Why So Few Women Are Taking The Start-up Route.

Why so few women are taking the start-up route.

- Devika Singh

Convincing her parents about her decision to quit her seven-figure salary job at McKinsey India and take the start-up route wasn’t easy for Priyanka Agarwal. It was even tougher to convince investors that she was committed to the task. In the initial days of this journey, when she was looking to raise ₹4 crore in the seed round, she met the senior partner of a well-known impact fund in Mumbai. The woman was impressed by her idea but declined funding saying: "You are two female founders, both in your late twenties. What is the guarantee that one of you will not leave to get married?” recounts Agarwal, the founder of Wishberry, a crowd-funding platform.

“I remember clearly asking her what if I was a guy who had to leave because my father passed away and I had to support my family? I have already given up a career, given up so many things, to do this. Isn't that commitment enough?” she recalls telling the investor. Her pitch didn’t work.

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted and fund-raising no piece of cake. But when it comes to women, the start-up route has even more roadblocks, and this is perhaps why women in India tend to avoid this option.

Data from the Sixth Economic Census says the total number of establishments owned by women entrepreneurs is 8.05 million (13.76 per cent of the total). These establishments provided employment to 13.45 million people despite the fact that 83.19 per cent were without hired workers.

About 34 per cent of establishments under women entrepreneurs pertained to agricultural activity, and livestock dominated within that with a 31.6 per cent share.