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International Women’s Day: Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life,” said Confucius. Finding your voice is not an easy task, especially in the case of women; sometimes, this process becomes even more challenging as society often refrains them from speaking their minds.
But today, the scenario has changed. Today’s woman stands on her own feet with flying colours. Knocking off the society’s ask to shut their voice, women are more assertive and are willing to go for what their inner voice says, no matter how difficult it is.
Celebrating the voice and strength of such women on International Women’s Day, we have a list of six women entrepreneurs who broke all barriers for their passion.
The last two years have been quite difficult globally. In the face of the pandemic, countries led by women such as New Zealand, Taiwan, and Iceland stood out as models to follow.
As a female entrepreneur, I have had little to no experience with sexism. Investors no longer approach primarily male founders. Women have carefully broken down every barrier, and we continue to aim high. I recognise that not everyone has had my good fortune; I acknowledge that many women still bear the brunt of patriarchy; but as more women – and men who support us – join us at the table, I am convinced that the end of inequality is close.
Statistically, women lost (or gave up) more jobs than men during COVID. Moreover, it is typically mothers who sacrifice their careers to raise and care for their kids. As part of our hiring process, my two male co-founders and I are helping more women with gaps in their resumes get back into the workforce. It makes me happy to be able to help other women grow.
It’s no secret that we continue to live in a male-dominated society that limits women’s mobility. I had to face many superiors who doubted my abilities solely due to my gender. However, all it took was determination and thick skin to disregard the naysayers and focus on creating work I was proud of, which automatically proved my capabilities and helped me create a place for myself in the industry.
As women, we are conditioned to believe that we should know it all and do it all ourselves. One of the first myths every women entrepreneur should break is this precise belief and learn to seek help. Be it from building right team to seeking help from mentors and family, building the right ecosystem is so crucial for every woman on her entrepreneurial path.
There are significant areas where a lot more effort is needed to level the field or in fact, stem the rising gaps in women’s participation in the workforce. Deloitte published a recent report on ‘Women in the boardroom’ and show that the number of women CEOs has been declining. Only 4.7 per cent of women are in the CEO positions in 20201. Executive power eludes women despite reservations and quotas for board memberships for women.
As a woman entrepreneur, the most common but also the most challenging battle I face is showing up each day, looking, feeling and doing my absolute best. There is an army of managers that makes sure I show up and deliver. And this army resides inside me. I think that’s true for most of us women. We may have spouses and families who are solid support systems. But at the end of the day, it is this inner army that keeps us going.
As an entrepreneur, I have made a conscious choice to make our organization not just women-friendly but also create a safe space. For all those difficult days right from a sick child to an old parent or just plain PMS – we’ve had WFH and flexibility arrangements right since our inception. When women lift each other up, incredible things happen.
Women’s day celebrates the passion, endurance and rationality with which she executes every role. Women entrepreneurs bring a very unique skill set of combining Intellectual Commitment with a deep emotional quotient. This has helped me build OMOTEC passionately in the EdTech space where my students enjoy technical creativity simulated with scientific intelligence. It’s a well-known fact that men dominate the Technology and Engineering space, it has been a struggle to ensure that you are taken seriously and be able to invent, design, evaluate, develop, commercialize and excel in this male-dominated tech world. Its taken 42 International & National awards, publish more than 30 research papers, with a patent granted product and a grant from BIRAC for getting recognized and people to take you seriously.
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