women business owners quit leadership positions in larger organizations, a theme supporting the possibility of systemic organizational power imbalances and perhaps gendered corporate cultures. Sharp and Sharp (1999) reported that of 165 executive women surveyed, 37% indicated strong possibility of leaving their job to start their own businesses. Reasons given by women leaders include feeling undervalued, experiencing little challenge and career development opportunity, and believing their contributions to be insufficiently acknowledged. The National Foundation of Women Business Owners (1999b) found that fully half of women surveyed left a previous position primarily looking for more flexibility, but also describing a desire to follow an entrepreneurial dream, a need for greater challenge in their work, and glass ceiling issues such as gendered limitations in opportunity and creative freedom . Catalyst (1998) confirmed this trend and reported similar reasons. Other recent studies such as Baridon and Eyler (1994) document womens frustration with glass ceiling issues that continue to prevent their promotion in many organizations. Ferguson and

Durup (1997) report women starting their own business to escape perceived gendered conditions contributing to their underemployment, work-related stress, and difficulties managing work-family balance. These reasons continue to be echoed in research focusing on women business owners. Moore and Buttner (1997), in their comprehensive U.S. study surveying and interviewing 129 women entrepreneurs, followed with focus groups one year later, ask the question, Why and how did women with exposure to corporate life decide first to enter the organization and then to leave it for entrepreneurship? (p. 18). Their findings revealed five thematic clusters of reasons women left their jobs to start a business: need for self-determination (including need for greater autonomy and freedom) and challenge; blocks to corporate advancement (including lack of career advancement, discrimination and a feeling of no fit with the corporate culture); organizational dynamics that dealt with power and politics; and desire for greater family-career balance. The Lee and Rogoff (1997) study concluded that womens goals for business start-up were similar to mens: for example, almost half of women and men surveyed chose the following statement from seven alternatives: Creating a new product or service had always been my dream. However, it is noteworthy that the other statements contained no references to creating flexibility for home/family, career dissatisfaction, controlling ones destiny and escaping gender discrimination, or any of the other reasons cited by women business owners. Moore and Buttners (1997) conclusion is that despite some overlap, other reasons appear special to women . . .Gender, only occasionally in the form of discrimination, makes a difference (p. 50). Business start-up is not simply about goals, but also about process. Albert (1992) indicates that women experience phases of psychological crisis, black hole, and personal transformation during the transition period from employment to self-employment, a phenomenon deserving attention from policy-makers and program planners determining womens support needs. Yaccato and Jubinville (1999) compare womens processes of starting a business to pregnancy, birth, and child-rearing, explaining that business start-up for women is a very personal endeavor of nurturing a private dream, entwined with issues of identity and personal relationship. Business starts of women must be assessed in terms of particular contexts and conditions. Their motives and approaches must be examined carefully against their own goals and standards. Although there are continuing calls for further studies comparing women to men business owners (Fasci and Valdez, 1998), a serious question needs to be raised relative to conclusions such as those reported in the Lee and Rogoff (1997) study. As Moore and Buttner (1997) assert, research still tends to measure women according to traditional models of business ownership created by the men who dominated business-ownership in North America until the past fifteen years. We need to ask why there is a perceived need to compare women to men business owners (is it to determine the ways women need to improve their skills to become more successful according to male models of business ownership?), and whether such comparison is appropriate. Womens start-up motives and enterprise goals are unique. Their reasons for entering business appear to depend partly on push factors such as gendered discrimination they encounter in jobs, and partly on pull factors such as seeking greater fulfillment, accomplishment and control in their work. All of these dimensions appear to vary according to different womens positionality in terms

of socio-economic condition, race, geographic location, former education, experience and community of networks. Careful research probing relationships among these dimensions would be helpful for three reasons. First, it may help illuminate the difficulties that potential women leaders encounter in existing workplace organizations and perhaps suggest changes to work conditions that might keep women from leaving. Second, careful analysis of their objectives may help trace the contours of alternate models of enterprise development emerging under the leadership of at least some women. Finally, understanding those desires drawing increasing numbers of different women into leadership as small business owners may open spaces for analysing the changing nature of work and of womens expectations and needs related to work, in an increasing technologized, globalized economy. Womens leadership styles and management strategies in small business Womens small business leadership has been frequently compared with mens. Some claim that womens and mens business management skills appear not to vary significantly (Birley, 1988; Carlsrud and Ohm, 1986). Others, however, claim that women business-owners tend to lack management skills, training or experience (Allen and Truman, 1993; Thrasher and Smid, 1998), and good business plans (Alsos and Ljunggren, 1998). Other studies have questioned dominant views of what counts as good business skills (such as clear economic goals, tightly-controlled hierarchical structures, logical strategic planning, and strong financial performance), arguing that conventional male-oriented premises may distort the ways women in business are judged (Canadian Advisory Council, 1997; Ferguson, 1997). Studies have noted womens tendency not to expand their business and increase profits, their unique focus on personal and social goals as well as economic goals stressed by male-owned businesses (Hisrich and Brush, 1987; Holmquist and Sundin, 1989), their tendency to initiate service-oriented businesses and sole proprietorships (Neider, 1987), their lack of previous experience in executive management or entrepreneurism (Watkins and Watkins, 1982), and their access to fewer role models than men. As Brush (1992) and later Moore and Buttner (1997) conclude, such findings indicate that women have different goals and develop different processes of business decision-making, planning, and structuring than men. The leadership style of women business owners has received attention in various studies (Moore and Buttner, 1997; Chaganti, 1986) showing parallels to studies of womens executive leadership in corporations. Management studies have declared that women attend more to process than to bottom line: they are concerned with how their actions affect others, appreciate diversity, and stress teamwork and the interpersonal (Gougeon and Hutton, 1993). Women leaders supposedly tend to emphasize democratic participation by all, using multi-directional power-with authority to energize others to actively participate (Desjardins and Brown, 1991; Helgeson, 1990). Women leaders have also been characterized as showing passionate commitment to collective action and to change (Astin and Leland, 1991; Rosener, 1990). Similar patterns appear in studies of womens leadership as small business owners. Wells (1998) shows women business owners to be highly motivated by community needs, and to favor collaborative management approaches. Another recent US study asserts that women-owned companies are more likely to be family friendly, offering flextime and job-sharing benefits (NFWBO, 1999a). Moore and Buttner (1997) identify among women entrepreneurs an interactive

leadership style that integrates transformational, role model/visionary, and web approaches to leadership. The interactive style demonstrates greater concern for staff welfare; pays less attention to formal power and more to personal power; and believes in the importance of empowering staff. However in small business ownership, women leaders must balance many roles: strategic planner, accountant, marketer, product developer, human resource manager, to name a few. As Brush (1999) points out, Moore and Buttners (1997) emphasis on the effectiveness of transformational leadership is not clearly operationalized or measured. Desires to nurture staff often conflict with needs to please customers and survive, according to the findings of Godfrey (1992), Robertson (1997), and Thrasher and Smid (1998). Leadership oriented to a vision of collaboration must somehow be reconciled with issues of authority, control, and competitiveness, forcing many women business owners to navigate between competing values and expectations. The importance of values and women business owners struggles with them are clearly entwined with their choices and changes as owner-leaders of small business. A few studies have examined this area, usually treating values as something possessed, substantive and inherent, and examining how an owners identifiable value affects her leadership. Olson and Currie (1992) for example found that women entrepreneurs values, infusing their management strategies, were influenced by whether their industry was male-dominated or not. Good and Mistick (1999) suggest there exist misconceptions about womens business intents and decision-making, and claim that these must be interpreted within a clearer understanding of womens unique value systems. More recently, some studies are exploring women leaders values as a dynamic site of contradiction and even struggle. Three patterns related to the values of entrepreneurial women indicate sources of tension which these women must confront. The first is related to leadership style: women leaders often try to balance caring for the welfare of individuals with concern for justice and conflicting individual rights (Young, Staszenski, McIntyre, and Joly, 1993), and face dilemmas when their vision of collaborative community conflict with multiple power dynamics, differing values and agendas (Gay, 1997; Godfrey, 1992; Robertson, 1997). A second source of tension for women owner-leaders is related to meanings of success. Soldressen, Fiorito, and He (1998) draw attention to the inadequacy of traditional measures of business success based on financial performance and expansion, and personal success based on achieving material wealth, for describing women. Studies have reported that many women view success as achieving balance of work and family (Holmquist and Sundin, 1990), self-fulfillment and helping others, or working at something they love, despite what may be low income (Soldressen, Fiorito, and He, 1998). Fenwick and Hutton (2000) report, in a study interviewing 110 Canadian women owners of small business, that women emphasized the secondary importance of money and material goods in their lives. They tended to describe their work success as building mutually supportive relationships among their staff and networks of suppliers and competitors, making qualitative contributions to their communities, creating reputations as reliable and effective, and sustaining quality of life for themselves, their families and the people connected with their enterprise. Quality of life was more typically represented by examples of right relationship than by material markers. Moore and Buttner (1997) found that self-fulfillment was the most important measure of success for women heading small firms: Success seems to be measured internally in terms of personal growth,

professional development, and improving ones skills., rather than measured externally in profits or business growth. Money, then, is a means and not an end (p. 166). However, it can be speculated that the micro-practices of balancing such values with business demands amidst the profit discourse and competitive pressures of a globalized marker might be complex. A third tension for some women is connected with business planning. Writing a business plan is a conventional starting point for conceiving the terms and constraints of ones practice in running a business, according to pre-determined constructs, to obtain start-up capital from financial institutions. A good business plan guarantees a degree of credibility for the new business-owner, signifying proper preparation, organization, and goal-setting according to logics of prediction and control. Thus a business planning discourse disciplines and regulates enterprise creators through their own desires to be taken seriously and granted venture capital (Oake, Townley and Cooper, 1999). Alsos and Ljunggren (1998), in telephone interviews of 9,553 Norwegian women entrepreneurs, found that women were far less likely than men to prepare a business plan. They suggest therefore that even though the lack of business plans did not result in lower business success, that initiatives should encourage women to write such plans. North American women also have been targeted for training in business planning as one outcome of many 1980s studies concluding that women had less formal business education and experience than men, and needed to improve their competitive potential (Brush, 1992). Embedded in this logic is a shared and unproblematic acceptance of a right way to do business, an efficiency ethic (discovering strategies takes longer and costs more than being trained in them), and a will to suppress alternate approaches in sustaining the dominant. However, Fenwick and Hutton ( 2000) show that for some, the prediction-and-control logic based on principles of competition and autonomy of the traditional business plan is counter-productive. Fenwick and Hutton claim that some women entrepreneurs are experimenting with more emergent, fluid, intuitive ways of developing an enterprise vision and plan, although such non-conventional approaches invite skepticism and even attack from the business community. Vision can be argued to be another key dimension of enterprise leadership, strategy implementation and change; vision both embeds values and ensures the success of an enterprise. Falbe and Larwood (1995) found significant differences between the vision of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs (executives in organizations) in terms of action-oriented flexibility, and envisioning the organization as an extension of themselves and their needs. Some studies of women business owners have also found their vision to be linked closely to self-expression. In a recent qualitative study of Texan women business owners, Wells (1998) found identity to be central in womens business visions and sense of achievement, and their learning about self through business ownership to influence their leadership strategy in terms of changing business goals, staff management, and planning focus. Albert (1992) documents womens attempts to break away from traditional definitions of career and job roles that limit their growth or fragment their lives, to invent work allowing them to integrate various parts of self. Like Albert, Brook (1997) argues that many North American women in mid-life are grappling with identity issues which often lead them to quit traditional employment. Stories of women business owners indicate that deep needs to express self meaningfully through work and to make a contribution to the world often lead to business start-up, and that profound personal change is often experienced throughout the process of business development (Gay, 1997; Godfrey, 1992; Robertson, 1997).

Barriers and conflicts encountered by women business owners Research has established the smaller size, dramatically lower profits and take-home pay of womens businesses compared to mens (Brush, 1992; Fasci and Valdez, 1998). One study of womens businesses reported general disappointment that women business owners face the same sort of pay gap as salaried female workers, possibly related to the type of businesses women initiate, their reported difficulties in securing bank financing, womens business skills, and the lower fees-forservice women are able to command (Canadian Federation, 1995). These issues must be interpreted carefully. When using different frames of analysis what appear to be barriers may be deliberate choice, and what appear to be naturalized conditions may be structural but invisible inequities. Within feminist frames, gendered work structures create broad barriers that pervade social and economic relations in which women owner-leaders practice. Probert (1998) synthesizes feminist research on womens work to show many themes relevant to this discussion:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

gendered division of work: hierarchies of skill reflect a male dominance in craft identity and sustain a distinction between mens and womens work; subsequent to (1), pervasive undervaluing of womens skills and services; gendered division of family responsibilities affecting womens overall workload, patterns of work participation and perceptions of them as less committed; gendered opportunities restricting womens access to leadership training and positions of authority; increasing casualization of the workforce throwing many women into self-employment; and continued low pay, low status and low opportunity in feminized industries such as retailing and banking.

For women business-owners, these inequities can be argued to be implicated in womens decision (or compulsion) to start a business, the kind and scope of business they undertake (and its perceived credibility and profitability, their attempts to seek funding and establish commercial networks, and, for some, their lack of leadership experience and training prior to becoming an owner-leader. However, the literature offers conflicting ways of viewing and responding to these issues. As Barrett (1995) explains, liberal feminism recommends lifting the barriers to ensure women business owners full participation in the market, while social feminists argue that womens ways as business owners need to be celebrated in their own right. Liberal feminism doesnt question the system but fiddles with details that improve the lives of some women, particularly the (white) upwardly mobile. Feminist poststructuralists would argue against any unitary treatment of women, and perhaps suggest that barriers might be better analyzed as systemic power relations in which different women negotiate positionality, identity and voice by virtue of their particular culture, class, age, and authority. Some studies in the 1980s began to report unique barriers confronting women business owners. Most significant for business viability included discrimination experienced by women seeking venture capital and exclusion from financial business networks (Hisrich and Brush, 1987). In the 1990s women business owners apparently continued to confront significant gender-related obstacles (Buttner, 1993; Shragg, et al., 1992) including limited access to capital, difficulty in

competing for government contracts, and lack of information about where to get assistance (NFWBO, 1992). Women reported that they had to work harder to prove their competence to suppliers and clients (Buttner, 1993; Gould and Parzen, 1990), and to be taken seriously (Adamski, 1995). Others often underestimated womens ability to start a venture and discouraged them from dreaming big (Godfrey, 1992). Women still report struggling with others (banks, government, suppliers and competitors) diminishment of the significance of their enterprise: the little business syndrome (Gay, 1997; Robertson, 1997). However, despite their stories of gender discrimination, many individual women interviewed by Gay (1997) and Robertson (1997) claim that their obstacles are simply the challenges of small business shared by all business owners. Evidently this area requires further study. A primary and continuing obstacle faced by women appears to be difficulty in securing capital funding for new business ventures (Buttner and Rosen, 1992; Canadian Federation, 1995; NFWBO, 1992). Riding and Swift (1990) concluded financial conditions for women business owners were less favorable than for men: women more often had to pay higher interest rates, find more collateral, and provide a spouses co-signature. Strauss (2000) claims that by 1994-95 in North America, statistics made it clear that women were starting 40% of businesses and were still receiving only 34% of venture capital funds. However Buttner (1993) counters that some women have been unprepared with the comprehensive business plan demanded by the banks: rather than do their homework they attributed their loan difficulties to gender discrimination. Yet women interviewed in qualitative studies tell stories about their business plans being scrutinized more carefully and having to meet more special demands than mens (Gay, 1997; Robertson, 1997). There are signs that the financial situation is changing: recent studies indicate that women now have more access to capital, as certain financial institutions and government loan programs have specifically targeted needs of women business-owners (Industry Canada, 1999; Bank of Montreal, 1996). And as Strauss (2000) points out, in the New Economy women of all ages are starting dotcom businesses which do not require much venture capital. Further study is needed to clarify this issue from different perspectives. However, more attention perhaps should be paid also to the subtle ways womens choices are regulated by the pervasive cultural emphases placed on competition, profit, and growth. Many discursive and material practices patrol the boundaries between women business owners and the networks leading to venture capital. Carter and Kolvereid (1997), comparing differences between new women and men entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Norway found that women had smaller financial resources than men, came from households with lower incomes: almost 60% of the men successfully started the business compared to only 24% of the women. Critics who attribute womens failure to obtain necessary funds for start-up to their lack of a proper business plan (Buttner and Rosen, 1992) reinforce the tightly circumscribed discourse of a right way to do business. This militates against the alternate approaches that some women experiment with. Meanwhile Thrasher and Smid (1998) argue that many women business-owners tend to undervalue their own work, echoing Godfreys (1992) claim that certain women are complicit in a gendered diminishment of their enterprise. Thus they are less assertive about seeking financing and undercharge for their services. Thrasher and Smid suggest that this discursive dynamic ultimately results in women businessowners accepting a reduced quality of life because of their ambivalence about money.

Another significant barrier for some owner-leaders reported in the literature has been networking. Studies a decade old showed that few men business owners included women in their close business networks (Gould and Parzen, 1990). Women business owners were often traditionally excluded from old boy networks, were perceived to have more affective and less instrumental motives in building relationships, and relied more on spouses for information and support than on outside advisors such as bankers and lawyers (Buttner, 1993; Canadian Advisory Council, 1991). Networks of contacts, important to both men and women business owners, differed in content and size. Womens networks tended to be composed of women and were smaller than mens networks (Aldrich, Reece, and Dubini, 1989), which may be one reason for certain difficulties reported by women in obtaining financing. Women were seeking special womens networks, and women tended to rely on their networks not only for information but also for personal support (Smeltzer and Fann, 1989). A study of Canadian women business owners concluded that they worked in a glass box: isolated by overload, they had not the necessary time to cultivate or use important support networks (Canadian Advisory Council, 1991). However, a more recent study of networking has concluded that women are as active as men entrepreneurs in networking to obtain assistance, and as successful as men in obtaining high-quality assistance including resources (Aldrich, Reece & Dubini, 1997). By contrast, Moore and Buttner (1997) conclude that women use networks primarily for sounding boards rather than resource acquisition. One problem here is the lack of contextualization in findings. How women create and use networks could reasonably by presumed to be connected with both their environments and their business size, nature, and purpose. For example, Sawyerr and McGee (1998) found significant differences between personal networks of new firm owner/managers and those of more mature firms, and show strong relationships between environmental uncertainty and networking activity and intensity. Chell (1996) has shown the importance of analysing relationships between personal networks and labor market inequalities to better understand how which individuals develop aspirations, access resources and build support for an enterprise. Brush (1999) suggests that network uses rely on business needs, which vary according to size, scope and sector. Thus research exploring the function of networks in business leadership should be carefully situated, and compare links between relational dynamics, individual needs and values, leadership approaches and outcomes in terms of business success as women owner leaders define it. A third key struggle for women business owners is related to balancing family issues. Work-family conflict results from inter-role conflict caused by incompatible or conflicting pressures from work and family domains, including job-family role strain, work-family interference, and work-nonwork role conflict (Parasuraman, Purohit, and Godshalk, 1996). Women are more likely to have primary domestic responsibility and to have interrupted careers (Aldrich et al., 1989; Gould and Parzen, 1990), which create work-family conflict. Seeking balance in work-family has been established as a significant factor in womens decision to start a business (Chaganti, 1986; Holmquist and Sundin, 1988), although women business owners still appear to experience much greater conflict than men in managing family and work life (Parasuraman et al., 1996). As discussed throughout this article, research throughout the past few decades has suggested that women start a business to create greater flexibility in their lives, to seek greater quality of life and more creative, meaningful work, and to place higher priority on relationships and family. If this is so, it puts certain women in tension with a highly competitive profit-driven marketplace, and

presents a fundamental shift in the meaning of work and career for some women. Meanwhile, some studies show women business owners in inner turmoil, stretched between round-the-clock working hours and the great feelings of satisfaction and competence from their business, while suffering guilt and fragmentation while juggling family issues (Canadian Advisory Council, 1991; Fenwick and Hutton, 2000; Gay, 1997; Thrasher and Smid, 1998). Sadly given these important issues, Ferguson and Durup (1997) show that specific study of work-family conflict experienced by women business owners is virtually non-existent. Considerations for Future Research Historically, the focus of research studying women entrepreneurs tended towards two main directions: (1) a-historical, a-contextual, a-political description of womens businesses and ownership characteristics; and (2) comparison to mens businesses using economic measures derived from traditional male models. A surprisingly extensive number of studies continue to measure women against men owner-leaders according to management style, goals, type of business, and approaches to planning and developing the business. Brush (1992) charges that the constructs, principles and language of business ownership governing the perspectives and questions of researchers have mostly been derived from mens view of reality, based in autonomy, logic, and rule-based decisionmaking (p. 17). Accordingly, some studies concluded that women fall short of the success achieved by their men colleagues in terms of management skills, business size, growth rate, and overall profits (Hisrich and Brush, 1987; Kaplan, 1988). Then a wave of studies in the 1990s, reviewed in the preceding paragraphs, examined women business owners motives for start-up, leadership styles, and barriers. Though helpful in building initial understandings of diverse women business owners and detecting issues for policy and program attention, this research has sometimes been limited by its lack of attention to specific contexts and womens differentiated approaches and experiences. Also lacking in much of this research is consideration of gendered structures from a feminist perspective. Finally, there is a paucity of cultural analysis examining the production of women business owners choices, experiences, meanings and values in prevailing discourses and practices of a globalized market and post-Fordist work environments. Recent case studies and surveys of women business owners have explored some of these issues. These offer rich stories and analyse the transitions experienced by women starting businesses in various contexts and stages of life (Alsos and Ljunggren 1998; Brook, 1997; Carter and Kolvereid, 1997; Fenwick and Hutton, 2000; Gay, 1997; Godfrey, 1992; Robertson, 1997). A few qualitative research studies shed light on womens learning processes in business ownership (Albert, 1992; Barrett, 1995; Fenwick, 1998; Wells, 1998). For example, some of these studies show the significance of womens lifelong learning, search for meaningful vocation and ecological living, identity formation, and transformation, in business start-up motives, leadership approaches, and business goals and structures which partially determine unique characteristics of women-owned businesses. There is indication that women are increasingly seeking to transform their lives by integrating their work, learning, personal life, and relationships in the venture they build (Adamski, 1995; Albert, 1992; Gay, 1997; Godfrey, 1992; Robertson, 1997). If so, women are generating new models for creating work and doing business which deserve continuing study by small business researchers. In the process, as Moore and Buttner (1997) demonstrate, women are experiencing significant personal change and developing distinctive models of leadership.

Meanwhile Barrett (1995), drawing from Chells (1991) questions about this heffalump that is entrepreneurism, suggests that past efforts to examine entrepreneurism in its own right, divorced from analysing relationships with industry and gendered notions of work, may have been misguided. Barrett calls for future research using a variety of disciplines and research techniques to explore women in business. Carter and Cannon (1992) claim that theoretical frameworks are lacking. They urge future research that draws from sociological frames and debates, and combines more qualitative methods with quantitative. Chell (1996) goes further, stating What is needed is a multiparadigmatic approach in which local economic conditions and institutional frameworks can be described initially, with follow up investigative work assuming interpretivist/radical structural paradigms (p. 10), to examine threads of local culture, socio-economy, gender and power. The point is that future analysis of womens leadership in small business contexts would be wellserved with more qualitative research, employing in-depth approaches such as life history, narrative inquiry, heuristic inquiry, discursive analysis and ethnography to balance the large-scale survey studies that have dominated examination of women entrepreneurs in the past two decades. Further, theoretical perspectives governing research needs to be expanded to include critical cultural studies, political economy, psychological development, and post-structuralism as well as different feminisms. These different lenses may help to decenter the predominant focus on women as isolated and somewhat exoticized actors, and help illuminate important relationships of women business owners choices within changing social webs of action, meaning, knowledge and power to which Chell refers. Theoretical perspectives that deconstruct systemic power imbalances embedded in dominant business practices and models might help avoid potential feminization of the struggling micro-enterprise, where unreasonably long hours, low income and isolation (Canadian Advisory Council, 1991) do not support the triumphalist claims by writers such as OBrien (1998) of women liberating themselves and their national economies through entrepreneurism. Ferguson (1997) argues feminist perspectives help move beyond the efficiency and effectiveness of business practices to question the moral and political legitimacy of these practices: not how best to use the power that business accords certain groups of people (owners and manager for example) but why these people are thus empowered (p. 80). Within these new perspectives and methodological approaches, questions for future research can be derived from various threads currently stirring amidst the four themes of research discussed in this article. Here are some examples: How do different women business-owners today understand and measure success for their enterprise and their leadership? How are their values and meanings of success related to different womens unique models of business development (business visions, planning processes, structures and management strategies)? To what extent and for what specific reasons are women leaders in senior management turning to business ownership as a result of general career dissatisfaction? What personal needs of women are met through owning a business that they perceive cannot be met through employment? What implications might this have for supporting women in business ownership?

What are the relationships between women business owners business start-up and development and the different personal, social and economic contexts in which they work? What contextual elements (local economy and culture, resources, networks, geography, access to capital, etc.) and personal dimensions (education, family structure, race, age, class etc.) have the greatest influence on different womens capacity to achieve success as they define it? How do entrepreneurial women view their changing self, and the relationships between their personal development and their choices regarding business development? What issues of identity, if any, do women business owners struggle with through the process of developing a business? What are the unique leadership approaches and challenges of women business owners in different stages of developing a business in different socio-economic-geographical contexts? What work/family conflicts do women business owners find significant, and at what points in business start-up and development are these greatest? How do various women developing different businesses perceive and manage these conflicts? What do women business owners now perceive to be the most significant obstacles to their success, as they define it, in changing contexts? To what extent are such obstacles related to gendered work and family issues? What information, resources, relationships, education, and other supports do different women business owners say have helped them most to meet challenges and achieve success as they define it?

Such questions move beyond essentialist ways of conceiving women business owners, help address complex dimensions of power and social context, eschew tendencies to examine womens business in terms of mens motives and strategies, and widen the vocabulary defining success to embrace different womens own meanings and objectives. These questions also contribute to the four themes adopted by the 2000 OECD conference on women entrepreneurs in small and medium enterprise [6] , which focus on improving knowledge about female entrepreneurship and its obstacles, fostering entrepreneurial culture and developing women-owned businesses. Conclusion This article has reviewed research about womens entrepreneurial leadership organized in four themes prominent in the existing literature: characteristics, reasons for business start-up, leadership approaches, and barriers Some of this literature homogenizes women, or reduces their complexity to simple models. Some is guided by constructs and language derived from models of mens business ownership which, as Lee and Rogoff (1997) point out, is in danger of producing policies and programs aiming to make women more like men business owners.

But together these four themes help move us toward important questions about womens leadership development in entrepreneurial contexts. How are different women transforming small business leadership in ways that may challenge traditional understandings of work, learning, career, and success? What personal needs do women meet through leading their own businesses? What kinds of knowledge do they value, and how do they develop this knowledge while growing a business? How are womens choices shaped by and shaping the changing dynamics and cultural discourses of their local socio-economic contexts? The main intention of this article is to join the calls put forth by others (i.e. Brush, 1992; Carter and Cannon, 1992; Moore and Buttner, 1997) for research attention to these and other complex questions. Women leading their own businesses are increasing, and have become the largest employer of the U.S. labor force (Moore and Buttner, 1997). Meanwhile rapidly changing contexts and dynamics of work have shifted the demands of organizational leadership and the opportunities for alternate expressions of leadership. Women leaving jobs, particularly senior management ranks, to start businesses may be exemplifying Edwards (1998) vision of post-Fordist artisans that resist the oppressive structures and discourses of Taylorist workplaces: active, creative, reflexive, risktaking workers with certain degrees of autonomy in how they define and achieve their work goals, engaging in practices of social entrepreneurship (p. 387). Growing evidence asserts that womens entrepreneurial leadership, while differentiated, is fundamentally different than mens. It is apparent that some entrepreneurial women are crafting new visions and models of leadership, and many are experiencing unique processes entwining the developing self, values of work, life, and family, and the personal dynamics of change with the processes of developing and leading a business. These phenomena deserve careful and critical exploration if we are to understand radical changes now occurring in women business owners worklives and leadership development, and develop new conceptual frames and vocabulary for naming these changes as they emerge. References

Introduction Women Entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenge to meet her personal needs and become economically independent by doing business. A strong desire to do something positive is an inbuilt quality of entrepreneurial women, who is capable of contributing values in both family and social life. In India, empowerment to women is not properly given, not only for involving into entrepreneurial activities, but also in day-to-day life. It is also going to give importance to the qualities of the women which are not fully identified by their self. "Women are not human beings with a spiritual experience, Women are spiritual beings with a human experience" The concept of Women Entrepreneurs may be defined as a women or a group of women who initiate organize and run a business enterprise. Women owned businesses are highly increasing in the economies of almost all countries. Every successful woman entrepreneur is truly determined to achieve goals and make her business flourish. Indepth knowledge of the field is essential to success. A glance at the physiological variations in the brains of men and women are Female has more nerve cells in certain areas. Women transfer data faster and making it easier for increased flexibility and multitasking. Men are left-brain oriented and are largely successful in solving numbers and problems. 'Gray matter' - the part that allows thinking is 55.4% in women and 50.8% in men. This reveals that women are endowed with natural advantages that aid in creating, developing and fostering relationships. She translates her natural advantages into effective networking, excellent communication skills and empathetic behavior. . A successful woman entrepreneur has the attitude and the inner drive to change her dream, her vision into reality. WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN INDIA Women's empowerment in India is still an illusion. Many people are found to hesitate while answering questions about women empowerment. It is too unfortunate. Empowering women entrepreneurs is essential for achieving the goals of sustainable development and the bottlenecks hindering their growth must be eradicated to entitle full participation in the business. In India empowerment is not properly and fully given to both the men and women. There are so many reasons for this behavior of the Indian people, at the same time improper empowerment may leads to some misuse behavior. There are some questions to be answers to know the level of women empowerment in India. Ads by Google

Have women been empowered to select their college? Have women been empowered to select their course in education? Have women been empowered to take own decisions in their personal matter? Have women been empowered to go out freely? Even.., Have women been empowered to select their Life-partner?

The above questions are to be answered by every Indian to know the empowerment level, and these are hidden factors that hinder the women entrepreneur. Even though, now a day many of the families are realizing the importance of empowerment to their girl child. But, this is a question that whether this has reached to every individual in the country or not, especially to women. A successful woman entrepreneur should be given with proper empowerment that will increase her success with the society. Bringing women into the mainstream of development is a major concern for the Government of India, which is why 2001 has been declared as the "Year of Women Empowerment". WE&IGA SCHEME FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT Women Empowerment and Income Generation Activities The goal of Women Empowerment and Income Generation Activities (WE&IGA) is to create a community united for development, capable of planning, operate and managing need based development programs to overcome socioeconomic problems. Under the program poor women form village level self help groups are supported to strengthen unity, cooperation and buildup confidence to undertake development activities on its own in the long run. These groups work together to manage savings loans. With support of BRAC-NCU, AWAC provides training and others support to the groups to develop leadership, group management capacity and accounting skill and the groups are becoming empowered to make decisions regarding loan distribution and utilization under the Women Empowerment and IGA program. Objectives of the program Improvetheir situation Raiseawareness on women and children's rights, health and environmental issues. Mobilizationfor identification of locally available resources and services for effective utilization. Raiseawareness for community mobilization for establishment of child rights and promote role of women. Organizewomen at the community level groups and create group savings for facing future problems.

According to the Effective Implementation & Utilization of Women Empowerment Program, The government of India safeguards the interests of women authorizer to bring the effective implementation and utilization of social economic and political status of women in India. TREAD SCHEME FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP In order to face the problems faced by women entrepreneurs, Government of India launched the scheme Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development of Women (TREAD) in 1998. The scheme envisages development of micro and tiny women enterprises in the country both in the urban and rural areas. The main objective of the scheme is to empower women through development of their entrepreneurial skills by eliminating constraints faced by them in their sphere of trade. A revised scheme of TREAD was launched in May, 2004. It is to be implemented by Small Industries Development Organization. It also provides for market development and financial loans through NGOs, which are also provided grants for capacity building. This assistance is to be provided for self-employment ventures by women for pursuing any kind of non-farm activity. CONCLUSION The role of Women entrepreneur in economic development is inevitable. Now-a-days women enter not only in selected professions but also in professions like trade, industry and engineering. Women are also willing to take up business and contribute to the Nation's growth. This role is also being recognized and steps are being taken to promote women entrepreneurship. Henceforth, promoting entrepreneurship among women is certainly a short-cut to rapid economic growth and development. Let us try to eliminate all forms of gender discrimination and thus allow women' to be an entrepreneur at par with men.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Encouraging women entrepreneurs
On this page:

The European Network of Mentors for Women Entrepreneurs Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors Built on the Small Business Act Promoting opportunities Advice and support Whilst Europe does not have enough entrepreneurs following through on their ideas to set up in business, there are, disproportionately, even fewer women than men entrepreneurs. Europe's economy needs more entrepreneurs to take the plunge. The Commission is working with Member States to find ways to overcome the factors which particularly discourage women from taking up the option of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs - people willing to take the risks and make significant commitments to get a new business off the ground or build on an existing one - are not common enough in Europe. For many reasons, not enough Europeans see running a small business as sufficiently more attractive than working as an employee of a firm, large or small, or in a public organisation. These reasons apply as much to women as to men, but there are certain additional factors which make entrepreneurship an even less attractive or viable option for women (in addition to those factors which count against women in all sections of the labour market). Although there has been an encouraging upturn in women running businesses in the past decade or so, much more needs to be done to overcome the specific factors which discourage women in particular from starting or taking over small firms. Today women entrepreneurs in Europe are only 30% of all entrepreneurs. And even more importantly, we have to create an environment in which those women who do run a small business can more easily grow their firms.

The European Network of Mentors for Women Entrepreneurs

The European Network of Mentors for Women Entrepreneurs is one of the actions proposed in the 2011 SBA Review and aims at promoting female entrepreneurship in Europe. The Mentors Network enforces and complements the actions to promote, support and encourage female entrepreneurship that started with the creation of the European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors (ENFEA) in 2009.

The Mentors Network will provide advice and support to women entrepreneurs on the start-up, running and growth of their enterprises in the early phase of their life (from the second to the fourth year of existence of a new woman-run and owned enterprise). 17 CIP countries will be welcomed to the Mentors Network: Albania, Belgium, Cyprus, FYROM, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The Network has been inaugurated in Warsaw, Poland under a Polish Presidency event on 15 November 2011. Press release: Female mentors to help woman entrepreneurs to get started

Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors

The European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors was inaugurated on 5 October 2009 in Stockholm during the Swedish Presidency by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Vladimir pidla, the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and Maud Olofsson Minister of Enterprise, Energy and Communications and Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden. The Network is made up of around 270 entrepreneurs coming from 22 European countries.

The European Network of Female Entrepreneurship Ambassadors

Built on the Small Business Act

The Ambassadors network is just one of the many initiatives foreseen in the Commissions 2008 Small Business Act designed to boost the growth of SMEs across Europe. Other measures on the SBA agenda include a mentoring scheme, and steps to promote entrepreneurship among women graduates. The Act urges Member States to offer mentoring and support to female entrepreneurs and to exchange good practice. It also makes proposals for legislation: for example, the General Block Exemption Regulation on State Aid (GBER) permits state aid of up to 1 million for new, women-led companies.

Promoting opportunities

Measures to encourage women to give greater consideration to running small firms, and to make it easier for them to do so, can take many forms. Different Member States have tackled many different aspects of the problems, in a range of ways, but no one Member State has all the answers. And since improving the situation requires so-called 'soft' actions besides legislation, it is an area ideally suited to exchanging good practices and experiences between Member States. A key problem is access to finance. All entrepreneurs find it difficult to find the investors they need to secure their business, and specific measures are needed to make it easier for women to obtain the funding required for business ventures. And whilst legislative action is appropriate in some areas, in others the main need is to enable women to gain better information. One of the main initiatives the Commission is undertaking is to support networking amongst women entrepreneurs, amongst potential women entrepreneurs, and amongst government agencies and other support organisations which can play a role in encouraging women entrepreneurs. A study was undertaken by the Commission in 2008 on women innovators and entrepreneurship. The aim of the study was to perform a literature review for informing new policies and actions in the promotion of women's innovators/inventors' entrepreneurship. In addition, the study provided policy recommendations with a view to promote entrepreneurship of women innovators/inventors as a way to reach the goals of the Lisbon Agenda. The study shows that women's obstacles to innovative entrepreneurship are of 3 types: 1. 2. 3. Contextual obstacles: educational choices, traditional views and stereotypes about women, science and innovation; Economic obstacles: innovation sector requiring substantial investment and women being seen less credible financially than men; Soft obstacles: lack of access to technical scientific and general business networks, lack of business training, role models and entrepreneurship skills. Study: Evaluation policy: Promotion of Women Innovateors and Entrepreneurship

Advice and support

The Commission has already opened a Womens Entrepreneurship Portal, with links to contacts, events and networking opportunities within and between Member States. While the European Network to Promote Womens Entrepreneurship (WES) brings together government representatives from 30 European countries to provide advice, support and information for female entrepreneurs, helping them to raise their profile and expand their businesses. It publishes an annual report of activity by national governments

Women in India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pratibha Devisingh Patil is the 12th and current President of the Republic of Indiaand first woman to hold the office.[1]

The status of women in India has been subject to many great changes over the past few millennia.[2][3] From equal status with men in ancient times[4]through the low points of the medieval period,[5] to the promotion of equal rights by many reformers, the history of women in India has been eventful. In modern India, women have adorned high offices in India including that of the President, Prime minister, Speaker of the Lok

Sabha and Leader of the Opposition. As of 2011, the President of India, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha (Lower House of the parliament) are all women.
Contents
[hide]

1 History

o o o o

1.1 Ancient

India practices

1.2 Medieval period 1.3 Historical 1.4 British

rule India

2 Independent 3 Timeline 4 Culture 5 Education

and economic development

o o o

5.1 Education 5.2 Workforce participation 5.3 Land

and property rights harassment

6 Crimes

against women

o o o o o o

6.1 Sexual 6.2 Dowry 6.3 Child

marriage infanticides and sex selective abortions violence

6.4 Female

6.5 Domestic

6.6 Trafficking

7 Other concerns

o o

7.1 Health 7.2 Family

planning

8 Notable 9 See

Indian women

also

10 References 11 Bibliography 12 External

links

History

Ancient India
Scholars believe that in ancient India, the women enjoyed equal status with men in all fields of life.[6] However, some others hold contrasting views.[7] Works by ancient Indian grammarians such asPatanjali and Katyayana suggest that women were educated in the early Vedic period[8][9] Rigvedic verses suggest that the women married at a mature age and were probably free to select their husband. [10] Scriptures such as Rig Veda and Upanishads mention several women sages and seers, notably Gargi and Maitreyi.[11] There are very few texts specifically dealing with the role of women;[12] an important exception is the Stri Dharma Paddhati of Tryambakayajvan, an official at Thanjavur around c.1730. The text compiles strictures on womenly behaviour dating back to the Apastamba sutra (c. 4th c. BCE).[13] The opening verse goes: mukhyo dharmaH smr^tiShu vihito bhartr^shushruShANam hi : women are enjoined to be of service to their husbands. Some kingdoms in the ancient India had traditions such as nagarvadhu ("bride of the city"). Women competed to win the coveted title of the nagarvadhu. Amrapali is the most famous example of a nagarvadhu. According to studies, women enjoyed equal status and rights during the early Vedic period.[14] However, later (approximately 500 B.C.), the status of women began to decline with the Smritis (esp.Manusmriti) and with the Islamic invasion of Babur and the Mughal empire and later Christianity curtailing women's freedom and rights.[5] Although reformatory movements such as Jainism allowed women to be admitted to the religious order, by and large, the women in India faced confinement and restrictions.[14] The practice of child marriages is believed to have started from around sixth century.[15]

Medieval period

Krishna at Goddesss Radharani's feet

The Indian woman's position in the society further deteriorated during the medieval period[5][6] when Sati among some communities, child marriages and a ban on widow remarriages became part of social life among some communities in India. The Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent brought the purdahpractice in the Indian society. Among the Rajputs of Rajasthan, the Jauhar was practised. In some parts of India, the Devadasis or the temple women were sexually exploited. Polygamy was widely practised especially among Hindu Kshatriya rulers. [15] In many Muslim families, women were restricted to Zenanaareas. In spite of these conditions, some women excelled in the fields of politics, literature, education and religion.[5] Razia Sultana became the only woman monarch to have ever ruled Delhi. The Gond queen Durgavati ruled for fifteen years, before she lost her life in a battle with Mughal emperor Akbar's general Asaf Khan in 1564. Chand Bibi defended Ahmednagar against the mighty Mughal forces of Akbar in 1590s. Jehangir's wife Nur Jehan effectively wielded imperial power and was recognized as the real force behind the Mughal throne. The Mughal princesses Jahanara and Zebunnissa were well-known poets, and also influenced the ruling administration Shivaji's mother, Jijabai was deputed as queen regent, because of her ability as a warrior and an administrator. In South India, many women administered villages, towns, divisions and heralded social and religious institutions.[15] The Bhakti movements tried to restore women's status and questioned some of the forms of oppression.[14] Mirabai, a female saint-poet, was one of the most important Bhakti movement figures.

Some other female saint-poets from this period include Akka Mahadevi, Rami Janabai and Lal Ded. Bhakti sects within Hinduism such as the Mahanubhav, Varkari and many others were principle movements within the Hindu fold to openly advocate social justice and equality between men and women. Shortly after the Bhakti movement, Guru Nanak, the first Guru of Sikhs also preached the message of equality between men and women. He advocated that women be allowed to lead religious assemblies; to perform and lead congregational hymn singing called Kirtan or Bhajan; become members of religious management committees; to lead armies on the battlefield; have equality in marriage, and equality in Amrit (Baptism). Other Sikh Gurus also preached against the discrimination against women. See also: Women in Sikhism

Historical practices
Traditions among some communities such as sati, jauhar, and devadasi have been banned and are largely defunct in modern India. However, some cases of these practices are still found in remote parts of India. The purdah is still practised by Indian women among some communities, and child marriage remains prevalent despite it being an illegal practice, especially under current Indian laws. Sati Sati is an old, largely defunct custom, among some communities in which the widow was immolated alive on her husband's funeral pyre. Although the act was supposed to be a voluntary on the widow's part, it is believed to have been sometimes forced on the widow. It was abolished by the British in 1829. There have been around forty reported cases of sati since independence.[16] In 1987, the Roop Kanwar case of Rajasthan led to The Commission of Sati (Prevention) Act.[17] Jauhar Jauhar refers to the practice of the voluntary immolation of all the wives and daughters of defeated warriors, in order to avoid capture and consequent molestation by the enemy. The practice was followed by the wives of defeated Rajput rulers, who are known to place a high premium on honour. Purdah Purdah is the practice among some communities of requiring women to cover their bodies so as to cover their skin and conceal their form. It imposes restrictions on the mobility of women, it curtails their right to interact freely and it is a symbol of the subordination of women. It does not reflect the religious teachings of either Hinduism or Islam, contrary to common belief, although misconception has occurred due to the ignorance and prejudices of religious leaders of both faiths. [citation needed] Devadasis

Devadasi is a religious practice in some parts of southern India, in which women are "married" to a deity or temple. The ritual was well established by the 10th century A.D.[18] In the later period, the illegitimate sexual exploitation of the devadasi's became a norm in some parts of India.

British rule
European scholars observed in the 19th century that Hindu women are "naturally chaste" and "more virtuous" than other women.[19] During the British Raj, many reformers such as Ram Mohan Roy,Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Jyotirao Phule etc. fought for the upliftment of women. Peary Charan Sarkar, a former student of Hindu College, Calcutta and a member of "Young Bengal" set up the first free school for girls in India in 1847 in Barasat, a suburb of Calcutta (later the school was named Kalikrishna Girls' High School). While this list might suggest that there was no positive British contribution during the Raj era, that is not entirely so, since missionaries' wives like Martha Mault ne Mead and her daughter Eliza Caldwell ne Mault are rightly remembered for pioneering the education and training of girls in south India - a practise that initially met with local resistance, as it flew in the face of tradition. Raja Rammohan Roy's efforts led to the abolition of the Sati practice under Governor-General William Cavendish-Bentinck in 1829. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's crusade for the improvement in condition of widows led to the Widow Remarriage Act of 1856. Many women reformers such as Pandita Ramabai also helped the cause of women upliftment. Kittur Chennamma, the queen of the princely state Kittur in Karnataka[citation needed], led an armed rebellion against the British in response to the Doctrine of lapse. Abbakka Rani the queen of coastal Karnataka led the defence against invading European armies notably the Portuguese in 16th century. Rani Lakshmi Bai, the Queen of Jhansi, led the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British. She is now widely considered as a nationalist hero. Begum Hazrat Mahal, the co-ruler of Awadh, was another ruler who led the revolt of 1857. She refused the deals with the British and later retreated to Nepal. The Begums of Bhopal were also few of the notable female rulers during this period. They did not observe purdah and were trained in martial arts. Chandramukhi Basu, Kadambini Ganguly and Anandi Gopal Joshi were few of the earliest Indian women to obtain educational degrees.

In 1917, the first women's delegation met the Secretary of State to demand women's political rights, supported by the Indian National Congress. The All India Women's Education Conference was held in Pune in 1927[citation needed]. In 1929, the Child Marriage Restraint Act was passed, stipulating fourteen as the minimum age of marriage for a girl through the efforts of Mahomed Ali Jinnah.[14][20]Though Mahatma Gandhi himself married at the age of thirteen, he later urged people to boycott child marriages and called upon the young men to marry the child widows.[21] Women played an important part in India's independence struggle. Some of the famous freedom fighters include Bhikaji Cama, Dr. Annie Besant, Pritilata Waddedar, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Aruna Asaf Ali, Sucheta Kriplani and Kasturba Gandhi. Other notable names include Muthulakshmi Reddy, Durgabai Deshmukh etc. The Rani of Jhansi Regiment of Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army consisted entirely of women including Captain Lakshmi Sahgal. Sarojini Naidu, a poet and a freedom fighter, was the first Indian woman to become the President of theIndian National Congress and the first woman to become the governor of a state in India.

Independent India
Women in India now participate in all activities such as education,sports, politics, media, art and culture, service sectors, science and technology, etc.[5] Indira Gandhi, who served as Prime Minister of India for an aggregate period of fifteen years is the world's longest serving woman Prime Minister.[22] The Constitution of India guarantees to all Indian women equality (Article 14), no discrimination by the State (Article 15(1)), equality of opportunity (Article 16), equal pay for equal work (Article 39(d)). In addition, it allows special provisions to be made by the State in favour of women and children (Article 15(3)), renounces practices derogatory to the dignity of women (Article 51(A) (e)), and also allows for provisions to be made by the State for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief. (Article 42).[23] The feminist activism in India picked up momentum during later 1970s. One of the first national level issues that brought the women's groups together was the Mathura rape case. The acquittal of policemen accused of raping a young girl Mathura in a police station, led to a wide-scale protests in 19791980. The protests were widely covered in the national media, and forced the Government to amend

the Evidence Act, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Indian Penal Code and introduce the category of custodial rape.[23] Female activists united over issues such as female infanticide, gender bias, women health, and female literacy. Since alcoholism is often associated with violence against women in India, [24] many women groups launched anti-liquor campaigns in Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and other states.[23] Many Indian Muslim women have questioned the fundamental leaders' interpretation of women's rights under the Shariat law and have criticized the triple talaq system.[14] In 1990s, grants from foreign donor agencies enabled the formation of new womenoriented NGOs. Self-help groups and NGOs such as Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) have played a major role in women's rights in India. Many women have emerged as leaders of local movements. For example, Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan. The Government of India declared 2001 as the Year of Women's Empowerment (Swashakti).[14] The National Policy For The Empowerment Of Women came was passed in 2001.[25] In 2006, the case of a Muslim rape victim called Imrana was highlighted in the media. Imrana was raped by her father-in-law. The pronouncement of some Muslim clerics that Imrana should marry her father-in-law led to widespread protests and finally Imrana's father-in-law was given a prison term of 10 years, The verdict was welcomed by many women's groups and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.[26] In 2010 March 9, one day after International Women's day, Rajyasabha passed Women's Reservation Bill, ensuring 33% reservation to women in Parliament and state legislative bodies.[27]

Timeline
The steady change in their position can be highlighted by looking at what has been achieved by women in the country:

1879: John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune established the Bethune School in 1849, which developed into the Bethune College in 1879, thus becoming the first women's college in India.

1883: Chandramukhi Basu and Kadambini Ganguly became the first female graduates of India and the British Empire.

1886: Kadambini Ganguly and Anandi Gopal Joshi became the first women from India to be trained in Western medicine.

1905: Suzanne RD Tata becomes the first Indian woman to drive a car.[28] 1916: The first women's university, SNDT Women's University, was founded on June 2, 1916 by the social reformer Dhondo Keshav Karve with just five students.

1917: Annie Besant became the first female president of the Indian National Congress.

1919: For her distinguished social service, Pandita Ramabai became the first Indian woman to be awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind by the British Raj.

1925: Sarojini Naidu became the first Indian born female president of the Indian National Congress

1927: The All India Women's Conference was founded. 1944: Asima Chatterjee became the first Indian woman to be conferred the Doctorate of Science by an Indian university

1947: On August 15, 1947, following independence, Sarojini Naidu became the governor of the United Provinces, and in the process became India's first woman governor.

1951: Prem Mathur of the Deccan Airways becomes the first Indian women commercial pilot.

1953: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit became the first woman (and first Indian) president of the United Nations General Assembly

1959: Anna Chandy becomes the first Indian woman judge of a High Court (Kerala High Court)[29]

1963: Sucheta Kriplani became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the first woman to hold that position in any Indian state.

1966: Captain Durga Banerjee becomes the first Indian woman pilot of the state airline, Indian Airlines.

1966: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay wins Ramon Magsaysay award for community leadership.

1966: Indira Gandhi becomes the first woman Prime Minister of India

1970: Kamaljit Sandhu becomes the first Indian woman to win a Gold in the Asian Games

1972: Kiran Bedi becomes the first female recruit to join the Indian Police Service.[30]

1979: Mother Teresa wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Indian female citizen to do so.

1984: On May 23, Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest.

1989: Justice M. Fathima Beevi becomes the first woman judge of the Supreme Court of India.[31]

1997: Kalpana Chawla becomes the first India-born woman to go into space.[32] 1992: Priya Jhingan becomes the first lady cadet to join the Indian Army (later commissioned on March 6, 1993)[33]

1994: Harita Kaur Deol becomes the first Indian woman pilot in the Indian Air Force (IAF), on a solo flight.

2000: Karnam Malleswari became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal (bronze medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics at Sydney)

2002: Lakshmi Sahgal became the first Indian woman to run for the post of President of India.

2004: Punita Arora became the first woman in the Indian Army to don the highest rank of Lieutenant General.

2007: Pratibha Patil becomes the first woman President of India. 2009: Meira Kumar became the first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha, the lower house in Indian Parliament

Culture
Sari (a single piece of a long cloth wound around the body) and salwar kameez are worn by women all over India. Bindi is part of the women's make-up. Unlike common belief, the bindi on the forehead does not signify marital status, however the Sindoor does.[34] Rangoli (or Kolam) is a traditional art very popular among Indian women.

Education and economic development

According to 1992-93 figures, only 9.2% of the households in India were femaleheaded. However, approximately 35% of the households below the poverty line were found to be female-headed.[35]

Education
Though it is gradually rising, the female literacy rate in India is lower than the male literacy rate.[36] Compared to boys, far fewer girls are enrolled in the schools, and many of them drop out.[23]According to the National Sample Survey Data of 1997, only the states of Kerala and Mizoram have approached universal female literacy rates. According to majority of the scholars, the major factor behind the improved social and economic status of women in Kerala is literacy.[23] Under Non-Formal Education programme (NFE), about 40% of the centres in states and 10% of the centres in UTs are exclusively reserved for females.[citation needed] As of 2000, about 0.3 million NFE centres were catering to about 7.42 million children, out of which about 0.12 million were exclusively for girls.[citation needed] In urban India, girls are nearly at par with the boys in terms of education. However, in rural India girls continue to be less educated than the boys. According to a 1998 report by U.S. Department of Commerce, the chief barrier to female education in India are inadequate school facilities (such as sanitary facilities), shortage of female teachers and gender bias in curriculum (majority of the female characters being depicted as weak and helpless).[37]

Workforce participation
Contrary to the common perception, a large percent of women in India work.[38] The National data collection agencies accept the fact that there is a serious underestimation of women's contribution as workers.[23] However, there are far fewer women in the paid workforce than there are men. In urban India Women have impressive number in the workforce. As an example at software industry 30% of the workforce is female.[39] They are at par with their male counter parts in terms of wages, position at the work place. In rural India, agriculture and allied industrial sectors employ as much as 89.5% of the total female labour.[35] In overall farm production, women's average contribution is estimated at 55% to 66% of the total labour. According to a 1991 World Bank report, women accounted for 94% of total employment in dairy production in India.

Women constitute 51% of the total employed in forest-based small-scale enterprises.[35] One of the most famous female business success stories is the Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad. In 2006, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who started Biocon - one of India's first biotech companies, was rated India's richest woman. Lalita Gupte and Kalpana Morparia (both were the only businesswomen in India who made the list of the Forbes World's Most Powerful Women), run India's second-largest bank, ICICI Bank.[40]

Land and property rights

In most Indian families , women do not own any property in their own names, and do not get a share of parental property.[23] Due to weak enforcement of laws protecting them, women continue to have little access to land and property.[41] In fact, some of the laws discriminate against women, when it comes to land and property rights.[42] The Hindu personal laws of mid-1956s (applied to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains) gave women rights to inheritance. However, the sons had an independent share in the ancestral property, while the daughters' shares were based on the share received by their father. Hence, a father could effectively disinherit a daughter by renouncing his share of the ancestral property, but the son will continue to have a share in his own right. Additionally, married daughters, even those facing marital harassment, had no residential rights in the ancestral home. After amendment of Hindu laws in 2005, now women in have been provided the same status as that of men.[43] In 1986, the Supreme Court of India ruled that Shah Bano, an old divorced Muslim woman was eligible for maintenance money. However, the decision was vociferously opposed by fundamentalist Muslim leaders, who alleged that the court was interfering in their personal law. The Union Government subsequently passed the Muslim Women's (Protection of Rights Upon Divorce) Act.[44] Similarly, the Christian women have struggled over years for equal rights of divorce and succession. In 1994, all the churches, jointly with women's organisations, drew up a draft law called the Christian Marriage and Matrimonial Causes Bill. However, the government has still not amended the relevant laws.[14]

Crimes against women

Police records show high incidence of crimes against women in India. The National Crime Records Bureau reported in 1998 that the growth rate of crimes against women would be higher than the population growth rate by 2010.[23] Earlier, many cases were not registered with the police due to the social stigma attached to rape and molestation cases. Official statistics show that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of reported crimes against women.[23]

Sexual harassment
Half of the total number of crimes against women reported in 1990 related to molestation and harassment at the workplace.[23] Eve teasing is a euphemism used for sexual harassment or molestation of women by men. Many activists blame the rising incidents of sexual harassment against women on the influence of "Western culture". In 1987, The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act was passed[45] to prohibit indecent representation of women through advertisements or in publications, writings, paintings, figures or in any other manner. In 1997, in a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court of India took a strong stand against sexual harassment of women in the workplace. The Court also laid down detailed guidelines for prevention and redressal of grievances. The National Commission for Women subsequently elaborated these guidelines into a Code of Conduct for employers.[23]

Dowry
Main articles: Dowry, Dowry death, and Dowry law in India In 1961, the Government of India passed the Dowry Prohibition Act,[46] making the dowry demands in wedding arrangements illegal. However, many cases of dowryrelated domestic violence, suicides and murders have been reported. In the 1980s, numerous such cases were reported.[38] In 1985, the Dowry Prohibition (maintenance of lists of presents to the bride and bridegroom) rules were framed.[47] According to these rules, a signed list of presents given at the time of the marriage to the bride and the bridegroom should be maintained. The list should contain a brief description of each present, its approximate value, the name of whoever has given the present and his/her relationship to the person. However, such rules are hardly enforced. A 1997 report[48] claimed that at least 5,000 women die each year because of dowry deaths, and at least a dozen die each day in 'kitchen fires' thought to be intentional.

The term for this is "bride burning" and is criticized within India itself. Amongst the urban educated, such dowry abuse has reduced considerably.

Child marriage
Child marriage has been traditionally prevalent in India and continues to this day. Historically, young girls would live with their parents until they reached puberty. In the past, the child widows were condemned to a life of great agony, shaving heads, living in isolation, and shunned by the society.[21] Although child marriage was outlawed in 1860, it is still a common practice.[49] According to UNICEFs State of the Worlds Children-2009 report, 47% of India's women aged 2024 were married before the legal age of 18, with 56% in rural areas.[50] The report also showed that 40% of the world's child marriages occur in India.[51]

Female infanticides and sex selective abortions

Main article: Sex-selective abortion and infanticide India has a highly masculine sex ratio, the chief reason being that many women die before reaching adulthood.[23] Tribal societies in India have a less masculine sex ratio than all other caste groups. This, in spite of the fact that tribal communities have far lower levels of income, literacy and health facilities.[23] It is therefore suggested by many experts, that the highly masculine sex ratio in India can be attributed to female infanticides and sex-selective abortions. All medical tests that can be used to determine the sex of the child have been banned in India, due to incidents of these tests being used to get rid of unwanted female children before birth. Female infanticide (killing of girl infants) is still prevalent in some rural areas.[23] The abuse of the dowry tradition has been one of the main reasons for sex-selective abortions and female infanticides in India.

Domestic violence
The incidents of domestic violence are higher among the lower Socio-Economic Classes (SECs).[citation needed] The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 came into force on October 26, 2006.

Trafficking

The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act was passed in 1956.[52] However many cases of trafficking of young girls and women have been reported. These women are either forced into prostitution, domestic work or child labour.

Other concerns
Health
The average female life expectancy today in India is low compared to many countries, but it has shown gradual improvement over the years. In many families, especially rural ones, the girls and women face nutritional discrimination within the family, and are anaemic and malnourished.[23] The maternal mortality in India is the second highest in the world. [14] Only 42% of births in the country are supervised by health professionals. Most women deliver with help from women in the family who often lack the skills and resources to save the mother's life if it is in danger.[23] According to UNDP Human Development Report (1997), 88% of pregnant women (age 15-49) were found to be suffering from anaemia.[35]

Family planning
The average woman in rural areas of India has little or no control over her reproductivity. Women, particularly women in rural areas, do not have access to safe and self-controlled methods of contraception. The public health system emphasises permanent methods like sterilisation, or long-term methods like IUDs that do not need follow-up. Sterilization accounts for more than 75% of total contraception, with female sterilisation accounting for almost 95% of all sterilisations.[23]

Notable Indian women

See also: Category:Indian women and List of Indian film actresses Education Savitribai Phule was a social reformer who along with her husband, Mahatma Jotiba Phule played an important role in improving women's rights in India during the British Rule. Savitribai was the first female teacher of the first women's school in India and also considered as the pioneer of modern Marathi poetry. In 1852 she opened a school for Untouchable girls.

Arts and entertainment Singers and vocalists such as M.S. Subbulakshmi, Gangubai Hangal, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle are widely revered in India. Anjolie Ela Menon is one of the famous painters. Sports Although the general sports scenario in India is not very good, some Indian women have made notable achievements in the field. Some of the famous female sportspersons in Indian include P. T. Usha,J. J. Shobha (athletics), Kunjarani Devi (weightlifting), Diana Edulji (cricket), Saina Nehwal (badminton) , Koneru Hampi (chess) and Sania Mirza (tennis). Karnam Malleswari (weightlifter), is the only Indian woman to have won an Olympic medal (Bronze medal in 2000). Politics Through the Panchayat Raj institutions, over a million women have actively entered political life in India.[41] As per the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts, all local elected bodies reserve one-third of their seats for women. Although the percentages of women in various levels of political activity has risen considerably, women are still under-represented in governance and decisionmaking positions.[23] Literature Many well-known women writers are in Indian literature as poets and story writers. Sarojini Naidu, Kamala Surayya, Shobha De, Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai are some of them. Sarojini Naidu is called the nightingale of India. Arundhati Roy was awarded the Booker Prize (Man Booker Prize) for her novel The God of Small Things.

Introduction The Indian traditional set up made a distinction between "Men's" work and Women's work, particularly that of the women with family responsibility. It curtailed the employment opportunity for women in conventional and unconventional field of economic activity. Inspite of this, number of women looking after business as a career has increased significantly over the past ten years. The technology changes, globalization and competition acceleration made the business world complex and dynamic. These factors call for the importance of system thinking that provides a framework for seeking the whole picture and interrelationships. The feminine property to look at business problems contextually and to concentrate on the whole issue rather than its parts is more needed to the present system thinking of today. The business women can bring valuable innovation to entrepreneurship because they weigh more variables, consider more alternatives and outcomes, recall more points of view and see more ways to proceed. Moreover, as the competition increases, today's entrepreneurs must be able to alter plans quickly and frequently. A women's innate mental flexibility, their vision for long-term planning and the ability to tolerate ambiguity and changes better than men are a valuable asset for every venture and also their capacity to negotiate in marketing the product to prospective investors, suppliers and customers. These are the present day requirements of the complex business world. Ayadurai, Selvakumar and Sohail, M.Sadiq (1987) carried out a case study on "the profile of women entrepreneurs in war-time area" in the North-East, Sri Langa by examining the demographic profile of "Tamil" women entrepreneurs who become entrepreneurs as a result of war. The study examined five main areas--their characteristics, factors that spurred them into entrepreneurs, their challenges, their measures of success and their demographic profile. The study revealed that majority of them were in business for the first time as they lost their husbands to the war and saw business as a means to end and their success in the venture is making a balance between family and work. The studies conducted by Kale (1990) revealed that training approach is an important one for helping women in non-traditional high skill, male dominated activities and also to build confidence among women to meet the specific needs. Intensified effort has to be taken to asses the social attitude, mentality, needs and abilities of the women and impart training. According to study conducted by Padmavati and Sathyasundram (2002) flexible training programme and interest based skill training can push the women towards entrepreneurial activities. Training to develop good managerial skills is useful and essential to women. Parihar and Singh (2006) in their article explains the study on "Constraints faced by women entrepreneurs in Jammu" analysed the constrains faced by the women entrepreneurs in the state of Jammu. It was conducted on 240 respondents engaged in various industrial activities. The study suggested that the attitude of women entrepreneurs need to be reoriented towards the promotion of leadership qualities. The government has to take efforts to provided market assistance provision of land, create awareness of its schemes and assistance to women entrepreneurs. Rajani N (2008) in her article in management training needs of women entrepreneurs examines the quality of micro enterprise management by women in socio-cultural milieu and to project the management training needs of women entrepreneurs. Data was collected from the sample of 100 women entrepreneurs. The study concluded that training needs are identified in the area of confidence building, competence connections and capital. In the changed scenario, there is growing awareness among women that entrepreneurship opens up a new field for them and they can achieve their cherished profession which gives them independence and self support. In order to succeed in their venture of entrepreneurship, they must recognize the fact of advantages they have and the unique challenges that they have to face than their male counterparts. The knowledge of the problems they face, their level of satisfaction towards motivated factors enables them to exploit their strengths and unique differences as advantages. It also acts as a facilitator for future entrepreneurs and encourages prospective women entrepreneurs to venture into the field of business. In this concept, a profile of women entrepreneur in the Western region of Tamilnadu throws light on them as entrepreneurs in the business. Hence, the present study is undertaken with the following objectives:

News in women's entrepreneurship from around the world

Here is what is happening in the world of women's entrepreneurship around the world. Most of the news items below contain links to web sites and/or documents we hope will not only interest you, but further enable your efforts to support women's entrepreneurship.

2011 Global Gender Gap Report published: It happens this year about this same time. Womenablers worldwide anticipate the release of the Global Gender Gap Report from the World Economic Forum. It's here, and this year the findings are much the same - no change at all in the ten countries that are ranked most highly on equality between women and men in health, education, economic participation and political empowerment: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Iceland Norway Finland Sweden Ireland New Zealand Denmark Philippines Lesotho

10. Switzerland The bottom five are unchanged as well: Yemen, Chad, Pakistan, Mali, and Saudi Arabia. What's been learned over this six-year period? For starters, while health and education gender gaps have been addressed in many countries, economic participation and political empowerment lag much farther behind. Overall, however, the World Economic Forum has found that 85% of countries have made progress in addressing these gaps since 2006. You can read more about the history and key findings of this noteworthy effort, and thenews release at the highlighted links, and you may read and download the full reportHERE. Also, you may wish to read some of the news coverage that's been generated thus far, such as these stories from the BBC, Reuters (video story), the Huffington Post, andbigthink.com, at which study co-author Saadia Zahidi puts the report findings into context. Other social media commentary can be read on Storify. (November 2011)

Ruby - a gem of a women's enterprise program: I'm just back from Oz, where I joined the board of a wonderful organization - the Global Banking Alliance for Women. Their annual summit, which brought together nearly 100 executives from financial institutions and financial inclusion NGOs from (by my count) 18 countries, was hosted this year in Sydney, Australia by one of the four founding members of the GBA, Westpac Bank. More about the GBA in another blogpost, but I'd like to focus in this post on what I feel is the leading corporate program for women entrepreneurs anywhere in the world: Westpac's Ruby Connection. As those of us in the world of women's enterprise development know, many corporations enter into the "women's market" by "painting their program pink," meaning that they dress up an existing market-focused program and slap a "we understand women" label on it. Those programs either fail - because women business owners can see through

them pretty easily - or swiftly morph into something more. If they are lucky, they will take on aspects of the Ruby Connection model. Though I've been aware of this effort for some time (it was launched back in 2008), it was only after hearing the story of the program's founding and growth do I now feel certain that ... CLICK HERE to read on. (October 2011)

Making the case for investing in women's enterprise development in the UK:It's party convention time in the United Kingdom, and a Women's Enterprise Policy Group - formed recently in the wake of organisational implosions and budget cuts - is planting a flag in the ground with the issuance of a briefing paper calling investing in women's enterprise a "multi-billion opportunity" and stating that women's enterprise development could be a "secret weapon" to boost the country's economy. Learn more about the Women's Enterprise Policy Group and download the briefing paperHERE. The WEPG was launched this past summer at a strategy session hosted by the Royal Bank of Scotland. At that strategy session, Womenable presented thoughts on the ebb and flow of women's enterprise development support on this side of the pond, including lessons learned for building/rebuilding a movement. For those of you womenablers who are interested, click HERE for a Womenabler blogpost on the subject, including an annotatedSlideShare presentation. (October 2011)

New IFC report on women in business: The latest in a nice line-up of publications focused on women 's entrepreneurship is now available from the International Finance Corporation's Women in Business team. Women in Business: Telling Our Story summarizes IFC activities and other efforts globally to support women's business empowerment. The report is available as an e-publication or can be downloaded as a PDF file. Click on these links to:

o o o

learn more about the report, view the e-publication, or look at a list of the IFC Women in Business team's other reports.

(October 2011)

Corporations engaging women as suppliers: Time was, corporations parked their womenabling efforts in their corporate social responsibility silos. Now, corporations are far more likely to view women-owned firms as important customers and suppliers than a population in need of charity. We can date US corporate interest in women business owners as a market back to 1995, when the Center for Women's Business Research's seminal report, "Breaking the Boundaries," was published. That report, based on an analysis of the entire Dun & Bradstreet database, showed that women-owned firms were just as financially stable and creditworthy as the average US firm. The report's release resulted in a virtual stampede toward women-owned firms by US banks. Now, a number of global corporations are taking a market development approach to supporting women's

entrepreneurship - readying them to be more valuable links in their supply chains. The most recent entry is Walmart, the biggest corporation on the planet, which recently announced a fourpronged Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative. One important prong: $100 million USD in grants to women's enterprise development efforts worldwide. They join several other corporate giants in firmly planting a flag in the field of women as agents of economic change, rather than recipients of charity. Here are just a few:

Coke's initiative, 5 by 20, aims to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs by the year 2020, by adding them to their retail vendor sales force. They plan to announce other elements of the program soon, as well as the paths by which they will achieve their goal. Let's hope it includes women's business association capacity-building!

Not to be outdone, Coke's rival Pepsi has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with USAID and the UN's World Food Programme to invest in chickpea production in Ethiopia. The project, called Enterprise EthioPEA, aims to double chickpea production in the country and improve childhood nutrition. The majority of the country's - and the world's - farmers are women.

Clothing company Gap, Inc. was recently recognized for their innovative PACE program(which stands for Personal Advancement and Career Enhancement), which has worked since 2007 in 6 Asian countries to improve the education and business skills of its garment workers.

Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Women initiative, a 5-year effort launched in 2008, has the aim of increasing the number of business school-educated women in developing economies, pairing them up with corporate mentors in developed economies and partnering with universities and other non-governmental organizations. To date it is active in 22 countries, and is partnering with 75 groups to reach their goal.

These efforts all bode well for WEConnect International, a relatively new NGO that has formed to make the link between women business owners who wish to do business with large corporations and the corporations that are seeking out ways to engage women's business enterprises in their value chains. WEConnect's model is based upon that of theWomen's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) in the US. check out this brief video featuring WEConnect President Elizabeth Vazquez talking about the impact of including more women-owned firms in global corporate value chains:

So here's to women as contributors of economic value! Are there any other big corporate "women in the value chain" efforts that you know of? Let us know! (October 2011)

AWBC surveys women's business center leaders: Funding for women's business centers in the US has been under scrutiny recently, as budget-cutters turn over every rock to look for programs to trim to reduce the budget deficit in Washington. To counter the misperception that women's business centers are duplicative of other federallyfunded entrepreneurship education programs - and to provide metrics on client outcomes and impact - the Association of Women's Business Centers (with Womenable's help) recently conducted a survey among the country's 110 women's business centers. Here's what the survey found:

WBC services are under-measured: In fiscal year 2010, WBCs trained, counseled, mentored or otherwise served nearly 200,000 clients, averaging just over 1,800 clients per center. This figure is fully 24% higher than SBA statistics, because the SBA's management information system does not fully capture the breadth of WBC support;

WBCs are efficient and cost effective: the survey finds that WBCs operate with an average of 4 full-time and 2 parttime staff, and leverage a ratio of 5 volunteer teachers, trainers and mentors per 1 staff member; and

WBCs are making an impact: In FY2010, WBCs helped to launch 13,301 new businesses, helped to create an estimated 36,578 new jobs from new and existing firms, and supported firms that contributed a collective $1.3 billion to the US Economy.

A three-page summary of the survey findings is available for free by clicking this link. (September 2011)

Viewing change: If a picture is worth a thousand words, then videos must be worth 10,000 or maybe 100,000 words. Well, ViewChange.org is home to over 400 videos, each of which tells a story worth watching, many of them focused on issues impacting women in developing economies. The site has been created by LinkTV with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In particular, their Gender section is worth a look, as is this 50 minute video documentary about four women in Zambia who are embarking on an intensive business skills training program that will allow them to start their own businesses.

They even have an iPhone/iPad app so you can View Change on the go. (August 2011)

A focus on frameworks: You wouldn't build a house without a blueprint, would you, so why are so many efforts to provide greater economic empowerment for women undertaken without a strategic framework? A rhetorical question, we know, but we'd like to call attention to the fact that folks are starting to realize that a framework for action can make governments and other actors more accountable, provide benchmarks and targets against which to chart progress, and give the women's business community and other important stakeholders a soapbox for advocacy. We write this because we've come across several new strategic framework reports we want to make sure all of you

womenablers out there take a look at, bookmark, and file away for future reference and/or action. First, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has published a Gender at the Heart of ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development): Strategic Framework on Gender Mainstreaming and Women's Empowerment. While it does not focus much on enterprise development, gender equality, policy action and stakeholder engagement are central tenets covered in the publication. You might also want to take a look at their 30 second public service video, "Empower Women, Empower the Future," which illustrates how a girl's future can change with education rather than early marriage. (Puts us in mind of the excellent Girl Effect video.) The UN agency in the Asia Pacific region, ESCAP, has also recently published a report looking at efforts that could be undertaken in that region to "strengthen national mechanisms" for gender equality and the empowerment of women. Learn more at THIS LINK. Sounds like a framework to us! Next, there's a new mid-term assessment of where things stand vis-a-vis MDG3, the Millennium Development Goal related to women's empowerment. This AWID review of theDutch MDG3 Fund shows the ways in which targeted investments can really make a difference in organizational capacity and women's increased participation in advocacy and the political process, which has a ripple effect in other areas of women's economic empowerment. And, finally, we would be remiss if we did not mention and remind you of the Roadmap to 2020 report, spearheaded and published by Quantum Leaps in 2010, which focused on what women's entrepreneurship stakeholders in the United States should do to move the agenda forward. It joins the October 2003 Prime Minister's Task Force report in Canada and the May 2003 Strategic Framework report in the United Kingdom as a trilogy of policy and program recommendations to be undertaken in a developed economy context (which, truth be told, is not terribly different from areas of focus in developing economies). (August 2011)

Slip slidin' away?: Women have fallen back a few rungs on the corporate ladder, according to the 2011 Grant Thornton International Business Report. The report finds that women hold 20% of senior management positions globally, down from 24% in 2009 and about equal to the level seen in 2004 (19%). In addition, just 8% of these companies have a female CEO. So where are women doing best in their climb up the corporate ladder? Perhaps not where you'd expect. The G7 economies lag the global average with just 16% of women holding senior roles, while the share is actually highest in Asia, with 27% on average (this excludes Japan, which at 8% is at the bottom of the global list). On a country by country basis, the share of women in senior management is highest in Thailand (45%), followed by the Republic of Georgia (40%), Russia (36%), Hong Kong (35%), the Philippines (35%) and mainland China (34%). To learn more about this study, visit this web link. (August 2011)

Happy International Youth Day!: Did you know that today is International Youth Day? Neither did I until yesterday, but the day is fast approaching when the young women and men of Generation Y will move into positions of responsibility and start to put their imprint on the world. So, in recognition that this day is coming soon, why not listen to the voices of the next generation of world leaders now to see what they have to say? Here are some places to start: CLICK HERE to read on. (August 12 2011)

Small firms not looking on the bright side these days: Small business owners usually look on the bright side, and are eternally optimistic. Not so much recently, however, according to the results of an analysis of a decade's worth of data from the American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor survey. This analysis, performed for American Express by Womenable, takes a look at a single, telling question, which asks small firm owners (those with between 1 and 99 employees) to think about the next six months and agree with one of these four statements:

o o o o

Over the next six months, I see the economy improving and expanding opportunities for my business Over the next six months, I expect my business to grow regardless of the economic climate Over the next six months, I expect the negative climate to negatively affect my business Over the next six months, my company risks going out of business because of the economic climate

The results of the two positive and negative statements are combined and compared to form a "net optimism score." The analysis reveals, among other things, that there's been no significant difference between women and men business owners with respect to optimism. For other findings, visit this OPEN Forum web page, or download and read the nine-page report. (August 2011)

Gender equality not for women only: Gender equality is as much for men and boys as it is for women and girl, but it can sometimes be hard to engage men and boys in the conversation, and widen our perceptual lens. A new report from the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) aims to help. The report, "Engaging Men and Boys in Gender Equality," offers up four case studies from Bangladesh, Philippines, Cambodia and Uganda, which explain the ways in which the gender equality discussion can be broadened. Click HERE for more information and HERE to download the report. This report joins several other worthy publications focused on gender equality issues, including the links between microfinance, women's empowerment and their health, gender-based violence, and UNFPA's Strategic Framework for Gender Mainstreaming and Women's Empowerment 2008-2011. See the UNFPA Gender Equality page for a listing of other reports. (August 2011)

Essay contest to commemorate Ms. Magazine 40th anniversary: Calling all womenabling essayists! Ms. Magazine will be celebrating its 40th anniversary next year, and to kick off the celebration, the Clayman Institute for Gender Research and Stanford University's American Studies and Feminist Studies programs are sponsoring an essay contest. So ponder, if you will, how women's entrepreneurship has progressed over the past 40 years, and submit a 150-word essay between now and the October 15 deadline. Click here for additional information. (August 2011)

UNESCO prizes for literacy, peace, and gender equality: Speaking of essay writing, the first step in writing is basic literacy - and we know how strong a link there is between literacy for women, their personal empowerment, and their economic empowerment. UNESCO realizes this as well, and has announced the six winners of the 2011 International Literacy Prizes. The theme this year is literacy and peace, with special consideration to gender and equality (hence our mention of it here). Prizewinners include organizations in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mexico, and the United States. Read more about the award, the prizewinning organizations, and the upcoming awards ceremony in September HERE. (August 2011)

Weeks joins GBA board: Womenable President and CEO Julie R. Weeks has joined the board of directors of the Global Banking Alliance for Women, a 10 year-old membership organization of institutions committed to the growth of women in business and womens wealth creation worldwide. Members of the GBA number 21 financial and women's entrepreneurial leadership institutions from around the world, in both developed and developing economies, who share a commitment to share best practices to spur growth and accelerate the development of women in business ownership. Learn more about the GBA at the link above, which includes pages devoted to:

Periodic news alerts and an e-newsletter,

Resources and links, and

Information on the upcoming GBA Summit in Sydney, Australia in October. (July 2011)

Oxfam supporting women farmers: Did you know that women provide 60 to 80 percent of the food for populations in developing countries, yet own only 2 percent of the land? Climate change, lack of equity for access to financial services, access to tools to increase production and yield, and the lack of a voice in decision-making are all hindrances to women in the agricultural sector in the developing world, but Oxfam is aiming to change that. Long an organization focused on alleviating hunger, they're now paying more attention to the economic empowerment of women in agriculture. They've launched a GROW campaign to draw attention to the issue of sustainable agriculture and food supply and value chain issues. They've also just instituted an award recognizing the contribution of women in farming. The Food Heroine of the Year

award was launched recently in Tanzania. They've also assembled a quick and easy fact sheet highlighting some of the statistics and political issues surrounding women and sustainable agricultural development. CLICK HERE to download and read the fact sheet. (July 2011)

Ruminations on the women's business movement: Summertime is normally a slower time, with days spent at the beach, in the mountains, or in other restful venues. However, for Womenable, things are only getting busier. The latest Womenabler blogpost explains all: "Ive been traveling lately, participating in a panel on the value of mentors and role models for would-be women business owners, presenting a paper on what gets missed when business enabling environment assessments dont include gender, speaking at theWe Own It Summit in London and meeting with a group of womens business advocates in the UK about moving forward with new efforts in moving womens enterprise development forward there in the wake of organizational and governmental change."

Gender is a developmental issue in that the existing gender imbalances and inequalities in the society prevent the society from realizing its full potential in all the activities of development in economic, social, and political dimensions. The government is in the process of making sure that gender issues are integrated in planning and budgeting, in order to strengthen the relationship between men and women, which the main thrust in development. Thus, without a strong relationship on both sides that will reduce the pace of development.

The Tanzania development vision 2025 aims at achieving a high quality livelihood for its People attain good governance through the rule of law and develop a strong and competitive economy. In order to attain that gender equality and the empowerment of women in all socio-economic and political relations and culture are considered. Gender is Mainstreamed in all aspects of Development to promote National economy, political, socio and culture. In Tanzania it is estimated that women especially rural women provide 80 percent of labour force in rural area and producing 60 percent of food production. Though, they are the main producers of cash crops, the environment does not allow them to own their own wealth. Women do not have decision on the reproductive issues for example most women cannot decide on the number of children in the family though they are the ones playing a big role in child rearing. Gender patterns in employment, in farm and non farm activities has changed in Tanzania during the last ten years, as an increasing number of women have become active in market-oriented activities, and more responsible for providing cash needs of the household. Women are in the forefront in expanding micro and small enterprises in what is often referred to as the informal sector.

Gender and Employment Women and men have been found to enter the labour force in different ways, and on different terms, not only in Tanzania, but worldwide. Differences are found between women and men, as well as among different groups of women (rural-urban; rich-poor; educated noneducated) and men. Certain kinds of work have been stereotyped as being male or female, because of the socialization process on the division of labour which stipulates different roles for men and women. Most rural women carry water, firewood and farm produce on their heads, take care of children, cook and farm.

Gendered assumptions, however, contribute to a process whereby most women are allocated low paying, unskilled or lesser skilled work in both the formal and the informal sectors of the money economy. The terms upon which women and men compete for employment are set by wider social relations, including cultural, economic and political arenas. These include the assumption that a womans primary commitment is to care for a family at home, in the reproductive sphere of life; and that each woman depends on a male provider for cash needs.

The skills label itself is usually arbitrary, and culturally defined. Skills associated with women tend to be undervalued, and defined as unskilled, even when they entail complex actions and thought processes, such as child care, subsistence farming, agro-processing and the like.

Legal Capacity

In Tanzania womens legal and human rights were constrained by inadequate legal literacy among women. The main reason being that the existing legal system does not reach the majority of women who live in rural areas. There is also discriminatory application of statutory laws, inadequate legislative protective mechanism such as protection orders, baring orders and safety orders in the legal system and insensitive investigations and prosecution of cases involving violence against women and children. Like many societies in Africa, customary laws and practices remain discriminatory against women on issues of property inheritance particularly on land, as well as institutionalised violence against women e.g. wife battering, rape, female genital mutilation and the existence, side by side, of a multitude of statutory, religious and customary laws that might be conflicting.

To get away with the situation, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania committed itself to improve womens legal capacity through legal literacy schemes and mass campaigns to educate women and men on womens human rights. The objective was to enhance the status of women through increased knowledge of their legal and human rights. The Government also put in place a mechanism within the legal system that intends to protect women and children. This incorporates human rights teaching in school as well as in adult education programmes. Emphasis on para-legal training so as to offer women extra help at their first point of call in issues affecting their legal rights since the existed legal system did not reach many women especially in the rural areas.

The Government in collaboration with NGOs has been working to remove discriminatory provisions in existing laws, which do not grant the rights and freedom of women. The Government planned to redraft inheritance Laws, the Marriage Act and follows up the convention on the rights of the child. The Government is in the process currently establishing a Commission on Human Rights in Tanzania. The objective of starting this commission was to co-ordinate the strategies for promoting ways of fighting against violation of human rights.

The Government has passed several laws in favour of women i.e. Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act of 1998, the Land Law Act of 1999 and Village Land Act of 1999. The first Law protects women, girls and children from sexual harassment and abuse. The last two laws repeal and replace previous legislations on land matters thus enabling women to enjoy equal rights with men in access, ownership and control of land.

To complement all the above activities, publicity was promoted by using Mass Media in sensitising and making the public aware of the Legal System. The Government and a number of NGOs have identified and spoken on several areas where womens rights are still violated. They have also worked to sensitise the public as well as women issues of gender violence.

However, the Government has encountered some constraints in the efforts to enhance legal capacity to grassroots women. These include financial incapability to sensitize the grassroot women on their rights and to provide legal assistance in front of the courts of law.

Economic Empowerment of Women and Poverty Eradication In Tanzania about 60 percent of women in Tanzania live in absolute poverty. This is a result of the increasing poverty among the rural and urban population generally, the growing gap between the rich and poor; women and men; and among women themselves. In the rural sector and the poor urban suburbs, women carry a heavier burden because by tradition, women lack property rights and they also lack adequate knowledge on existing credit facilities. Due to their low education level, their knowledge and skills on how to manage their work is generally low. Most of women also depend on poor technology, which consume their time and energy. To overcome this situation, the United Republic of Tanzania committed itself to enhance womens economic capacity through making credit facilities available to a majority of women. Building and supporting women entrepreneurial skill, improving their management capabilities, increase training and access to technology.

NGOs for credit to women have increased since the 4th World Women Conference in Beijing. A number of NGOs and donor agencies have made serious efforts to advance credit to women at the village level. Women have been trained on credit management in general. These efforts have increased participation of women in income generation projects. On constraint is lack of financial resources for monitoring utilisation of funds. The other constraint is the large number of the credit needy groups which the available funds, cannot suffice. What still has to be done is to strengthen NGOs so that they are able to provide credit to more beneficiaries and also to find ways that NGOs can be self-sustaining. The Government has advised and urged private financial institutions to give credit to women. More opportunities have been provided for entrepreneurial skills training and in simple technology such as food processing and textiles. Most of the beneficiaries of the credit funds are urban based and the credit processing is cumbersome. The Government will put extra effort so that more women can take part in productive economic activities by way of credit facilitation. It will for example work harder to encourage private financiers to give credit to women by acting as one of their guarantors. The Government will also intensify efforts to look for markets for womens produce. Moreover, the Government in collaboration with NGOs is embarking on gender mainstreaming the planning and budgetary process in all sectors. The Government will intensify efforts to encourage women to participate in International Trade Fairs so that a wider audience sees their products. The number of women participating in International Trade Fairs have been increasing from 100 in 1996 to 200 in 1999 and the quality of their products has improved. Efforts to mobilise women to participate in International Trade Fair have been done by the Government and NGOs dealing with poverty alleviation and businesswomen association.

However, the Government and NGOs still need to conduct training on production of quality products and marketing skills; sensitise women on involvement of women in International Trade Fairs; open showrooms for agricultural produce and manufacturing products at all levels. The Government needs to conduct studies on investment opportunities for women and what the obstacles to credit are; promote the establishment of a womens bank that will give women investors the required priority in credit. The Government need as well to educate women on available credit facilities; encourage more women to participate in savings schemes; encourage urban women entrepreneur to invest in rural poverty alleviation programmes and; prepare and disseminate credit information for women in the informal sector To implement the Beijing platform for Action the Government worked also at identification of women entrepreneurs for training in skills for entrepreneurial and business management skills in the informal sector. The Government aimed at training 20 percent of women entrepreneurs each year. The number of women entrepreneurs trained has been increasing but has not reached the planned 20 percent. One of the constraints is the lack of data on the number of women involved in this scheme, making it hard to gauge the impact of Governments efforts. However, the Government still needs to increase its efforts to train more entrepreneurial women to reach the 20 percent goal it had set. The Government needs to embark on research so as to get data on the number of women who are trained and assess the impact this has had on their skills. Since income generating activities increase womens work, individual and private institutions are encouraged to develop and promote appropriate and affordable technology, that will ease the womens work load particularly those directed at making domestic and farm labour less strenuous. The Government has used several strategies to improve the economic empowerment of women. The first strategy was to make access and equitable control of means of production possible for women. The Government therefore revised the National Land Policy of 1995 and enacted the Land Law Act of 1999 as well as the Village Act of 1999. This has enabled women to own clan and family land on equal rights with men. The Government working with NGOs and international donor agencies have made a step to educating men and women on the importance of women owning land and other means of production. The role of women and their contributions at the family and community levels in the development process have been emphasised. The other constraint still to be addressed is educating the society about these changes and how women can benefit from these changes. The major constraint lies in the traditional norms and culture. It is hard to change attitudes in the society. The main thrust is to embark on gender sensitisation to influence change attitude of the society.

The Government plans to conduct research with the view to identify NGOs and strengthen their management and outreach capacities. There has been technical support in agriculture. The Government has called for and encouraged donors to support research on the use of natural and traditional pesticides. Women are now more involved in the fish and bee keeping business, both increasing access to natural resources.

The constraint is the traditional beliefs that women cannot carry commercial activities. Efforts still need to be intensified so that women have better access to natural resources. It is important that the public be gender sensitised on resources mobilisation, ownership and management so as to eradicate poverty.

Women Political Empowerment and Decision Making Traditionally the position of women in Tanzania has been low compared to men. Women were not expected to influence the decision-making processes from domestic level to the national level. In the family attitudes, which consider men as heads of households, exists. These attitudes are rigidly based on patriarchal structures, which limit women voices from influencing allocation of domestic resources. At national level, the existing attitudes influence the election and appointment of women to high profile positions and hence limit womens voices from impacting decision making and the planning process. The Government of Tanzania recognises that womens advancement and achievement of gender equality are a matter of human rights and a condition to social justice. The Government of Tanzania reaffirms its commitment to enhancement of womens rights for national and world progress. The Government has ractified the convention on the elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Furthermore, the Government of Tanzania reaffirms its commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action that upholds the Convention for total elimination of all kinds of discrimination against women and all other international human rights instruments calling for gender equality. Promotion of women participation in politics and decision making is among the four critical areas of concern for Tanzania. The Government has changed regulations and taken affirmative action to include women in decision making. The Pariament passed a Bill in 200 to increase the seats. In the local Government councils wehre women are assured of 33 percent of seats while in the Union Parliament women are assured of 20 percent of the seats. The Government has planned to increase the participation of women in politics to 30 percent by the year 2005.In the 2000 elections women were mobilised to contest for both constituency seats and special seats for women within the 30 percent set aside in parliament. Extra efforts were to be made to ensure that as large as possible proportion of women register for the elections both as voters and candidates. Media campaigns and public meetings for awareness creation were part of the strategy to achieve this.

The second thrust was on increasing the number of women in decision making positions and this was to be achieved through Government appointments and other public structures. The Cabinet Decision no 23 of 1996 among other issues endorsed for implementation the increase of women in all decision making levels such as Board of Directors, Heads of Institutions, Commissioners and in national delegations. The other strategy was gender mainstreaming the civil service and creation of a database on women and their qualifications for use by appointing authorities.

Several activities were embarked on in order to make 30 percent of leadership women. Activities included conducting mass media campaigns, workshops and seminars to motivate women to contest for leadership positions; development of womens database and directorate of women advancement in key ministries and women units in the regions and districts within Government structure. Also monitoring implementation of the 1996 Cabinet decision on appointment of women into political and public services Gender mainstreaming the civil service; and review the civic subject syllabus at all levels of education to incorporate skill development in leadership. The multiparty democracy existing in Tanzania in the period of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action also strengthened the conducive environment for establishment of civil organisations. Numerous women NGOs and CBOs have been established alongside women wings in all political parties registered in the country. These women NGOs and women wings in the political parties provide for a forum to women to address not only social and economic issues but also political issues. The constitutional reform exercise going on in the country provides yet another opportunity to include womens rights in the supreme law of the land. The advent of political pluralism in Tanzania increased in the political arena in line with the provisions of the constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania as amended from time to time. The constitution recognises womens capacity and the right to participate in politics, social and economic life of the country. The right to vote and the right to stand for election are provided equally for men and women. This was practised successfully in the 2000 general elections. This is a clear indication that there is a conducive environment for women to participate freely and equally with men in politics and decision making in Tanzania.

Improve Womens Access to Education, Training and Employment Education is a key to liberation and an important tool to alleviate socio-economic problems. Women face numerous constraints to access education and training at all levels. The problems include the unfriendly pedagogy especially in the teaching of mathematics, technical and science subjects, which require competitiveness and some degree of assertiveness which girls often lack. Truancy, pregnancy, economic hardships and early marriages constrain girls from completing their schooling. Existing social attitudes favour and promote boys education and pay less interest in the education of girls. The Government committed to increase women access to education in order to narrow the gap between boys and girls in primary and secondary schools. For example while the enrolment of girls in primary schools is 50 percent, in secondary schools girls are 46 percent of the total enrolment. Less and less girls are enrolled in higher learning institutions (at the university girls are 17 percent of the total enrolment). One of the major constraints facing women in gainful employment is low education inadequate economically productive skills. The focus of the Government has been to increase women enrolment into vocational, tertiary and higher education. The Government also restructured education and training at this level so that it relates to employment creation. Several actions has been taken by the Government as follows: Establishment of girls vocational, training centres and technical secondary schools. Increase of female trainers in vocational and technical schools.

 Carry out-skills and labour market survey. Identify and remove gender stereotyping in textbooks and in other learning materials. Train instructors to be gender sensitive. Sensitise parents to encourage and facilitate girls to join technical institutions Expose aspiring girls to successful professional women role models and study tours. Introduction of courses and training in skills potentially for providing gainful employment to women. Increase boarding facilities for girls. Reform of curriculum to include a wider range of skills, technical enterprenurship skills and cross cutting issues. Adoption of target oriented curricula with special focus on women and girls. Introduction of short courses, open collages at flexible hours and location so as to meet the employment promotion demands of women who have time constraints. Establishment of training nurseries and or workshops so as to offer apprenticeship facilities for women. Establishment of training fund for women to increase their managerial and decision making capabilities. It is a fact that girls and women including those who complete schooling and training do not get equal access to employment opportunities. Constraints facing women in employment include lack of child care facilities both day care and nursery schools. Specific health and industrial safety provisions tailored to the realisation of the womens practical gender needs. To alleviate these problems, the Government intends to: Improve and monitor sanitation facilities in working places with a gender perspective. Facilitate and support establishment of Day Care Centres for working mothers. Induce private sector employers to allow breast-feeding breaks. Intensify the sensitisation of employers on women development issues. Intensify womens education in informal sector on relevant governing rules and regulations. Enforce safety regulations at places of work for both men and women. Review the current rules and regulations, which are unfavourable to women in the informal sector. Review Labour law and other related laws Research on patterns and characteristics of women employment both in the formal and informal sectors as well as dissemination of gender disagregated data in employment. Educate the civil servants on the schemes of service, rules and regulations; improvement of job opportunities.

OPPORTUNITIES Gender mainstreaming and balancing is ought to consider supportive and negative forces in the national social, political and cultural environment. Four positive forces are worth mentioned. First, Tanzania has formed a Legal Reform Commission to investigate and recommend to government oppressive and discriminative laws for deletion or reform.

Secondly, Tanzania has in place a government structure, which has a national, regional, local government, ward, and village levels that can facilitate mass gender awareness sensitization. Thirdly, Tanzania currently enjoys a conducive political environment, which recognizes and practices gender equality. Finally, Tanzania is a signatory to the Beijing Platform of Action, and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and an active implementer of the two conventions.

Women empowerment is, contrary to what modern day media may advertise for the sake of the pecuniary, the cultivation and fortification of women's sense of identity, power, recognition and conviction through fostering in women the capacity to acquire self-actualization critically with concrete forces- education and knowledge. Whereas befuddled women such as the Pussycat Dolls and Girlicious will argue that slavishly coquettish attire and bootyand-bosom-flashing hoverings offer women a sense of empowerment, identity and recognition, when we rarify this claim, it stipulates that our sense of power, identity, recognition and convention is viable not only just through men, but furthermore through something ephemeral and unmerited- hotness. Not only is hotness is the mere upshot of genetical lottery (unless plastic surgery is involved), but it is transient as it's definition is always changing. Moreover, it is transient as the the ramifications of inhabiting an earth with a strong gravitational pull are inevitable for both men and women. Therefore, "hotness" cannot be relied on for power, identity, recognition and approbation if we are to live provident, prudent, judiscious lives. Our empowerment must then be derived from something concrete- knowledge or education. With knowledge we can critically discern the means of acquiring a healthy sense of identity and power and we can empower ourselves based on what our concrete knowledge tells us is provident and judiscious rather than simply hot. With education, we can understand and recognize happiness as something that is not transitory, but lifelong. Empowment, at its most ideal, should imply lifelong and healthy power for women. The only way we can acquire this is through possessing, retaining and maintaining something that can endure such a lengthy period of time. And unlike anything related to the hotness and physical beauty that are inevitably doomed by gravity, knowledge can offer us this sense of empowerment, identity, recognition and approbation that is enduring. Our established and developed knowledge is the true reflection of our empowerment because it's something that we merit and deserve through habituation, through effort and through work whereas hotness, as I stated above and will restate, is often simply a reflection of a genetic lottery (or plastic surgery or makeup) and thus not in any way, shape, or form a reflection of our merit, value or personhood. To encapsulate it in one phrase: Women empowerment is the cultivation of personhood in women that consists of the only concrete, everlasting ingredient of one's identity- their mind and the knowledge it possesses. Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Define_women_empowerment#ixzz1e8VdAuxL

Women Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of Women. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities. Empowerment is probably the totality of the following or similar capabilities:

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decision-making information from which and you

power resources can make in the one's for

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their proper yes/no,

own decision either/or.) making change power. means. self-initiated

options

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Ability Having Ability Ability Involving

exercise thinking skills change growth process

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* Increasing one's positive self-image and overcoming stigma

In too many places, women and girls still tend to eat last and least, and to learn and earn less. While circumstances vary markedly among countries and markets, there are far too many cases of marginalization and lost potential. The business of empowering women presents a

case for why and how the private sector should intensify its engagement in the economic empowerment of women in developing countries. While many private sector organizations may see the economic empowerment of women as a worthy goal in itself, others also need a clear business case for investing in women. This research helps make that case, and offers a roadmap for companies to build a strategic investment portfolio in womens issues.

News in women's entrepreneurship from around the world

Here is what is happening in the world of women's entrepreneurship around the world. Most of the news items below contain links to web sites and/or documents we hope will not only interest you, but further enable your efforts to support women's entrepreneurship.

2011 Global Gender Gap Report published: It happens this year about this same time. Womenablers worldwide anticipate the release of the Global Gender Gap Report from the World Economic Forum. It's here, and this year the findings are much the same - no change at all in the ten countries that are ranked most highly on equality between women and men in health, education, economic participation and political empowerment: 1. Iceland

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Norway Finland Sweden Ireland New Zealand Denmark Philippines Lesotho

10. Switzerland The bottom five are unchanged as well: Yemen, Chad, Pakistan, Mali, and Saudi Arabia. What's been learned over this six-year period? For starters, while health and education gender gaps have been addressed in many countries, economic participation and political empowerment lag much farther behind. Overall, however, the World Economic Forum has found that 85% of countries have made progress in addressing these gaps since 2006. You can read more about the history and key findings of this noteworthy effort, and thenews release at the highlighted links, and you may read and download the full reportHERE. Also, you may wish to read some of the news coverage that's been generated thus far, such as these stories from the BBC, Reuters (video story), the Huffington Post, andbigthink.com, at which study co-author Saadia Zahidi puts the report findings into context. Other social media commentary can be read on Storify. (November 2011)

Ruby - a gem of a women's enterprise program: I'm just back from Oz, where I joined the board of a wonderful organization - the Global Banking Alliance for Women. Their annual summit, which brought together nearly 100 executives from financial institutions and financial inclusion NGOs from (by my count) 18 countries, was hosted this year in Sydney, Australia by one of the four founding members of the GBA, Westpac Bank. More about the GBA in another blogpost, but I'd like to focus in this post on what I feel is the leading corporate program for women entrepreneurs anywhere in the world: Westpac's Ruby Connection. As those of us in the world of women's enterprise development know, many corporations enter into the "women's market" by "painting their program pink," meaning that they dress up an existing market-focused program and slap a "we understand women" label on it. Those programs either fail - because women business owners can see through them pretty easily - or swiftly morph into something more. If they are lucky, they will take on aspects of the Ruby Connection model. Though I've been aware of this effort for some time (it was launched back in 2008), it was only after hearing the story of the program's founding and growth do I now feel certain that ... CLICK HERE to read on. (October 2011)

Making the case for investing in women's enterprise development in the UK:It's party convention time in the United Kingdom, and a Women's Enterprise Policy Group - formed recently in the wake of organisational implosions and budget cuts - is planting a flag in the ground with the issuance of a briefing paper calling investing in women's enterprise a "multi-billion opportunity" and stating that women's enterprise development could be a "secret weapon" to boost the country's economy. Learn more about the Women's Enterprise Policy Group and download the briefing paperHERE.

The WEPG was launched this past summer at a strategy session hosted by the Royal Bank of Scotland. At that strategy session, Womenable presented thoughts on the ebb and flow of women's enterprise development support on this side of the pond, including lessons learned for building/rebuilding a movement. For those of you womenablers who are interested, click HERE for a Womenabler blogpost on the subject, including an annotatedSlideShare presentation. (October 2011)

New IFC report on women in business: The latest in a nice line-up of publications focused on women 's entrepreneurship is now available from the International Finance Corporation's Women in Business team. Women in Business: Telling Our Story summarizes IFC activities and other efforts globally to support women's business empowerment. The report is available as an e-publication or can be downloaded as a PDF file.

GROWING ROLE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR IN INDIA

What we need is an entrepreneurial Society in which innovation & entrepreneurship are normal, steady& continual -Peter.F.Drucker INTRODUCTION 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. Women Entrepreneurs in the Global Economy As technology speeds up lives and the new millennium is now upon us, it is useful to take time to reflect on what will surely be one of the driving forces of the global economy of the 21st century. Women are an emerging economic force that policymakers cannot afford to ignore. However, governments and institutions promoting democratic values make a real difference in womens business organizations in newly emerging market democracies. In the global economy of the 21st century, international trade will be a key source of economic growth and development. A recent survey conducted in several countries by the National Foundation of Women Business Owners (NFWBO) indicates that women-owned firms involved in the global marketplace. Women Entrepreneurs in the Global Economy have greater revenues, are more optimistic about their business prospects and are more focused on business expansion .Obviously, expanding into international trade can pay off for women-owned firms. However, it is not clear that smaller enterprises are benefiting from these potential as much as larger firms. Women's business associations can and should ensure that their members are equipped to reap the rewards of expanding into the international arena. Women must learn how to play the international trade game, and a global network of women's business associations can help them do that. Information technology can help identify markets, provide industry information and spotlight trends about what the role of women in national economies can be. Today, women in advanced market economies own more than25% of all businesses and womenowned businesses in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America are growing rapidly. In some regions of the world, transformation to a market economy threatens to sharpen gender inequality. Some of these changes are simply the legacy of a gender imbalance that existed prior to political and economic reforms. Other changes reflect a return to traditional norms and values that relegated women to a secondary status. Womens business associations play a vital role in identifying appropriate and/or emerging sectors where women entrepreneurs can succeed. The areas that are likely to take off quickly during a nations market revitalization are public relations, transport, delivery, producing and marketing consumer goods, commercial banking, financial services, insurance, and other service-related industries. In this process, women business owners are innovators, job creators, and providers of economic transition. Apart from profit making business organization, women as founders of nonprofit organizations they have catered to the needs of the poor and marginalized.(Neeta Ambani, Rohini Nilekani, Amala). This kind of activity gave women in India an opportunity to enter the social and political spheres in ways often denied to them due to their gender. Most of the non-profit entrepreneurs as run by women for women, as many women who seek to redress the inequities in society see themselves as feminists in India.

Research Methodology: Purpose *To assess the role of Women entrepreneurs in creating new economy *To identify the profile of women entrepreneur *To identify the different factors that motivates women to take up entrepreneurship Design/Methodology /ApproachThe research method adopted for this study includes both structured & unstructured method. The structured (questionnaire) method includes all types of questions i.e., open-ended, dichotomous questions & multiple questionnaire asked by the researcher to collect information from the respondents. Secondary data is mainly drawn from research publications. Limitations*Poor response from respondents in providing necessary relevant primary data *Limited availability of time for the study *Limited availability of women entrepreneur to gather proper women entrepreneurs database *Non co-operation of women entrepreneur in giving some critical information for the study *Geographical limitation for the study was limited only to certain selected regions of Bangalore City

ScopeThe study was basically to find the different motivating factors for women to become entrepreneur. The study revealed the penetration of women into business & their role & factors that made them to proactively take up entrepreneurship with the current business & their other activities related to current rends. Social Implication- It provides insights to the truths & myths about the role of women entrepreneurship in society as a whole & also capability/caliber of women as individual. Originality- My interest in the role of women in the society & perception about their risk taking, truthfulness & adaptability of women made me to do research about how women & business do better by catering the needs of communities as well as their family.

Characteristics of Women Entrepreneurs:

Woman entrepreneurs 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. Some generally observed characteristic tendencies; *Risk-taking propensity *Focus *High energy level *Personal motivations *Self-employed father *General business management skills *Social adroitness *Interpersonal skills, competence in finance, and in managing relationships.

Growing Role:
Rapid Development- Development of micro entrepreneurs has been seen as a means of aiding the welfare & progress of communities in the lower economic strata by micro finance organizations, NGOs & other welfare wings. Ex: Stree Shakthi- Self Help Group

Most of the group member started doing business like purchasing & grazing sheep, Cow, manufacturing agarbatti, beedis, soaps, cutting jelly into baby jelly, papad, pickle, chutney powder, chapathis/rotis, growing edible mushroom est. Also we do have instance of HULs project SHAKTHI. It is aimed at developing micro entrepreneurs by engaging women in rural areas to act as direct-to-home sales distributors of the companys products. The project has scaled up rapidly, operating among 500 million people in five lakh villages in India. This has resulted in economic empowerment, which in turn led to social empowerment. Now days women entrepreneurs are getting recognized in their local communities as opinion leaders. *Many women have taken up businesses as business development executives on freelance, in the form of direct sales. Ex:- Membership/freelance Sales Person in Modi Care, Oriflame, Avon, Amway

*Women executive contributions are dramatically reorienting the values, deliveries, and culture

of business and society alike. Women are widely judged to be better than men at dealing with social issues. Through their leadership context and power dynamics, women fare relatively better for standing up for ones principles in the face of political pressures; being able to workout compromises; thereby driving an inclusive approach in the interest of the overall population.

Economic Impact of Women Entrepreneurship The progress of womens role in several sectors, including business, could be seen in some phenomenon mentioned here : *In line with the improvement of womens education, women are no longer the minority in fields that were dominated by men in the past. * The field of information technology created many opportunities for the development of womens talents in this specific field. The increase in the number of women who lead their own business, especially the ones in small and medium scale enterprises. * Womens leadership is able to gain high loyalty due to the fact that they are the ones that are able to conduct clean, ethical, transparent and honest management. It is obvious that the 21" century provides high hopes for the progress in women role. They do have the opportunity to get strategic positions that dominated by men in the past. In Asia, women are the economy driving force. Their contribution in providing job openings in business sectors continues to rise. They are involved in enterprises at all levels as managers, entrepreneurs, owners and investors. Combination of influence of more education, technology and fast economic growth make Asian women more assertive concerning their right, more aggressive in reaching their ambition while we already acknowledged that the number of Asian women in the work force from country to country are almost as high as those of men. Surprisingly in most countries in Asia, women are dominating the service sector. The service sector in Asia also experienced surprising growth, and resulting a large working opportunity for women. In the business world, women entrepreneurs play a big role in business development in the Pacific region. In Japan, 5 out of 6 new businesses are created by women, and they have at least five employees. The number of women-owned larger companies is not significant, but they start and manage the smaller companies.

The Role & Impact of Business Associations Womens business associations are increasing steadily in developed, developing, and transitional countries. For example, AWAKE in Karnataka.

AWAKE works towards empowering women through entrepreneurship development to improve their economic condition. Their Entrepreneur guiding Entrepreneur approach empowers women through voluntary efforts of successful women entrepreneurs adopting tools of counseling, training, handholding and peer-group support. South Asian Womens Leadership Forum (SAWLF) SAWLF works for the advancement of South Asian women in the marketplace. It provides educational programmes and networking opportunities, conducts research, and offers outreach that supports the advancements and undertakings of women at all stages of professional development. A vital link to economic decision-making processes, these associations has made their members visions and priorities a part of the national political and economic agenda. Around the globe many more organizations are contributing in similar ways. Associations cover a wide spectrum of activities encompassing credit, business skills training, technical and technology training, employment creation, marketing services, legal assistance, psychological counseling, and some social welfare programs. Some organizations, like the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, specialize in providing micro credit. Since associations encourage solidarity and collective action between the groups they help organize and among the members who join, the increasing contact between associations and other institutions can help create a commanding web of alliances dedicated to the political and economic empowerment of women. Partners in these new social pacts should build on the survival strategies devised by grassroots associations. Grassroots tactics have proved successful in many regions: in poor women cooperatives, in businesswomens organizations, and in associated movements. Also governments support & encouragement of individuals entrepreneurial behaviour have positive impact on countrys economy. However, this behaviour depending upon the influence of economic development stage & cultural values. A gender split in terms of motivating factor & individual characteristics provides divergent views of entrepreneurship. The common way of explaining why women start a business is associated with the individual needs for, independence, self achievement & job flexibility.

Profiles of Women Entrepreneurs: Fact-file of Women Entrepreneurs-Women in service, business entrepreneurial are middle aged, married, middle income group, educated, many with/without prior business background, through own family business or husband being in business, or business on their own.

Paradigm shift in the role of Women Entrepreneurs can be briefly explained in four major stages: Stage 1: There was a time where women took up entrepreneurial activities for generating income to sustain themselves & their family. But now it is not the only motivating factor to do business. Ex:- Providing home tuitions, tailoring, preparing & selling eatables/snacks, classical dance & music classes Stage 2: Over a period of time, sense of independence has taken a front seat for women to start their own business. Ex:-Beauty parlors, Boutiques/Designer Cloth retails Stage 3: Women with high education viewed Entrepreneurship as a challenge Ex:-Chacolate making, art & handi crafts Stage 4: Coming from good financial background & business family, realization of their inner strength, resources made women to take up business. Succession planning, or leaving an heir & a continuity of the lineage is not just restricted to their sons, but is extended to their daughters also. Ex:-Indian business Houses like Kinetic, Dr.Reddys

Major Findings *The study provides evidence regarding entrepreneurial income which may not be correlated with the age factor *Majority of the respondents are motivated by their education & spousal encouragement *Facilitating factors & to some extent information about opportunity made them to take up entrepreneurship

Conclusions In a world of rapid change, all entrepreneurs must have the flexibility and creativity to meet the changes they face. The importance of a strong, mindful vision that can lead toward a better world is often underestimated. In spite of many hurdles, Women are excelling in business with flying Colors. References: Enterprises, TWMSE2 Project Working Paper, The Netherlands: Maastricht School of Management, 2002

Fisher, Julie. Non Governments: NGOs and the Political Development of the Third World. Connecticut: Kumarian Press, 1998 Parikh, Indira J. Garg, Pulin K, Indian Women :An Inner Dialogue , Sage Publications, New Delhi, 1989 Voeten, J, Management Training Effects on Women Entrepreneurs Who Own and Manage Micro and Small

Women Enterpreneurship Development in India

By

Sanjukta Mishra
Faculty Global Institute of Management Bhubaneswar

Abstract Women entrepreneurship development is an essential part of human resource development. The development of women entrepreneurship is very low in India, especially in the rural areas. Entrepreneurship amongst women has been a recent concern. Women have become aware of their existence their rights and their work situation. However, women of middle class are not too eager to alter their role in fear of social backlash. The progress is more visible among upper class families in urban cities. This paper focuses on women entrepreneur. Any understanding of Indian women, of their identity, and especially of their role taking and breaking new paths, will be incomplete without a walk down the corridors of Indian history where women have lived and internalized various role models. The paper talks about the status of women entrepreneurs and the problems faced by them when they ventured out to carve their own niche in the competitive world of business environment. INTRODUCTIONThe Indian economy has been witnessing a drastic change since mid -1991, with new policies of economic liberalization, globalization and privatization initiated by the Indian government. India has great entrepreneurial potential. At present, women involvement in economic activities is marked by a low work participation rate, excessive concentration in the unorganized sector and employment in less skilled jobs. Any strategy aimed at economic development will be lop-sided without involving women who constitute half of the world population. Evidence has unequivocally established that entrepreneurial spirit is not a male prerogative. Women entrepreneurship has gained momentum in the last three decades with the increase in the number of women enterprises and their substantive contribution to economic growth. The industrial performance of Asia-Pacific region propelled by Foreign Direct Investment, technological innovations and manufactured exports has brought a wide range of economic and social opportunities to women entrepreneurs. In this dynamic world, women entrepreneurs are an important part of the global quest for sustained economic development and social progress. In India, though women have played a key role in the society, their entrepreneurial ability has not been properly tapped due to the lower status of women in the society. It is only from the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78) onwards that their role has been explicitly recognized with a marked shift in the approach from women welfare to women development and empowerment. The development of women entrepreneurship has become an important aspect of our plan priorities. Several policies and programmes are being implemented for the development of women entrepreneurship in India. There is a need for changing the mindset towards women so as to give equal rights as enshrined in the

constitution. The progress towards gender equality is slow and is partly due to the failure to attach money to policy commitments. In the words of president APJ Abdul Kalam "empowering women is a prerequisite for creating a good nation, when women are empowered, society with stability is assured. Empowerment of women is essential as their thoughts and their value systems lead to the development of a good family, good society and ultimately a good nation." When a woman is empowered it does not mean that another individual becomes powerless or is having less power. On the contrary, if a women is empowered her competencies towards decision- making will surely influence her family's behavior. In advanced countries, there is a phenomenon of increase in the number of self- employed women after the world war 11. In USA, women own 25% of all business, even though their sales on an average are less than two-fifths of those of other small business. In Canada, women own one-third of small business and in France it is one-fifth. Concept of Entrepreneur- The word ' entrepreneur' derives from the French word "Entreprendre" (to undertake) .in the early 16th Century it was applied to persons engaged in military expeditions, and extend to cover construction and civil engineering activities in the 17 th century, but during the 18th century , the word 'entrepreneur' was used to refer to economic activities. Many authors have defined 'entrepreneur' differently. Generally, an entrepreneur is a person who combines capital and labour for production. According to Cantillion "entrepreneur is the agent who buys means of production at certain prices, in order to sell at prices that are certain at the moment at which he commits himself to his cost". According to P.F Drucker " he is one who always (1) searches for change (2) responds to it (3) exploits it as an opportunity." Concept of women Entrepreneur Enterprise-" A small scale industrial unit or industry related service or business enterprise, managed by one or more women entrepreneurs in a concern, in which they will individually or jointly have a share capital of not less than 51% as shareholders of the private limited company, members of co-operative society". Categories of Women Entrepreneurs Women in organized & unorganized sector Women in traditional & modern industries Women in urban & rural areas Women in large scale and small scale industries. Single women and joint venture.

Categories of Women Entrepreneurs in Practice in India First Category Established in big cities Having higher level technical & professional qualifications Non traditional Items Sound financial positions Second Category Established in cities and towns Having sufficient education Both traditional and non traditional items Undertaking women services-kindergarten, crches, beauty parlors, health clinic etc

 Third Category Illiterate women Financially week Involved in family business such as Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Dairy, Fisheries, Agro Forestry, Handloom, Power loom etc. Supportive Measures for Women's Economic Activities and Entrepreneurship Direct & indirect financial support Yojna schemes and programmes Technological training and awards Federations and associations

Direct & Indirect Financial Support Nationalized banks State finance corporation State industrial development corporation District industries centers Differential rate schemes Mahila Udyug Needhi scheme Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) State Small Industrial Development Corporations (SSIDCs)

Yojna Schemes and Programme Nehru Rojgar Yojna Jacamar Rojgar Yojna TRYSEM DWACRA

Technological Training and Awards Stree Shakti Package by SBI Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development (TREAD) National Institute of Small Business Extension Training (NSIBET) Women's University of Mumbai

Federations and Associations National Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs (NAYE) India Council of Women Entrepreneurs, New Delhi Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka (AWEK) World Association of Women Entrepreneurs (WAWE) Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW)

Women Entrepreneurship in India States No of Units Registered No. of Women Entrepreneurs Percentage

Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh Kerala Punjab Maharastra Gujrat Karnatka Madhya Pradesh Other States & UTS Total Women Work Participation Country India (1970-1971) India (1980-1981) India (1990-1991) India (2000-2001) USA UK Indonesia Sri Lanka Brazil Some examples

9618 7980 5487 4791 4339 3872 3822 2967 14576 57,452

2930 3180 2135 1618 1394 1538 1026 842 4185 18,848

30.36 39.84 38.91 33.77 32.12 39.72 26.84 28.38 28.71 32.82

Percentage 14.2 19.7 22.3 31.6 45 43 40 35 35

Mahila Grih Udyog 7 ladies started in 1959: Lizzat Pappad Lakme Simon Tata Shipping coorporation Mrs. Sumati Morarji Exports Ms. Nina Mehrotra Herbal Heritage Ms. Shahnaz Hussain Balaji films - Ekta Kapoor Kiran Mazumdar - Bio-technology

Naina Lal Kidwai, Investment Banker Fortune magazine listed her as one of the world's most powerful businesswomen in 2003. India Inc recognises her as one of its most powerful investment bankers. But Naina Lal Kidwai, HSBC's deputy CEO, can't be reduced to simple woman-banker equations; her professional vision transcends gender.

Shahnaz Husain, Herbal Beauty Queen She's the "Estee Lauder of India", with even famous department stores like Galleries Lafayette in Paris, Harrods and Selfridges in London and Bloomingdales in New York stocking her cosmetics, creams and lotions.

Director, Academic Success Program She practiced law as a business litigator for three years, and then as a transactional attorney for the Silicon Valley Law Group for several years. Her main responsibilities as a transactional attorney were in the following areas: mergers and acquisitions, investor financing and corporate funding, business formation and corporate governance, securities compliance for privately held and public companies.

Lalita Gupte, Banker She's created a formidable global presence of what was once a native development finance institution. Account-holders can now bank at ICICI branches in UK, the Far East, West Asia and Canada. With ICICI since 1971, Gupte was the first woman to be inducted on the board in 1984 Problems of Women Entrepreneurs in India Women in India are faced many problems to get ahead their life in business. A few problems cane be detailed as;

1. The greatest deterrent to women entrepreneurs is that they are women. A kind of patriarchal male dominant social order is the building block to them in their way towards business success. Male members think it a big risk financing the ventures run by women. 2. The financial institutions are skeptical about the entrepreneurial abilities of women. The bankers consider women loonies as higher risk than men loonies. The bankers put unrealistic and unreasonable securities to get loan to women entrepreneurs. According to a report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), "despite evidence that women's loan repayment rates are higher than men's, women still face more difficulties in obtaining credit," often due to discriminatory attitudes of banks and informal lending groups (UNIDO, 1995b). 3. Entrepreneurs usually require financial assistance of some kind to launch their ventures - be it a formal bank loan or money from a savings account. Women in developing nations have little access to funds, due to the fact that they are concentrated in poor rural communities with few opportunities to borrow money (Starcher, 1996; UNIDO, 1995a). The women entrepreneurs are suffering from inadequate financial resources and working capital. The women entrepreneurs lack access to external funds due to their inability to provide tangible security. Very few women have the tangible property in hand. 4. Women's family obligations also bar them from becoming successful entrepreneurs in both developed and developing nations. "Having primary responsibility for children, home and older dependent family members, few women can devote all their time and energies to their business" (Starcher, 1996, p. .The financial institutions discourage women entrepreneurs on the belief that they can at any time leave their business and become housewives again. The result is that they are forced to rely on their own savings, and loan from relatives and family friends. 5. Indian women give more emphasis to family ties and relationships. Married women have to make a fine balance between business and home. More over the business success is depends on the support the family members extended to women in the business process and management. The interest of the family members is a determinant factor in the realization of women folk business aspirations. 6. Another argument is that women entrepreneurs have low-level management skills. They have to depend on office staffs and intermediaries, to get things done, especially, the marketing and sales side of business. Here there is more probability for business fallacies like the intermediaries take major part of the surplus or profit. Marketing means mobility and confidence in dealing with the external world, both of which women have been discouraged from developing by social conditioning. Even when they are otherwise in control of an enterprise, they often depend on males of the family in this area. 7. The male - female competition is another factor, which develop hurdles to women entrepreneurs in the business management process. Despite the fact that women entrepreneurs are good in keeping their service prompt and delivery in time, due to lack of organizational skills compared to male entrepreneurs women have to face constraints from competition. The confidence to travel across day and night and even different regions and states are less found in women compared to male entrepreneurs. This shows the low level freedom of expression and freedom of mobility of the women entrepreneurs. 8. Knowledge of alternative source of raw materials availability and high negotiation skills are the basic requirement to run a business. Getting the raw materials from different souse with discount prices is the factor that determines the profit margin. Lack of knowledge of availability of the raw materials and lowlevel negotiation and bargaining skills are the factors, which affect women entrepreneur's business adventures. 9. Knowledge of latest technological changes, know how, and education level of the person are significant factor that affect business. The literacy rate of women in India is found at low level compared to male population. Many women in developing nations lack the education needed to spur successful

entrepreneurship. They are ignorant of new technologies or unskilled in their use, and often unable to do research and gain the necessary training (UNIDO, 1995b, p.1). Although great advances are being made in technology, many women's illiteracy, structural difficulties, and lack of access to technical training prevent the technology from being beneficial or even available to females ("Women Entrepreneurs in Poorest Countries," 2001). According to The Economist, this lack of knowledge and the continuing treatment of women as second-class citizens keep them in a pervasive cycle of poverty ("The Female Poverty Trap," 2001). The studies indicates that uneducated women don't have the knowledge of measurement and basic accounting. 10. Low-level risk taking attitude is another factor affecting women folk decision to get into business. Lowlevel education provides low-level self-confidence and self-reliance to the women folk to engage in business, which is continuous risk taking and strategic cession making profession. Investing money, maintaining the operations and ploughing back money for surplus generation requires high risk taking attitude, courage and confidence. Though the risk tolerance ability of the women folk in day-to-day life is high compared to male members, while in business it is found opposite to that. 11. Achievement motivation of the women folk found less compared to male members. The low level of education and confidence leads to low level achievement and advancement motivation among women folk to engage in business operations and running a business concern. 12. Finally high production cost of some business operations adversely affects the development of women entrepreneurs. The installation of new machineries during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factors dissuades the women entrepreneurs from venturing into new areas. How to Develop Women Entrepreneurs? Right efforts on from all areas are required in the development of women entrepreneurs and their greater participation in the entrepreneurial activities. Following efforts can be taken into account for effective development of women entrepreneurs. 1. Consider women as specific target group for all developmental programmers. 2. Better educational facilities and schemes should be extended to women folk from government part. 3. Adequate training programme on management skills to be provided to women community. 4. Encourage women's participation in decision-making. 5. Vocational training to be extended to women community that enables them to understand the production process and production management. 6. Skill development to be done in women's polytechnics and industrial training institutes. Skills are put to work in training-cum-production workshops. 7. Training on professional competence and leadership skill to be extended to women entrepreneurs. 8. Training and counselling on a large scale of existing women entrepreneurs to remove psychological causes like lack of self-confidence and fear of success. 9. Counseling through the aid of committed NGOs, psychologists, managerial experts and technical personnel should be provided to existing and emerging women entrepreneurs. 10. Continuous monitoring and improvement of training programmers.

11. Activities in which women are trained should focus on their marketability and profitability. 12. Making provision of marketing and sales assistance from government part. 13. To encourage more passive women entrepreneurs the Women training programme should be organised that taught to recognize her own psychological needs and express them. 14. State finance corporations and financing institutions should permit by statute to extend purely trade related finance to women entrepreneurs. 15. Women's development corporations have to gain access to open-ended financing. 16. The financial institutions should provide more working capital assistance both for small scale venture and large scale ventures. 17. Making provision of micro credit system and enterprise credit system to the women entrepreneurs at local level. 18. Repeated gender sensitization programmers should be held to train financiers to treat women with dignity and respect as persons in their own right. 19. Infrastructure, in the form of industrial plots and sheds, to set up industries is to be provided by state run agencies. 20. Industrial estates could also provide marketing outlets for the display and sale of products made by women. 21. A Women Entrepreneur's Guidance Cell set up to handle the various problems of women entrepreneurs all over the state. 22. District Industries Centers and Single Window Agencies should make use of assisting women in their trade and business guidance. 23. Programmers for encouraging entrepreneurship among women are to be extended at local level. 24. Training in entrepreneurial attitudes should start at the high school level through well-designed courses, which build confidence through behavioral games. 25. More governmental schemes to motivate women entrepreneurs to engage in small scale and largescale business ventures. 26. Involvement of Non Governmental Organizations in women entrepreneurial training programmes and counseling. Conclusion - Entrepreneurship among women, no doubt improves the wealth of the nation in general and of the family in particular. Women today are more willing to take up activities that were once considered the preserve of men, and have proved that they are second to no one with respect to contribution to the growth of the economy. Women entrepreneurship must be moulded properly with entrepreneurial traits and skills to meet the changes in trends, challenges global markets and also be competent enough to sustain and strive for excellence in the entrepreneurial arena. References

Women Entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenge to meet her personal needs and become economically independent by doing business. The role of women entrepreneur in economic development is inevitable. Nowadays, women enter not only in selected professions but also in professions like trade, industry and engineering. Women are also willing to take up business and contribute to the nation's growth. This role is also being recognized and steps are being taken to promote women entrepreneurship. In India, empowerment to women is not properly given,not only for involving into entrepreneurial activities but also in their everyday lives. The concept of Women Entrepreneurs may be defined as women or group of women who initiate, organize and run a business enterprise. Women owned businesses are highly increasing in the economies of almost all countries. Women's empowerment in India is still an illusion. Many people are found to hesitate while answering questions about women's empowerment. Empowering women entrepreneurs is essential for achieving the goals of sustainable development. The government of India safeguards the interests of women authorizer to bring the effective implementation and utilization of social economic and political status of women in India. In order to face the problems faced by women entrepreneurs, the Government of India launched the scheme Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance and Development of Women (TREAD). The main objective of the scheme is to empower women through development of their entrepreneurial skills by eliminating constraints faced by them in their sphere of trade. This assistance is to be provided for self-employment ventures by women pursuing any kind of non-farm activity. Promoting entrepreneurship among women is certainly a shortcut to rapid economic growth and development. A successful woman entrepreneur has the attitude and the inner drive to change her dream and her vision to reality. A successful woman entrepreneur should be given proper empowerment that will increase her success with the society.

What are the problems faced by Women Entrepreneur in India ?

APARIJITA SINHA BUSINESS

Women entrepreneurs face a series of problems right from the beginning till the the enterprise functions. Being a woman itself poses various problems to a woman entrepreneur, The problems of Indian women pertains to her responsibility towards family, society and lion work. The tradition, customs, socio cultural values, ethics, motherhood subordinates to ling husband and men, physically weak, hard work areas, feeling of insecurity, cannot be tough etc are some peculiar problems that the Indian women are coming across while they jump into entrepreneurship. Women in rural areas have to suffer still further. They face tough resistance from men. They are considered as helpers. The attitude of society towards her and constraints in which she has to live and work are not very conducive. Besides the above basic problems the other problems faced by women entrepreneurs are as follows: 1. Family ties: Women in India are very emotionally attached to their families. They are supposed to attend to all the domestic work, to look after the children and other members of the family. They are over burden with family responsibilities like extra attention to husband, children and in laws which take away a lots of their time and energy. In such situation, it will be very difficult to concentrate and run the enterprise successfully. 2. Male dominated society: Even though our constitution speaks of equality between sexes, male chauvinism is still the order of the day. Women are not treated equal to men. Their entry to business requires the approval of the head of the family. Entrepreneurship has traditionally been seen as a male preserve. All these puts a break in the growth of women entrepreneurs. 3. Lack of education: Women in India are lagging far behind in the field of education. Most of the women (around sixty per cent of total women) are illiterate. Those who are educated are provided either less or inadequate education than their male counterpart partly due to early marriage, partly due to son's higher education and partly due to poverty. Due to lack of proper education, women entrepreneurs remain in dark about the development of new technology, new methods of production, marketing and other governmental support which will encourage them to flourish. 4. Social barriers: The traditions and customs prevailed in Indian societies towards women sometimes stand as an obstacle before them to grow and prosper. Castes and religions dominate with one another and hinders women entrepreneurs too. In rural areas, they face more social barriers. They are always seen with suspicious eyes. 5. Shortage of raw materials: The scarcity of raw materials, sometimes nor, availability of proper and adequate raw materials sounds the deathknell of the enterprises run by women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs really face a tough task in getting the required raw material and other necessary inputs for the enterprises when the prices are very high. 6. Problem of finance: Women entrepreneurs stiffer a lot in raising and meeting the financial needs of the business. Bankers, creditors and financial institutes are not coming forward to provide financial assistance to women borrowers on the ground of their less credit worthiness and more chances of business failure. They also face financial problem due to blockage of funds in raw materials, work-in-progress finished goods and non-receipt of payment from customers in time. 7. Tough competition:

Usually women entrepreneurs employ low technology in the process of production. In a market where the competition is too high, they have to fight hard to survive in the market against the organised sector and their male counterpart who have vast experience and capacity to adopt advanced technology in managing enterprises 8. High cost of production: Several factors including inefficient management contribute to the high cost of production which stands as a stumbling block before women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs face technology obsolescence due to nonadoption or slow adoption to changing technology which is a major factor of high cost of production. 9.Low risk-bearing capacity: Women in India are by nature weak, shy and mild. They cannot bear the amount risk which is essential for running an enterprise. Lack of education, training and financial support from outsides also reduce their ability to bear the risk involved in an enterprises. 10 Limited mobility: Women mobility in India is highly limited and has become a problem due to traditional values and inability to drive vehicles. Moving alone and asking for a room to stay out in the night for business purposes are still looked upon with suspicious eyes. Sometimes, younger women feel uncomfortable in dealing with men who show extra interest in them than work related aspects. 11. Lack of entrepreneurial aptitude: Lack of entrepreneurial aptitude is a matter of concern for women entrepreneurs. They have no entrepreneurial bent of mind. Even after attending various training programmes on entrepreneur ship women entrepreneurs fail to tide over the risks and troubles that may come up in an organisational working. 12. Limited managerial ability: Management has become a specialised job which only efficient managers perform. Women entrepreneurs are not efficient in managerial functions like planning, organising, controlling, coordinating, staffing, directing, motivating etc. of an enterprise. Therefore, less and limited managerial ability of women has become a problem for them to run the enterprise successfully. 13. Legal formalities: Fulfilling the legal formalities required for running an enterprise becomes an upheaval task on the part of an women entrepreneur because of the prevalence of corrupt practices in government offices and procedural delays for various licenses, electricity, water and shed allotments. In such situations women entrepreneurs find it hard to concentrate on the smooth working of the enterprise. 14. Exploitation by middle men: Since women cannot run around for marketing, distribution and money collection, they have to depend on middle men for the above activities. Middle men tend to exploit them in the guise of helping. They add their own profit margin which result in less sales and lesser profit. 15. Lack of self confidence: Women entrepreneurs because of their inherent nature, lack of self-confidence which is essentially a motivating factor in running an enterprise successfully. They have to strive hard to strike a balance between managing a family and managing an enterprise. Sometimes she has to sacrifice her entrepreneurial urge in order to strike a balance between the two.

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Problems of Women Entrepreneurs in India

By

Prof. Dileep Kumar M.

Ex-Professor Symbiosis (SCMHRD, SCDL), IIIT, SCMLD, SBS Pune

Introduction Women Entrepreneurs may be defined as the women or a group of women who initiate, organize and operate a business enterprise. Government of India has defined women entrepreneurs as an enterprise owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of 51% of the capital and giving at least 51% of employment generated in the enterprise to women. Like a male entrepreneurs a women entrepreneur has many functions. They should explore the prospects of starting new enterprise; undertake risks, introduction of new innovations, coordination administration and control of business and providing effective leadership in all aspects of business. Push-Pull factors and Women in business Women in business are a recent phenomenon in India. By and large they had confide themselves to petty business and tiny cottage industries. Women entrepreneurs engaged in business due to push and pull factors. Which encourage women to have an independent occupation and stands on their on legs. A sense towards independent decision-making on their life and career is the motivational factor behind this urge. Saddled with household chores and domestic responsibilities women want to get independence Under the influence of these factors the women entrepreneurs choose a profession as a challenge and as an urge to do some thing new. Such situation is described as pull factors. While in push factors women engaged in business activities due to family compulsion and the responsibility is thrust upon them. Problems of Women Entrepreneurs in India Women in India are faced many problems to get ahead their life in business. A few problems cane be detailed as; 1. The greatest deterrent to women entrepreneurs is that they are women. A kind of patriarchal male dominant social order is the building block to them in their way towards business success. Male members think it a big risk financing the ventures run by women. 2. The financial institutions are skeptical about the entrepreneurial abilities of women. The bankers consider women loonies as higher risk than men loonies. The bankers put unrealistic and unreasonable securities to get loan to women entrepreneurs. According to a report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), "despite evidence that women's loan repayment rates are higher than men's, women still face more difficulties in obtaining credit," often due to discriminatory attitudes of banks and informal lending groups (UNIDO, 1995b). 3. Entrepreneurs usually require financial assistance of some kind to launch their ventures - be it a formal bank loan or money from a savings account. Women in developing nations have little access to funds, due to the fact that they are concentrated in poor rural communities with few opportunities to borrow money (Starcher, 1996; UNIDO, 1995a). The women entrepreneurs are suffering from inadequate financial resources and working capital. The women entrepreneurs lack access to external funds due to their inability to provide tangible security. Very few women have the tangible property in hand. 4. Women's family obligations also bar them from becoming successful entrepreneurs in both developed and developing nations. "Having primary responsibility for children, home and older dependent family members, few women can devote all their time and energies to their business" (Starcher, 1996, p. 8).The financial institutions discourage women entrepreneurs on the belief that they can at any time leave their business and become housewives again. The result is that they are forced to rely on their own savings, and loan from relatives and family friends.

5. Indian women give more emphasis to family ties and relationships. Married women have to make a fine balance between business and home. More over the business success is depends on the support the family members extended to women in the business process and management. The interest of the family members is a determinant factor in the realization of women folk business aspirations. 6. Another argument is that women entrepreneurs have low-level management skills. They have to depend on office staffs and intermediaries, to get things done, especially, the marketing and sales side of business. Here there is more probability for business fallacies like the intermediaries take major part of the surplus or profit. Marketing means mobility and confidence in dealing with the external world, both of which women have been discouraged from developing by social conditioning. Even when they are otherwise in control of an enterprise, they often depend on males of the family in this area. 7. The male - female competition is another factor, which develop hurdles to women entrepreneurs in the business management process. Despite the fact that women entrepreneurs are good in keeping their service prompt and delivery in time, due to lack of organisational skills compared to male entrepreneurs women have to face constraints from competition. The confidence to travel across day and night and even different regions and states are less found in women compared to male entrepreneurs. This shows the low level freedom of expression and freedom of mobility of the women entrepreneurs. 8. Knowledge of alternative source of raw materials availability and high negotiation skills are the basic requirement to run a business. Getting the raw materials from different souse with discount prices is the factor that determines the profit margin. Lack of knowledge of availability of the raw materials and lowlevel negotiation and bargaining skills are the factors, which affect women entrepreneur's business adventures. 9. Knowledge of latest technological changes, know how, and education level of the person are significant factor that affect business. The literacy rate of women in India is found at low level compared to male population. Many women in developing nations lack the education needed to spur successful entrepreneurship. They are ignorant of new technologies or unskilled in their use, and often unable to do research and gain the necessary training (UNIDO, 1995b, p.1). Although great advances are being made in technology, many women's illiteracy, strucutural difficulties, and lack of access to technical training prevent the technology from being beneficial or even available to females ("Women Entrepreneurs in Poorest Countries," 2001). According to The Economist, this lack of knowledge and the continuing treatment of women as second-class citizens keeps them in a pervasive cycle of poverty ("The Female Poverty Trap," 2001). The studies indicates that uneducated women donot have the knowledge of measurement and basic accounting. 10. Low-level risk taking attitude is another factor affecting women folk decision to get into business. Low-level education provides low-level self-confidence and self-reliance to the women folk to engage in business, which is continuous risk taking and strategic cession making profession. Investing money, maintaining the operations and ploughing back money for surplus generation requires high risk taking attitude, courage and confidence. Though the risk tolerance ability of the women folk in day-to-day life is high compared to male members, while in business it is found opposite to that. 11. Achievement motivation of the women folk found less compared to male members. The low level of education and confidence leads to low level achievement and advancement motivation among women folk to engage in business operations and running a business concern. 12. Finally high production cost of some business operations adversely affects the development of women entrepreneurs. The installation of new machineries during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factors dissuades the women entrepreneurs from venturing into new areas.

How to Develop Women Entrepreneurs? Right efforts on from all areas are required in the development of women entrepreneurs and their greater participation in the entrepreneurial activities. Following efforts can be taken into account for effective development of women entrepreneurs. 1. Consider women as specific target group for all developmental programmes. 2. Better educational facilities and schemes should be extended to women folk from government part. 3. Adequate training programme on management skills to be provided to women community. 4. Encourage women's participation in decision-making. 5. Vocational training to be extended to women community that enables them to understand the production process and production management. 6. Skill development to be done in women's polytechnics and industrial training institutes. Skills are put to work in training-cum-production workshops. 7. Training on professional competence and leadership skill to be extended to women entrepreneurs. 8. Training and counselling on a large scale of existing women entrepreneurs to remove psychological causes like lack of self-confidence and fear of success. 9. Counselling through the aid of committed NGOs, psychologists, managerial experts and technical personnel should be provided to existing and emerging women entrepreneurs. 10. Continuous monitoring and improvement of training programmes. 11. Activities in which women are trained should focus on their marketability and profitability. 12. Making provision of marketing and sales assistance from government part. 13. To encourage more passive women entrepreneurs the Women training programme should be organised that taught to recognize her own psychological needs and express them. 14. State finance corporations and financing institutions should permit by statute to extend purely trade related finance to women entrepreneurs. 15. Women's development corporations have to gain access to open-ended financing. 16. The financial institutions should provide more working capital assistance both for small scale venture and large scale ventures. 17. Making provision of micro credit system and enterprise credit system to the women entrepreneurs at local level. 18. Repeated gender sensitisation programmes should be held to train financiers to treat women with dignity and respect as persons in their own right. 19. Infrastructure, in the form of industrial plots and sheds, to set up industries is to be provided by state

run agencies. 20. Industrial estates could also provide marketing outlets for the display and sale of products made by women. 21. A Women Entrepreneur's Guidance Cell set up to handle the various problems of women entrepreneurs all over the state. 22. District Industries Centres and Single Window Agencies should make use of assisting women in their trade and business guidance. 23. Programmes for encouraging entrepreneurship among women are to be extended at local level. 24. Training in entrepreneurial attitudes should start at the high school level through well-designed courses, which build confidence through behavioral games. 25. More governmental schemes to motivate women entrepreneurs to engage in small scale and largescale business ventures. 26. Involvement of Non Governmental Organisations in women entrepreneurial training programmes and counselling. Conclusion Independence brought promise of equality of opportunity in all sphere to the Indian women and laws guaranteeing for their equal rights of participation in political process and equal opportunities and rights in education and employment were enacted. But unfortunately, the government sponsored development activities have benefited only a small section of women. The large majority of them are still unaffected by change and development activities have benefited only a small section of women i.e. the urban middle class women. The large majority of them are still unaffected by change and development. The reasons are well sighted in the discussion part of this article. It is hoped that the suggestions forwarded in the article will help the entrepreneurs in particular and policy-planners in general to look into this problem and develop better schemes, developmental programmes and opportunities to the women folk to enter into more entrepreneurial ventures. This article here tries to recollect some of the successful women entrepreneurs like Ekta Kapoor, Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CEO, Biocon, Shahnaz Husain and Vimalben M Pawale, Ex President, Sri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad (SMGULP).

The entire business scenario is going through manifold changes in the recent times. Starting up a new business is not anymore the domain only meant for the rich business class. Now young people from all segments of the society are coming forward to open their own business. Another important development which deserves special mention is the increasing number of women who are starting up their own businesses. Both men and women face a lot of issues and problems while starting up a new business. However it is the women who face unique challenges and issues more than their male counterparts. As women are becoming more and more educated, they are increasingly becoming open to the idea of grabbing different challenges and starting up their own businesses. However they face challenges from various spheres like finding a proper work life balance and other business related concerns like financing and expansion. Finding the work life balance is the issue which is of utmost concern for most of the women entrepreneurs. Though the society has been changing at a rapid pace for the better, there are some issues which still exist in the society. The reins of the house still remain with the women. Nowadays the male members of the family are actively participating in helping the women in their household chores. Taking care of the household and the children now depends equally on the men and women. Still the involvement of the women folks remain much more than men. In such circumstances getting the right work life balance becomes imperative. In order to achieve that balance, the business often suffers setback. Then there are the legal and bureaucratic issues which the women face just like the men. Women should be aware about the issues they might face while starting up a business and take the necessary steps in order to successfully curb them.

Today, more women are breaking free from the traditional, gender-specific roles and venturing into the business world. Not only are they holding high corporate positions but they are also successful women entrepreneurs who own almost half of all businesses in the United States. The steady rise in female entrepreneurs can be due to many different reasons, most of which share the same rational as their male counterpartspassion for their ideas, the desire to become their own boss, and the need to address philanthropic causes. A recent study indicated that 1 out of every 11 adult women is an entrepreneur in the United States. Women business owners contribute to the overall employment of 18 million workers and generate anywhere from $2 to $3 trillion in U.S. economy revenues. Many of the important facts that follow will support these findings. 1. Demographic characteristics Studies have shown that successful Women entrepreneurs start their businesses as a second or third profession. Many of them have experienced a considerable amount of dissatisfaction with their previous careers and in working for others. Often times, these innate desires to be their own boss are the driving forces that motivated them to pursue entrepreneurship. As a business owner, these once unhappy individuals are now more satisfied and content with their personal and professional life. In addition, because of their previous careers, women entrepreneurs enter the business world later on in life, around 40-60 years old. Many of them have higher education degrees, a significant characteristic that many successful female entrepreneurs have in common. Women entrepreneurs also tend to offer better health care benefit packages, on the job training and education, more tuition reimbursement for students and continuing education employees, and provide more vacation and paid leave options to their staff. 2. International implications From a large-scale perspective, female entrepreneurs encompass approximately 1/3 of all entrepreneurs worldwide. A recent international study found that women from low to middle income countries (such as Russia and the Philippines) were more likely to enter early stage entrepreneurship when compared to those of higher income countries (such as Belgium and Sweden). A significant factor that may play a role in this disparity can be contributed to the fact that women from low income countries often seek an additional means of income to support themselves and their families. As a result, many of them often resort to entrepreneurship in addition to their current jobs. However, women entrepreneurs from higher income countries were more successful at establishing their businesses and exuded more confidence than those of poorer nations, perhaps because of the availability of resources and financial backing from families and friends. In addition, women who had higher education experience were more likely to transform their existing businesses into successful ones, proving that learning and work familiarity is universal across all cultures and greatly contributes to the overall success of any business venture. 3. Strategy Recent studies also indicate that women entrepreneurs are assembling themselves into groups or confederacies. The reasons behind this trend have to do with the desire to establish solid women business networks, where members can collectively pool resources and expertise together. Women business networks have also been found to be more generous in their philanthropic contributions. At least seven out of ten women entrepreneurs of a new business volunteer their time at least once per month to community-related causes. In addition, 31% of them contribute $5,000 or more to various charities annually. Even though many female entrepreneurs have home-based and service-related businesses, they are unafraid of technology and have recently entered many industries that were once male-dominated, such as construction, design, manufacturing, and architecture. In addition, the retail industry still makes up the largest share of women-owned firms. One of the advantages of working in a women-owned new business is that the workforce is more diverse. Women entrepreneurs are more likely to employ a staff that is more gender-balanced, comprising of 52% women and 48% men on average. On the other hand, most male-owned businesses have a workforce that is often more than 65% men. 4. Sources of capital The fact that more women entrepreneurs have risen in the past few years has been made possible in part by the easy availability of business capital. Women entrepreneurs tend to fund their startups with different sources of funding, including bootstrap finances (personal money from savings and credit cards) and commercial loans. Today, not only are there more grants and bank loans made available to women entrepreneurs, but there are also more diversity programs that specialize in providing seed funding to female business owners. However, despite the recent achievements, research shows that it still remains difficult for women of color to get access to seed funding. According to one recent study on women entrepreneurs, approximately 60% of Caucasian women business owners were able to obtain bank credit, compared to 50% of Hispanic, 45% of Asian, 42 % of Native American, and 38% of African-American women entrepreneurs. 5. Motivation Much of a business womans drive to pursue entrepreneurship is due to the immense passion she has for her work. Many women entrepreneurs are not afraid of taking risks and are two times more likely to make above average risks than their male equivalent, making monetary gain a less likely factor in their business pursuits. Instead, they possess very strong business ideas and seek any and all means to share their business ideas with others who may benefit from their discoveries.

Another motivating factor behind women entrepreneurs is the desire for control. Many successful female business owners are provoked by the opportunity to be their own boss and run their own company, a prospect that would never occur if they had worked for someone else. Women entrepreneurs are also motivated by philanthropic commitment to society. Their new businesses will greatly stimulate economic development in their community and create new jobs for many people. Another inspiring component that many successful women entrepreneurs share is the fact they have the tendency to balance family life and career. Many people may have had doubt in this ability when these women first entered the field because of the long work hours, but these reservations have often been proven wrong. It is no wonder that many successful womenentrepreneurs have an amazing ability to multitask, properly balancing both personal and professional life with their goal-oriented approach. 6. Present challenges Even though female entrepreneurship and the formation of women business networks is steadily rising, there are still many prospective women entrepreneurs who do not follow through with their great business ideas. This is widely due to the fact that many challenges exist for them to overcome. First and foremost, many prospective women entrepreneurs may fear the debt associated with their startup. They may not have the resources available to make educated decisions about properly raising capital or may even have been discouraged by family and friends. As mentioned earlier, if an entrepreneur truly believes in their business ideas, then they will seek any means to move forward and commercialize their concepts. A second challenge may be their lack of knowledge in information technology and business skills. Even though many successful business ventures are IT-related, there are many other thriving industries that do exist. Experience is always an advantage; however, one just has to conduct ample research on their industry, their consumer base and competitors, and speak to entrepreneurs who have already gone through the process. Entrepreneurship is a learning experience and even the most successful business owners have had to learn new things throughout the development of their company. Another major challenge that many women entrepreneurs may face is the traditional gender-roles society may still have on women. Entrepreneurship is still a male-dominated field, and it may be difficult to surpass these conventional views. However, it is very important to be aware that despite the negativity that may exist, over 9 million women own their own businesses in the U.S. In fact, of all U.S. enterprises that exist, over 40% comprise of women-owned businesses. The United States Census Bureau predicts that by the year 2025, the percentage of women entrepreneurship will increase to over 55%. Many women feel a great deal of empowerment by the opportunity to own their own company and may now be motivated by such high statistics. 7. Future prospects There are many promising predictions for women entrepreneurs in the near future. More coalitions will be formed among female associates, enabling the establishment of female business networks to flourish in the business world. In addition, the U.S. Census envisions that women entrepreneurs and female business networks will both remain dominant, comprising of over 50% of all business in the United States in the next several years. Many women entrepreneurs with home-based and service-related businesses will eventually shift to the information technology industry, making this once male-dominated commerce to be one of equal gender appeal. With progressive changes, the United States economy will refine itself to a financial system that will rely heavily on the internet and e-commerce for their business practices. Enterprises will also focus more on women-related issues and principles. Conclusion Women entrepreneurs have become a strong driving force in todays corporate world. Not only are they able to equalize their duties of both motherhood and entrepreneurship but they also comprise of almost half of all businesses owned today. Many women entrepreneurs have an average age of 40-60 years old because they have had previous careers in other areas. Their primary goal is not monetary reward but rather personal satisfaction and community involvement. Many of them are educated and assemble into groups in order to pool business ideas and resources together. Women entrepreneurs also have more access to business capital and seed funding than ever before. Yet despite the many opportunities, many prospective women entrepreneurs are intimidated to move forward. Overall, there are many promising forthcoming predictions for women business owners. They will continue to form female business networks, transition towards information technology, and rely strongly on e-commerce as their form of trade.

What is the Need for women entrepreneurs in India?

SAMEER ARTICLES

There was a blind belief that men are the only bread winners of their families. This has been proved incorrect because GAD (Gender and Development) has clearly identified the role of women entrepreneurs. Now-a-days, service sector has played a significant role in providing employment opportunities to women. Besides most of women lives in semi-urban and rural areas and a lot of measures have been taken to promote women entrepreneurs. It is observed that women can establish business units in those areas where they have core competency. Women have proved their core competency in the areas of Information Technology (IT), management, personal care services and health care services. Women are encouraged in these areas of business as they have core-competency. Besides the above areas, women entrepreneurs have emerged in the new areas like data base management, designing and multi-media services. The followings are some of important reasons for emerging women entrepreneurship. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Educated women do not find suitable job. Women do not feel comfortable to work in their houses. Women have an instinct to prove their innovative skill like men. Women desire additional income to provide support to their families. They have a desire for new challenges and opportunities for self-fulfillment. Desire to enjoy social status equal to that of men. Economic compulsions have encouraged for emerging of women entrepreneurs. Women desire to share family responsibilities like men.

Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs And Leaders Of India

Posted at YouthKiAwaaz on January 2, 2011 in Biz and Eco 25 Comments

By Bhavita Kukreja: Women Entrepreneurs may be defined as the women or group of women who initiate,organise and co-operate a business enterprise. Government of India has defined women entrepreneurs as an enterprise owned and controlled by a woman having a minimum financial interest of 51% of the capital and giving atleast 51% of employment generated in the enterprise to women. The Indian women are no longer treated as show pieces to be kept at home.They are also enjoying the impact of globalisation and making an influence not only on domestic but also on international sphere.Women are doing a wonderful job striking a balance between their house and career. Here are a few: (The lists consists of no political figure and concentrates only on business leaders and organizational heads).

Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

1.Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director of Biocon Ltd., who became Indias richest woman in 2004, was educated at the Bishop Cotton Girls School and Mount Carmel College in Bangalore. She foundedBiocon India with a capital of Rs.10,000 in her garage in 1978 the initial operation was to extract an enzyme from papaya. Her application for loans were turned down by banks then on three counts biotechnology was then a new word, thecompany lacked assets, women entrepreneurs were still a rarity. Today, her company is the bigget biopharmaceutical firm in the country.

Ekta Kapoor

2.Ekta Kapoor, creative head of Balaji Telefilms, is the daughter of Jeetendra and sister of Tushar Kapoor. She has been synonymous with the rage of soap operas in Indian TV, after her most famous venture Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi which was aired in 2000 on Star plus. Ekta dominates Indian Television.At the 6th Indian Telly Awards 2006,she bagged the Hall Of Fame award for her contributions.

Neelam Dhawan

3. Neelam Dhawan, Managing Director, Microsoft India, leads Microsoft India. She is a graduate from St. Stephens College in 1980,and also passed out from Delhis Faculty Of Management studies in 1982. Then she was keen on joining FMCG majors like Hindustan Lever and Asian Paints, both companies rejected Dhawan, as they didnot wish to appoint women for marketing and sales.

Naina Lal Kidwai

4. Naina Lal Kidwai, was the first Indian woman to graduate from Harvard Business School. Fortune magazine listed Kidwai among the worlds top 50 Corporate Women from 2000 to 2003. According to the Economic times, she is the first woman to head the operations of a foreign bank in India. ( HSBC)

Indu Jain

5. Indu Jain, the multi-faceted lady used to be the Chairman of the Times Group-The most powerful and largest Media house India has known. Indu Jain is known by many different identities such as that of spiritualist,humanist,entrepreneur,an educationalist but most prominently she played the role of the Chairman of Times Group. Indu Jain is the perfect picture of the successful Indian Woman entrepreneur.

Priya Paul

6.Priya Paul, she has a bachelors degree specialising in Economics from Wellesley College, USA. She entered her family business and is currently the Chairperson of Park Hotels.

Simone Tata

7. Simone Tata, has been instrumental in changing a small subsidary of Tata Oil Mills into the largest cosmetic brand in India LAKME, synonymous today with Indian Fashion. She became a part of Lakme during 1961 and has been responsible for turning the company into one of the biggest brands of fashion in India. At present she is the Chairperson of Trent Limited, a subsidary of Tata Group.

Mallika Srinivasan

8.Mallika Srinivasan, currently the Director of TAFE- Tractors and Farm Equipment, India , was honoured with the title of Businesswoman of the Year during 2006 by the Economic Times. She joined the company in 1986 and has since been responsible for accelerating turnover from 85 crores to 2900 crores within a span of 2 decades.

Preetha Reddy

9. Preetha Reddy, Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, one of the largest healthcare conglomerates of India, is one of the pioneer businesswoman of India in the segment of Health Care Industry.

Ranjana Kumar

10. Ranjana Kumar, currently Vigilance Commissioner in Central Vigilance Commission, after her retirement as the Chairperson of NABARD- National Bank For Agricultural and Rural Development, is a prominent Indian Banker. When the Government of India appointed her as the Chairperson and Managing Director of The Indian Bank, she became the first woman to become head of a public sector bank in India. At that time of her appointment, The Indian Bank was saddled with huge losses and during her tenure she ensured the turn around of The Indian Bank. Women like these are an inspiration for all other women who strive to achieve great heights in their lives. Taking them as our role models each one of us can be there where they are right now. All we need have is faith in ourselves, confidence and above all a fixed aim that we need work towards.

Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs

The role of women is crucial to any societys formation. Today the world has recognized the need for promoting the the women entrepreneurship. Over the last two decades most donor agencies as well as Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) have developed and implemented Gender policies to ensure that within their programs women and men could get get equal chances to access their services. For this purpose NPO has taken various initiatives for the skill development of women entrepreneurs so that their income generation can be enhanced and also earn a better living for their family. The initiatives are:

I. Establishment of Women skill Development Center (WSDC)-Kuri

NPO has established a Women Skill Development Center (WSDC) at F.G Girls Secondary School Kuri 12 km away from Islamabad, to enable the women hand embroiderers of the village to enhance their skills to cater to the demands of changing tastes of the costumers. The center which will be equipped with about a dozen sewing machines will have proper training facilities for the women of the village in hand embroidery, knitting, stitching. Headmistress of the school acts as the Coordinator of WSDC.

II: Workshop on Women Entrepreneurs

Over the past few decades, women have emerged as active participants in economic growth and development. In some Asian countries where women have held important leadership positions in society, a pool of women executives and entrepreneurs exists who have played a significant role not only in contributing to economic growth but also in upgrading the social status of women in general. Therefore focusing on the empowerment of women entrepreneurs NPO organized One-Day Seminar on Women Entrepreneurship Development in collaboration with Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, at the premises of NPO office in Islamabad on May 12, 2005. The Women Entrepreneurs of both Islamabad and Rawalpindi attended this Seminar, besides officials from First Women Bank and MFI. The participants discussed about the problems presently facing by the women entrepreneurs like lack of technical training, improper funding and financial facility, and lack of market access for products in local urban market. They stressed the need of these types of seminars and workshops to be held regularly and appreciated the role of NPO for organizing such event. Quetta: In order to encourage the women entrepreneurs of Balochistan, NPO took the initiative and organized a workshop of Balochi Handicraftsmen/women in Quetta on July 4, 2003. About seventy artisans participated in the workshop. They were given the opportunity to discuss their problems and express their views about possible solutions. Accordingly, the second workshop was held on August 16, 2003, in collaboration with QCCI and Directorate of Industries. NPO suggested the formation of an association for the artisans of Balochistan to enable them to get their problems sorted out in organized manner. The society was formed by the name of Balochistan Handicrafts Welfare Society. NPO also arranged the participation of four lady hand embroiderers from Balochistan in the Second National Weavers Forum held at Fatima Jinnah Park, Islamabad from April 17 to April 25, 2004 in which these hand embroiderers displayed their products.

III. Replication of APO Courses

In order to develop and strengthen the entrepreneurial and managerial capabilities of women, NPO invited nomination for an APO Training Course from the platform of Balochistan Handicraft Welfare Society and two ladies, Ms. Farzana Yasmin and Ms. Siemeen Mariam were nominated and were sent on a course Development of Income Generating Business Activities for Women in Cebu (Philippines) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).