What women need is to see women succeed

Societal change, having and celebrating role models and easier access to capital are some of the key factors that need to be addressed in order to make it easier for more women to take to entrepreneurship. Speaking at a panel discussion at the Bengaluru Tech Summit, Vineeta Singh, CEO, Sugar Cosmetics said that more than providing skills and training programmes, what women needed to see is more women succeeding and their success being celebrated to inspire others.

Last week,
Falguni Nayar led Nykaa listed on the stock market, making her the first women founder of an Indian unicorn. While commendable, this itself shows the gender gap that exists with India likely to close the year with about 70 unicorns, of which 40% have come in the past year.

The session, Women Entrepreneurship – Challenges and Action needed – do we need a special and separate approach, highlighted the biggest issues that women face and how these can be mitigated.

In the past decade, the number of women owned enterprises have increased from 14 to 20%, and these businesses have the potential to create over 150 million jobs by 2030. The other compelling reason to actively promote women led enterprises is the ripple effect these have. Studies show that this results in economic and social prosperity, allowing a shift to more conscious reproductive choices, higher education and better health for all. Women also tend to hire more women.

Meena Ganesh, chairperson & MD, Portea Medical said that it wasn’t a lack in skill or capabilities that was holding women back, but a lack of opportunity and confidence which needed to be addressed.

The increase in conversations around women in leadership have helped mitigate some of the biases in the ecosystem, but unconscious biases still exist. Singh added that most women were likely to demand a lower valuation for their venture as compared even their male co-founders because they have been conditioned not to be demanding, something Ganesh said that continues to be the case with several women. Social conditioning, she said, also plays a role in women being more risk averse as compared to men. Sakshi Chopra, MD, Sequoia Capital said that long-term growth would only get unlocked once this goes beyond the tier I and II cities and that digitisation was helping with this.