Why Women Entrepreneurs are the Future of the Start-up Ecosystem

By: Rhea Singh Anand, Co-Founder Flexnest

With over six years of experience being a fitness enthusiast, Rhea was motivated by the idea of creating an ecosystem of smart fitness solutions and builds a community of individuals who adopt it as an essential part of their lifestyle.

For ages, women have been largely excluded from all three industrial revolutions, leading to two centuries of male domination. The foundations for Industrial Revolution 4.0 are digital and being laid out right now. As this historical development unfolds, the absence of women would amount to a major blow to the efforts of bridging the gender gap in the 21st century. Women tend to score much better than men in most leadership skills and in other key soft skills like problem solving and innovation. Yet, a mere 7.4 percent of Fortune 500 companies have women as their CEOs. Instead, women entrepreneurs are more in sectors which are less capital intensive and less profitable. The world, on the whole, is losing due to widening gender inequality. As per a report by McKinsey & Company, promoting women's equality is the best-case scenario which can go on to add $28 trillion to the global economy.

Why invest in women entrepreneurs?

As per the Global Gender Gap Report 2020, it might take another century to achieve gender equality if we go by the current rate of progress in the rise of female entrepreneurs in the economy. This forecast has been vital in pushing decision-makers and stakeholders across various industries as well as different access points to work towards providing more female representation inside boardrooms and bridging the existing gap. In the present age, women are aware of their capabilities and know very well what they bring to the table. They know that their emotional quotient (EQ) and empathetic attitude contributes highly to the growth of every venture they are associated with. This awareness has resulted in an upward scaling of gender parity as a result of which more women-led start-ups are seeing the light of the day. Hence, it's a proven fact that diversity in leadership impacts growth positively.

Here are the reasons why we should invest more in the women entrepreneurial talent:

High Emotional Intelligence: Time and again it has been proven that leaders possessing high emotional intelligence are more efficient in managing teams. They have the quality of leading with a transformational and innovative leadership style. They have more empathy and that nurtures a positive working environment within an organization and the women entrepreneurs lead with it, which unequivocally affects the overall growth and environment of upcoming start-ups. Dynamic & Adaptable: Companies often work in a dynamic and competitive environment. Adaptability and agility, in such a scenario, become the key virtues of a leader. As per the research conducted by Bain & Company, it has been observed that start-ups, especially the ones led by women founders are more resilient, quick to adapt and nimble. They often adopt the approach of dissecting the problem at hand and then figuring out the solution to it. Women are also good at multitasking as compared to men due to their conditioning, which helps them focus on multiple fronts of the business rather than a single one.

“Women are also good at multitasking as compared to men due to their conditioning, which helps them focus on multiple fronts of the business rather than a single one”

Good at Multitasking: Research has shown that about 58 percent of the female entrepreneur's major strengths are their skills in multitasking. Women are faster and much more organized at switching swiftly between tasks and assignments, under pressure. Women easily multitask, have a calmer way of solving problems, are highly committed to their work, and have greater attention spans and are less distracted. The women are always juggling work, family and personal commitments, and everything within finite resources and limited time.

Masters in the Art of Communication: Without a doubt women excel in the art of communication. About 67 percent of women founders credit their communication skills as being the primary key to success for them when building rapport with employees or shaping the company's vision or in delivering a business pitch to the investor, as these are times when one's communication skills need to be at their peak. One's success as an entrepreneur essentially develops on their ability to communicate well as lacking it one tends to miss out on the opportunities.

Women Bring Creativity to the Business: In current times, companies operate in a highly competitive environment, making creativity critical for success. Creativity fuels big ideas, challenges and motivates employees to think out-of-the-box, and opens door to myriad new business opportunities. Women entrepreneurs have the ability to turn big ideas into successful business by constantly adopting it to prevailing circumstances and future possibilities. They are adept at seeing gaps in the market and seizing those opportunities to leverage them, much more than their male counterparts.

Summing Up

Now, it is the time to work towards breaking new ground and close the gender gap which exists between male and female entrepreneurs. By giving more chances to the women entrepreneurs and investing in their abilities, the Indian start-up ecosystem can fuel more innovation and get an unprecedented bang within the economy.