Women Entrepreneurs in India – Importance

In modern days, women entrepreneurs are playing a very important role in business, trade or industry. Their entry into business is of recent origin. Women have already shown their vital role in other spheres like politics, administration, medical and engineering, technical and technological, social and educational services. This is true in advanced countries and now in recent years, they have been entering into these fields in our country. Their entry into business is a recent phenomenon in India.

It is an extension of kitchen activities. In certain businesses, women entrepreneurs are doing exceedingly well and even they have exceeded their male counterparts. Women are successful not only in law, science, medical, aeronautics and space exploration and even in police and military services, but now they are showing their might even in business and industry. They have proved that they are no less them men in the efficiency, hardwork, or intelligence, provided they are given proper scope.

The role or importance of women entrepreneurs may be ascertained from the study of the functions they perform.

These functions are as under:

a) Exploring the prospects of starting new enterprises.

b) Undertaking risks and handling economic uncertainties.

c) Introducing innovations.

d) Co-ordinating administration and control.

e) Routine supervision.

It may be observed that these functions are not always of equal importance. For example, risk-taking and innovation functions are of utmost importance for establishing, diversifying and running the business successfully co-ordination and supervision functions become important in improving the efficiency and attaining the goodwill for the business as well as in assuring the smooth balanced operation of the enterprise.

In the case of women enterprises, usually the same lady performs all these functions and some times, she may also take the assistance of other female staff members. In most of the cases, a woman is the owner of the business enterprise.

Generally, the following three types of business are suitable to the women entrepreneurs:

a) Manufacturing a product for direct sale in the market.

b) Manufacturing a product or a part of the product to meet the short term or long-term order of a large industrial company, and

c) Operating purely as a sub-contractor of raw materials supplied by the customers.

Generally, the last two types industry or business are known as ancillaries. The women entrepreneurs prefer to deal in consumer goods which have always a demand in the market. They prefer to deal in intermediate goods which are used in the production of other products and mostly they are manufactured to the orders of large companies.