Business Case Studies, Executive Interviews, Kamal Singh on Women Executives

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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.


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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?

    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:

  1. In the Social Domain:
    Lack of social contacts, male dominance
  2. In the Technical Domain:
    Lack of project ideas, lack of process know-how, lack of do-how (implementation capacity)
  3. 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.
  • 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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