• By Rupal Dalal

ENTREPRENEURS ARE THE primary change-makers in a society, howsoever conservative or liberal. Although we have gotten accustomed to seeing male entrepreneurs taking the lead for decades, it’s time we embrace the new breed of female change-makers, challenging the norms of the society armed with sheer brilliance and entrepreneurial achievements. It would be an understatement to assume that the standard of innovations and performance of women across all sectors, including traditionally male-dominated industries, is catching up with male entrepreneurs, rather women have outdone men in varied fields. Women entrepreneurs in India have created a niche for themselves, overcoming challenges such as maintaining a balanced family life.

With prominent leaders such as Indra Nooyi, Indu Jain, Ritu Kumar, and Aditi Gupta, the list is growing. But in spite of the overwhelming contributions women entrepreneurs make in a society, there is still a huge gap to bridge between innovations and providing the right infrastructure for successful implementation of their ideas. Promoting women’s economic development through women entrepreneurship plays a critical role in economic growth. It not only directly provides employment and economic independence to women, but also improves their social, educational and health status.
There as on for singling out women as a special group within the overall entrepreneurial
culture is that women entrepreneurs face specific external obstacles in establishing and running businesses compared to males, such as gender-related social attitudes, discriminatory legislation
and reduced access to financing, and, most notably, fewer and less diversified educational opportunities.

Many women entrepreneurs have highlighted the need for women entrepreneurship in the education sector. Women-specific entrepreneurial training at the high school level through well-designed courses can play a major role in resolving gender parity in education and help give women the head start in the competitive start-up arena.

(The author is executive director, JD Institute of fashion technology)