In India, as in many parts of the world, a woman is considered to be a homemaker first. According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2014, Indian women spent an average of 352 minutes per day on unpaid work (men spent 52).
Even in agrarian sections of the country, where women work as hard in the fields as men, they are also expected to manage the home. Women seeking and finding employment in paid jobs outside the home is far from the norm. According to the same WEF report, India’s women make up slightly over a third of the workforce, get paid just over half of what men get for similar work and, on average, earn a quarter of what men do.
Since entrepreneurs typically spend some time in the workforce before starting up, less women in jobs outside the home also translates to fewer women entrepreneurs.
Aside from the multiple societal barriers, there are also legal hurdles for women who start enterprises. For example, a woman cannot be the Karta in a Hindu Undivided Family and is thus ineligible for related tax benefits; and while she can own land, the law gets in the way of her using it as collateral for loan.
