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Executive Interviews: Interview with Kamal Singh on Women Executives
July 2007
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By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
Kamal Singh working with the British Council as Head, Governance & Social Justice, India. 
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Empirical evidence shows that
women contribute significantly to the
running of familybusinesses,mostly in
the form of unpaid effort and skills.
The value of this effort is
underestimated both by the families
that take it for granted and in academic
studies too. On the other hand, many
enterprises said to be run by women
(that is, enterprises in which women
hold the controlling share) are in fact
done in their name by men who
control operations and decisionmaking.
Why do women take the back
seat? Or is it that they are forced to do
so? Do you think women are not
getting their share of well-deserved
success?
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Gender division of labor and timeuse
studies have shown that women
take on many tasks in family
business which are not even
recognized, let alone given an
economic value. It was the same in
the agricultural sector also.
Patriarchy is deeply entrenched in
the Indian culture. Power relations
within the household and male
dominance has resulted in women's
subordinate position. There was a
preference for male heirs and
investing in girls' education was not
given a priority. Risk taking capacity,
finance and flow of funds are crucial
for any venture to succeed. Women's
access to credit, specially from formal
institutions, was extremely poor. Not
only people in these institutions had
gender bias but also because most
women could not provide collateral as
they did not have any assets, such as
land or buildings, as titleholders. Even
when government floated schemes of
loans for women entrepreneurs,
women often lacked the confidence to
dealwithofficials, lackedfinancial skills
and had skills to produce goods but
unable to negotiate their economic
worth in themarketplace.Many skilled women, capable of production, had
been confined to their private domain,
and hence, did not have the experience
of the public sphere and were hesitant
to venture out. This dichotomy of their
public/private life was a disabling
feature along with low self-esteem and
lack of autonomy. Women needed
support, encouragement and
counseling to overcome these barriers.
India's 5th Plan recognized that the
benefits of development were not
reaching out towomen.NGOs involved
in women's development work then
analyzed that capacity building was
required at different levels. I amtalking
in the past as we have made some
progress in the last 7-10 years! -
Keeping in mind this paradox as
well as of the familial and social
conditioning that reduces the
confidence, independence and
mobility of women, what steps /
programs / policies do you suggest for
women entrepreneurs?
I would suggest a life cycle approach
that provides an enabling
environment and level playing field
for women, whether they are
potential entrepreneurs or aimto join
the workforce. This means access to
quality education right from school.
Advances in IT and technology are
now bringing about a change and
opening new vistas for women. We
need programs in counselling,
finance, skills development,
marketing and all aspects of business
start-up, survival and growth. -
Does the Indian culture / societal
norms onwomen prevent themfrom
becoming better entrepreneurs?
As I said, patriarchy and gender bias
are entrenched in the Indian social
construct. Gender stereotypes and
lack of access to opportunities
prevent women from tapping their
full potential, whether as
entrepreneurs or in other fields. In
one of our projects on women's
enterprise we identified several
constraints faced by women:
- In the Social Domain:
Lack of
social contacts, male dominance - In the Technical Domain:
Lack
of project ideas, lack of process
know-how, lack of do-how
(implementation capacity) - In the Economic Domain:
Lack of
economic support from family;
inadequate credit and fund flow
from financing agencies and lack
of economic ownership and
control.
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Do women make better managers
or better leaders?
I think women are good at being both
managers and leaders! From their
daily life they learn resource
management that makes them good
managers; in their "nurturing" role
they inspire those around them
towards higher level achievements
which makes them good leaders. But
there is a need to provide an enabling
environment and a level playing
field. I find men are always ready to
move on to higher responsibility,
even with low qualifications or
limited experience whereas, women
tend to underestimate their skills and
achievements and want to be
hundred percent qualified by their
own high standards before
considering a move forward. Women
need to learn not to be perfectionists
all the time! It's the 80:20 rule, i.e.,
80% of a task is completed with 20%
of the overall effort. It calls for a lot of
time to do the 20% in "perfect" mode
and one should be able to figure out
when "good enough" is better than
ensuring that something is near
perfect in every detail. You don't need
a Rolls Royce service when an
Ambassador would be more robust!
One shouldn't do a sloppy job, but make a good judgement onwhat level
of resources are needed to do a job
well, achieve the best results without
losing impact. I try to encourage
women not to be so hard on
themselves, and give themselves a
better chance by recognizing their
skills and success.
1.
Women's Western Wear Market Case Study
2. ICMR
Case Collection
3.
Case Study Volumes
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