What Is It Like To Be A Woman in Tech-Led Business Space? Women entrepreneurs constituted 14 per cent of the total entrepreneurial workforce in India, according to a report by NASSCOM

By Debroop Roy

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Pixabay

Entrepreneurship in India has seen a massive boost in the last couple of decades. But even as mindsets have seemingly begun to evolve and more people have started accepting the idea, women representation has remained a chink in the armour for the country's growing start-up ecosystem.

Last year, women entrepreneurs constituted 14 per cent of the total entrepreneurial workforce in India, according to a report by NASSCOM. Even though the numbers have improved from 11 per cent a year earlier, the growth has not entirely been ecstatic.

At the "women in technology' roundtable at Unite India 2019 held in Kochi last week, the discussions ebbed and flowed from something as basic as hiring men to the need to make parents aware of how women, too, can become entrepreneurs and succeed.

Hiring

According to some of the entrepreneurs present at the roundtable, men are still skeptical working under women.

"We face trust issues from males," said Moitreyee Goswami, chief executive officer at Zucate. Zucate is a Pune-based education technology platform.

Damini Pahwa, CEO at gaming studio Appsoleut Coders, agreed and said she, too, had faced similar issues at the initial stages.

"We did find that people had problems taking instructions from women," said Geetika Sharma, chief technical officer at Vizara Technologies. Delhi-based Vizara provides knowledge-based virtual reality and augmented reality solutions for various sectors.

Sharma said she had an all-boys team working at Vizara currently. "I think you have to make them realize that you do know more than them," she said.

Financials

Among the biggest challenges that women face as entrepreneurs is working with financial institutions.

Goswami faced issues with opening a bank account for Zucate even after becoming a registered company. "Our male friends tell us they get calls from banks (to open an account)," she said.

Awareness

A common theme among most present at the roundtable was that awareness needs to be raised to bring more women into technology.

In gaming, parents are often skeptical about a career in game designing and development, according to Appsoleut's Pahwa. "They don't see growth; they don't see it as a viable thing to invest in."

Debroop Roy

Former Correspondent

Covering the start-up ecosystem in and around Bangalore. Formerly an energy reporter at Reuters. A film, cricket buff who also writes fiction on weekends.
Thought Leaders

How This Family-Run Company Has Thrived for Five Generations

Marty Ozinga, the CEO of Ozinga, explains the legacy and future of the powerhouse construction materials company.

Business News

Woman Goes Viral After Recording Her Disastrous Call With HR After Being Let Go: 'They Tried to Gaslight You'

Brittany Pietsch posted a nine-minute-long clip of her firing from Cloudflare on TikTok, and it went viral. The company's CEO responded on X — and also went viral.

Marketing

4 Ways AI Is Revolutionizing Targeted Advertising — And How to Balance It's Ethical Implications

AI-powered targeted advertising revolutionizes marketing with hyper-personalized promotions. However, ethical and transparency questions hover over this progress.

Health & Wellness

Stress Buster: Leverage the Benefits of Non-Clinical Art Therapy with This $40 App

Therapeutic, art-based exercises utilize hundreds of original works of art to add a blend of positive benefits to the experience.

Business Solutions

Host Your Website with iBrave — $90 for Life Through March 24

iBrave is an advanced cloud web hosting platform.

Data & Recovery

Through March 24th: 1TB of Premium Cloud Storage Is Just $130 with This Code

Koofr offers advanced file management features, integration with external cloud management accounts, and reliable security.