While the Indian startup ecosystem is thriving and in an interesting stage at this point, there is still a very evident gender divide. According to a report by Inc42, only 15 per cent of Indian unicorns have at least one female owner. In fact, even the funding female-led startups raise are not as high as those by men entrepreneurs.
In 2021, 42 Indian startups joined the unicorn league, out of which, only four were led by women. These include The Good Glamm Group by Priyanka Gill, MobiKwik by Upasana Taku, Ofbusiness by Ruchi Kalra, and Acko Insurance by Ruchi Deepak.
In fact, many studies suggest that having more female founders can increase female participation in the workforce and increase India’s GDP by 18 per cent.
However, the gender divide’s roots go very deep in our culture. Girls are forced to drop out of school and often do not have equal access to higher education due to several socio-economic reasons. Having said that, when girls do have access to education, they end up doing much better than boys in maths, science and reading, according to a recent study by UNESCO.
Apart from that, the pre-existing gender script creates several barriers for women to achieve their full potential, professionally. Nupur Garg, founder of WinPe told Inc42, “If you want to be an entrepreneur, you need networks, you have to reach out to people to find a cofounder or for funding, advice and discuss what your plan is. But from a very early childhood, girls are brought up to say don’t hang out, don’t go out, stay at home. And there are very few societies where women have financial independence, but to become an entrepreneur, you need to take a risk with your money.”
As women grow up, they are then expected to find a job that is conducive to their family life, Garg noted. In stark contrast, entrepreneurship demands 24×7 commitment. There are very few women entrepreneurs partly because stereotypical upbringing has not given them an equal amount of freedom to think that they can go out and build their own business, she added.
The digital gender divide too contributes to this, as more men than women have access to the internet. However, the number of girls getting admitted into primary or higher secondary school has increased by 11.8 lakhs in the year 2020-21. Between 2015-20, there has been an increase of 18 per cent in women going for higher studies.