How to Remove the Gender Gap

With an impressive tally of 1.59 lakh start-ups, India currently has the world's third-largest start-up ecosystem.

- ARCHANA JAHAGIRDAR

About half of these recognised start-ups, 73,151 to be precise, include at least one woman director. This is a landmark shift considering that barely five years ago, a pilot study conducted by RBI on the Indian start-up sector, found only 5.9% of the participating start-ups were founded by only women in comparison to 55.5% by only male founders.

These data points, widely celebrated in the media, however, represent only one side of the picture. When we widen the lens beyond the watertight definition of start-ups, a different picture emerges.

According to the Sixth Economic Census, women entrepreneurs own only 13.76% of the total number of establishments. Incidentally, about 34.3% belong to agricultural activities, with livestock dominating therein with a share of 31.6%. These women-owned rural enterprises give employment to 22-27mn people, but the majority of these are self-financed subsistence enterprises.

India's ranking on the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs made up of 57 out of 65 economies isn't exactly stellar either. It will take an estimated 36 years to close the gender gap. In India, chances are, it could take longer.

Omnipresent Stereotypes

Underlying this dismal representation lie constraints pertaining to traditional gender dynamics and social norms rooted in patriarchy. Women are subjected to gender stereotyping early on. Their identity is typically moulded into the roles of homemakers and caregivers. This stereotyping is omnipresent—in the immediate family, in schools, in the media and in society at large.