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UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF LEGAL STUDIES

PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH

PROJECT

Entrepreneurship and Small

Scale Business
(SESSION 2020-21)
Topic- Women Entrepreneurship
SUBMITTED SUBMITTED TO
Pooja Mr. Harvinder Singh
B.Com.LL.B. (Hons.) Assistant Professor
Roll No. – 208/19 UILS, PU
Section – D ( II Year )
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Prof. Harvinder Singh
for their able guidance and support in completing my project within the time limit asassigned.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to the director of the department Dr. Rajinder Kaur
for providing me with all the facility that was required. I would like to thank them for
providing me this wonderful opportunity of making project on the topic
Women Entrepreneurship. This project has helped me a lot to learn new things and
research on the topic allotted to me.

Pooja
B.Com.LL.B. (Hons.)
Roll No. – 208/19
Section – D
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CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this project of Entrepreneurship Development and Progress, of the topic
Women Entrepreneurship is my original work performed under the guidance of Prof.
Harvinder Singh. I affirm that none of the sections of the project have been submitted
earlier.

Pooja
B.Com.LL.B. (Hons.)
Roll No. – 208/19
Section – D
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
S. NO. TITLE PAGE NO.

1. Introduction 5

2. Women entrepreneurship- Meaning 6

and Concept
3. Real life Women entrepreneurs 7

4. Importance of Women 9
entrepreneurship
5. Role of Women entrepreneurs 11

6. Problems faced by Women 13

entrepreneurs
7. Solutions to problems 15

8. Conclusion 17

9. References 18
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INTRODUCTION
The practice of ideating, developing, launching, and running a business venture along with its
financial risks is called entrepreneurship. It is very important for the economic development
of the expanding global marketplace. A person who undertakes entrepreneurship is called
an entrepreneur. In today’s era Entrepreneurs are emerging as a main source to connect the
economy with the global world. Entrepreneurs has helped to expand the local markets to the
global markets and extending the area of operations.

Entrepreneur can be both male and female. Entrepreneurs who are female are generally referred
to as women entrepreneur. Women constitute around half of the total world population. They
are therefore regarded as the better half of the society. In traditional societies, they were
confined to the four walls of houses performing household activities. In modern societies they
have come out of the four walls to participate in all sorts of activities. The global evidences
prove that women have been performing exceedingly well in different spheres of activities like
academics, politics, administration, social work and so on. Now they have started plunging into
industry also and running their enterprises successfully. Although small businesses owned by
women have traditionally focused on fashion, food and other services sector, but recently
women entrepreneurs have been moving rapidly into manufacturing, construction and other
industrial filed. Women owned business are lightly increasing in the economics of almost all
countries.
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WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

CONCEPT

A number of opportunities have emerged for women due to changes in the social, political
and economic environment and they are being accepted as well as recognized rapidly in the
corporate world also. Steadily, they started making a mark as successful businesswomen and
they achieve remarkable success in the business world within a small period. Women
entrepreneurship has emerged as a popular and effective way of development and progress of
the female in the society. Women entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenging role to
meet her personal need and become economically independent. There are economic, social,
religious, cultural and other factors existing in the society which have encouraged the females
to take up entrepreneurial activities and prove their calibre. A lot of things act as motivation
for women of not only urban areas but also from the rural background to manage a whole
enterprise and develop themselves as an entrepreneur.

DEFINITION & MEANING

Women entrepreneur may be defined as a woman or group of women who initiate, organize,
and run a business enterprise. In terms of Schumpeterian concept of innovative entrepreneurs,
women who innovate, imitate or adopt a business activity are called “women entrepreneurs”.

This definition implies three main features of woman entrepreneurship that are innovation,
action and a business activity. As an entrepreneur, a woman entrepreneur has also to perform
all the functions involved in establishing an enterprise. Either a single woman or a group of
women together manage the whole functioning of an enterprise. In nutshell, women
entrepreneurs are those women who think of a business enterprise, initiate it, organize and
combine the factors of production, operate the enterprise and undertake risks and handle
economic uncertainty involved in running a business enterprise.
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REAL LIFE WOMAN ENTREPRENEURS

Women entrepreneurs are usually found in the activities such as agro-business industries,
offering services such as running a canteen or even a petrol pump, undertaking travel and
tourism work, working as a subcontractor for providing raw material or for dispatching some
services or spare parts to the large scale business unit, undertaking specific sales and
marketing work but in the current scenario women are emerging as successful managers,
designers, marketers and administrative officers etc. some of the real life women
entrepreneurs in India are as follows-

1. Vandana Luthra-

Vandana Luthra is an inspirational Women Entrepreneurs who is the founder of VLCC

Health care Ltd. She is an Indian businesswoman, philanthropist, and chairman of the
ability council for the beauty and wellness sector (B&WSSC). In 1989, Vandana Luthra
set up a company called VLCC as a Wellness centre. VLCC is a very popular giant of
beauty and wellness and is present in 11 countries throughout Asia, Africa, and the
GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). However, this success was not overnight. While
Vandana started her entrepreneurial journey there were hardly any women
entrepreneurs in India. She had to face a lot of criticism in the male-dominated
environment. But she kept moving forward with a belief that her idea was unique,
unusual, and was introduced for the first time in India. In 2010, she won the Enterprise
Asia Women Entrepreneur of the year award. Vandana was honoured by India’s fourth-
highest civilian honour, Padma Shri award from President of India in 2013. Vandana
started her journey in 1989 when the first of her two daughters were only 3 years old
and today, she is a grandmother to three kids and still lives her dream!
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2. Shahnaz Hussian –

Shahnaz is the Founder of the world-renowned and celebrated brand Shahnaz Herbals.
She is known as the “Queen of Herbal Beauty Care” and was awarded Padma Shri by
the Government of India in 2006. She is the most prominent businesswoman in India,
who has her business running over 138 countries, which has around 600 franchises and
associated clinics across the world. Recently, Shahnaz was invited by Harvard Business
School to speak on how she established an international brand without commercial
advertisements.

3. Basudha Shrivastav –

Basudha holds a graduation degree from Delhi University and has experience working
in the IT sector. Basudha Shrivastav co-founded Express Earth Digital services, a
travel agency that takes care of all your travel needs, in 2015. Her co-found Himanshu
Narula was also her schoolmate. Both of them were interested in starting a venture in
travel. Which is why they quit their jobs and jumped into entrepreneurship and a
marriage. Express Earth takes care of all your travel needs, from hotels, cars, flights,
insurance and more for both B2B and B2C clients. Her company has won several
awards for being an innovative travel company including the ‘Most Innovative Travel
Management Company’ by India Travel Award North.
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IMPORTANCE OF WOMEN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Women Entrepreneurship has numerous advantages to the business, econmy and society
which makes it an important concept in the business field. There are many qualities in the
women entrepreneurs that increases their importance. There are various reasons why women
Entrepreneurs are required in the world of business. Some of these are discussed as follows-

New challenges and opportunities

Increases employment opportunities

Better financial management

IMPORTANCE Reduces gender gap

Per capita income increases

Female education and awareness

Self-realization and self- confidence

1.) New challenges and opportunities-

In this digital era, women are developing day by day and shifting from job-seekers to
job creators. They all are growing in all fields such as engineers, marketer, designers,
exporters, clothing, interior designers, etc. to give a contribution to the economic
growth by taking interest actively. Women are not only taking advantage of the
opportunities available to them but simultaneously they are creating more and more
opportunities for the other people by taking up the new challenges. Their accessibility
to local as well as foreign markets is remarkable.
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2.) Increases employment opportunities-

As more and more women take the entrepreneurial activities the number of business
entities increase simultaneously. This provides employment to large number of
unemployed. Thus, Women Entrepreneurship creates employment opportunities and
acts as a solution for this economic problem. the best way to deal with this
unemployment is to generate some income by commencing its own business.
3.) Better Financial Management –
It is a fact that women can easily utilize the funds whether it is raised for home
expenses or the business expenditure. They will provide a better as well as quick
access to finance or credit for a business. Women can use their social skills for better
utilisation of funds. They know the value of money in a better way.
4.) Removes gender gap-
After making a lot of effort, then the gap between the men and women is still large,
not equal yet. Women Entrepreneurship motivates women to inspire and run a
business. Not only inspire a single woman to work but also give opportunities to other
women and establish a business kind of “made for women” only.
5.) Per-capita income increases.-
When a woman takes up entrepreneurial activities, a new firm is created to vary out
some sort of business. Business activities like production, marketing, employment are
carried out which not only increase the income of the business or the entrepreneurs
but it ultimately increases the all over capita income of the economy.
6.) Female education and awareness-
Woman entrepreneurship comes into picture when the women section of society is
educated enough to carry out some business activity. Therefore it will lead to create
awareness among the society and act as a source of inspiration that will motivate the
other fellow females to own their own business.
7.) Self-realisation and self-confident—
Woman entrepreneurship creates a sense of self-realization amongst the women
section od the society as they one to know the true capacity of themselves. They
become more confident when they handle a whole business organisation.
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ROLE OF WOMAN ENTRPRENEURSHIP

Women had undergone a long way and are now becoming increasingly visible and successful
in all spheres. They have shifted from kitchen to higher level of professional activities. In this
dynamic world, women entrepreneurs are a significant part of the global expedition for
sustained economic development and social progress. Due to the growing industrialization,
urbanization, social legislation and along with the spread of higher education and awareness,
the emergence of Women owned businesses are highly increasing in the economies of almost
all countries. The major role that woman entrepreneurship play in the present time is
discussed as follows-

➢ Employment generation-
It implies that women entrepreneurs not only establish their enterprise, but provide
job to others. Women entrepreneurship is about women’s position in the society
and their role as entrepreneurs in the same society. It can be understood in two
ways, namely, at the individual level (number of self-employed) and at the firm
level (number of firms owned by women and their economic impact). In this way,
woman entrepreneurs have an important impact on the economy in terms of their
ability to create jobs for themselves as well as for others.

➢ Improved standard of living-

Women entrepreneurs are now economically independent and take decisions
independently. They are now capable of upbringing their children according to
their wish. They are providing quality education to their children and a better
living standard to their family members. They not only improve their living
standards, but also the living standards of others by providing them the means of
earning. Thus it leads to overall improvement of standard of living.

➢ Better utilisation of resources

It implies that the involvement of women in industrial development ensure the
effective utilization of all available resources (labor, raw materials, capital). Many
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examples show that women have a better understanding and skills and they use
their homemaker skills in business field in very relative manner.
➢ Increase in per capita income-
When a woman takes up entrepreneurial activities, a new firm is created to vary
out some sort of business. Business activities like production, marketing,
employment are carried out which not only increase the income of the business or
the entrepreneurs but it ultimately increases the all over capita income of the
economy.

➢ Economic development-
It signifies that women entrepreneurs contribute to the gross domestic product of
the country by establishing enterprises and producing goods and services. Due to
their entrepreneurial activity, women entrepreneurs bring dynamism in market. In
this way, they also help in increasing the national income of the country, which
ultimately leads to the economic development.
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PROBLEMS FACED BY WOMEN

ENTREPRENEURS
1. Lack of funds -
Family members do not encourage women entrepreneurs. They hesitate to invest
money in the business venture initiated by women entrepreneurs. Bank and other
Financial Institutions do not consider Middle Class Women Entrepreneurs as proper
applicants for setting up their projects and they are hesitant to provide financial
assistance to unmarried women or girls as they are unsure as to who will repay

2. Lack of resources-
Women do not get enough resources to start up their own business. It can be I the
form of finance, raw material, labour etc. people do not put faith in the newly trated
business when it is commenced by a woman. This lack of resource acts as a major
problem to the women entrepreneurs.

3. lack of skills and confidence-

Most of the women lack self-confidence. They ned to bring their true potential out
from them in order to become an entrepreneur. They lack various other skills also
which are essentials to become an entrepreneur.

4. Family restrictions-
Most of the families do not allow women to go outside and work. Even simple
employment is not allowed by them. Also, if they start some business, they are
expected to spend more time with their family members. They do not encourage
women to travel extensively for exploiting business opportunities.

5. Lower literacy rate-

The literacy rate among woman is very low as compared to man. The current literacy
rate in India for woman is 65.46%. Women are generally denied of education,
especially in rural areas and under developed countries. Women are not allowed to
enrich their knowledge in technical and research areas to introduce new products.
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6. Man dominated society-

The society is dominated by males. Many businessmen are not interested to have
business relationship with women entrepreneurs. Male generally do not encourage
women entrepreneurs. So women have to face some kind of dominance.

7. Lack of information-
Women entrepreneurs are not generally aware of the subsidies and incentives available
for them. They are not aware of various government schemes which are specially
launched for the benefit of women entrepreneurship. Lack of knowledge may prevent
them from availing the special schemes.

8. Competition-
Women usually face a stiff competition from men. Women entrepreneurs do not have
organizational set-up to bring in a lot of money for spending on advertisement. Thus,
they have to face a stiff competition for marketing their products with both organized
sector and their male counterparts. Such a competition ultimately results in the
liquidation of women enterprises.

9. Problem of mobility-
Unlike men, women mobility in India is highly limited due to various reasons. They
are not allowed to travel to different places to explore new opportunities because of
family responsibilities etc. A single woman asking for room is still looked upon
suspicion. Cumbersome exercise involved in starting an enterprise coupled with the
officials humiliating attitude towards women compels them to give up idea of starting
an enterprise.

10. Low risk bearing capacity-

Women in India lead a protected life. They are less educated and economically not
self-dependent. All these reduce their ability to bear risk involved in running an
enterprise. Risk-bearing is an essential requisite of a successful entrepreneur.
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SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS
a) Social support-
There is not only the finance problem, but there is also a mindset problemin the
society. They should change their perspective about women. Family and friends
should support them. The government should introduce new policies which will help
them. Investors have to rely on their capability and shoe some confidence in them so
that they do not get demotivated.

b) Availability of Financial resources-

There should be availability of financial resources for women as most women give the
idea of setting up an enterprise because of lack of financial resources. From
several government schemes to financial institutions, women entrepreneurs can now
avail different types of business loans, for starting and running their business.

c) Technological assistance-
In today’s fast forward world technology is very important for any business
organization. Women don’t have many educational opportunities; they don’t have
enough knowledge about technology. So it’s very important to guide them to learn
and use technology accordingly to grow their business.

d) Training and development-

Government and private organizations should step forward to provide training
sessions on business and entrepreneurship to women. They should train women who
are eager to do something big and meaningful. This will improve their existing skills
and knowledge.

e) Family support-
A family should support and encourage women to do and run a business successfully.
This will be the biggest support and motivation for women entrepreneurs.
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f) Women education-
There should be some awareness regarding women education. Women have a low
literacy rate which generally leads to lack of skills. A higher literacy rate will help
more and more women to gain knowledge about entrepreneurship and more new
enterprises would be set up. Not only that, enabling easy access to the internet and
acquiring knowledge on digital tools and platforms will help you find plenty of
opportunities to expand and scale your business.

g) Allowing woman mobility-

Special “only for women” buses and metros are a sure shot way to ensure complete
safety and convenience for women for commuting. Installing surveillance cameras at
the premises will make women feel more secure while meeting people for business.

h) Role of government-
Government can play a significant role in the upliftment of women entrepreneurs. The
government should introduce some more lenient policies for the benefit of women so
that they can easily start up a business. Financial support can be provided by the
government in the form of cheap loans, subsidies and tax relaxation etc.

i) Knowledge of risk-
Autonomy and independence are needed for high achievement, and ability to take risk
is essential for success in entrepreneurship. If you simply realize, that risk-taking is a
pre-requite for an entrepreneur, irrespective of being a man or woman, then you are
likely to succeed in your business venture. So there is a requirement of creating
awareness regarding risk taking among the women so that they can explore more and
more opportunities.
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CONCLUSION
The times have changed and women are on a remarkable journey of entrepreneurship and
leading with positive belief and confidence. Globally, all women have overcome criticism and
breaking the trends to prove themselves beyond the stereotypes. This effect was also seen to
impact the Indian corporate world. From being homemakers to successful entrepreneurs,
women in India have come a long way. The sixth economic census released by the Ministry of
Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) highlights that women constitute around
14% of the total entrepreneurship in India. India is seeing a revolution concerning women
entrepreneurs. Even when they are facing a number of problems, they are ready to take the risk
and make a remarkable journey in this world. There are a lot more problems like marketing,
time management, prioritization of expectations, etc. but after having all these problems there
are many women’s who become an entrepreneur by enduring everything. You just need the
right kind of attitude and mindset to build a successful business.
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REFERENCES
1. Women entrepreneurship, available at https://101entrepreneurship.org/women-
entrepreneurs/
2. Importance of women entrepreneurship, available at,
https://wit.tradekey.com/news/india/importance-of-women-entrepreneurship-in-
india_4143.html
3. 10 problems faced by women entrepreneurs in India, available at,
https://startupknock.com/10-problems-faced-by-women-entrepreneurs-in-india-with-
solutions/
4. Problems faced by women entrepreneurs, available at,
https://peppyzing.com/problems-faced-by-women-entrepreneurs/
5. Top 5 Problems that women entrepreneurs face, available at,
https://rupeek.com/blog/top-5-problems-that-women-entrepreneurs-face-a-guide-to-
overcoming-them/
6. Succesful women entrepreneurs in India, available at
https://startuptalky.com/successful-women-entrepreneurs-india/
7. Concept and Functions of woman entrepreneurs, available at,
https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/entrepreneurship/women-entrepreneurs-concept-
and-functions-of-women-entrepreneurs-explained/41096