Executive Interviews: Interview with Kamal Singh on Women Executives
July 2007 - By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary

Kamal Singh
working with the British Council as Head,
Governance & Social Justice, India.

My key areas of work in the last 18 years have been gender equality and diversity, child rights, law and human rights, police reforms, civil service and public sector reforms, and recently corporate social responsibility. The British Council's mandate is to share UK's experience and trends with Indian partners in areas of mutual interest. This has meant being on a learning curve, as I need to first understand the UK and international context and then build up my knowledge and networks at the Indian end. I have found this challenging and professionally rewarding.

• How good are women as entrepreneurs? Why don't we see more Indian women entrepreneurs? We do have very few Shehnaz Hussians, Kiran Mazumdar Shahs, Anu Agas and many more smalltime entrepreneurs. But the big league is missing in India. What seems to be lacking are stories of first-generation women entrepreneurs, or those who swerved from their father's business to stand on their own. What does it take to create that pool of big-time entrepreneurs?
  I think women make excellent managers, as they learn early in life to balance several resources for success, for example, time, ideas, finance and relationships. But there haven't been enough role models to emulate. Its worth exploring the historical reasons of the low status of Indian women, for example, on indicators of health, education and economic participation. Gender division of labor shows that women's work is not valued in economic terms. Women have entered the formal workforce at managerial levels only recently. In the informal sector they have been involved in subsistence activities, mainly with an effort on survival; their baseline has been low skills and low wages, and not sufficient opportunities for growth or access to resources. However, as the last census shows, female literacy rate is improving. School results show girls are outperforming boys and are joining courses that were earlier assumed to be reserved only for boys. In the early 1990s, in our work with the public sector, we were repeatedly told that there were not sufficient women above the supervisory level to be trained inUK. Its nowchanging, and there are many bright sparks who will emerge as entrepreneurs— it was only a matter of time, and the time has now come.

• An ILO report on Women Entrepreneurs revealed, "Women have a proportionately greater presence in the informal economy and in micro-enterprises; and they are less represented in formal, registered SMEs."Why is it so?
  In 1992 British Council, in collaboration with Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, organized a regional workshop on development of micro-enterprises by women. A group of 40 academics and NGOs from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka jointly shared experiences on how income generating activities are a major entry point for NGOs concerned with women's development. Reports from all countries were same as the ILO Report you mention. It was recognized that women's economic empowerment was a powerful precursor to women's empowerment. Micro-enterprises have helped women address issues of poverty and debt, usually managed by one person, but sometimes contributing to a larger group effort for strength and survival. Without access to adequate education or trainingwomenhave relied on their household and creative skills as well as community needs to do activities that would generate an income to enable them to meet household expenses. Research has also shown that women tend to spend their earnings on household needs, child education and health, whereas men spend more on consumption and personal items. Iwould attribute three reasons for lesser number of women in the formal sector: 1) lack of education and training, hence less opportunities for women 2) even when opportunities existed, these were often denied to women as the concept of equality enshrined in our Constitution was not being practiced 3) saturation of the wage employment sector, which limited entry opportunities for women as they were not recognized as primary wage earners and a gender bias existed amongst employers.

  To add to that, women's economic activities were earlier perceived as "supporting" the main wage earner, always assumed to be the male. Women's "caring" role was not recognized, whether it was care of the young or care of the elderly,within the family orwithin communities. Despite these barriers, the success of self-help groups (SHGs) and micro-enterprise development have shown women's determination to come out of poverty conditions and improve their lives.

1. Women's Western Wear Market Case Study
2. ICMR Case Collection
3. Case Study Volumes