Startups- The many challenges women entrepreneurs face

New Delhi, Mar 8: Women entrepreneurs say the current start up friendly environment in the country will help to fight gender stereotyping and enable "risk-taking" and make them empowered.

Sairee Chahal, founder and CEO of Sheroes, a portal which provides information for women job seekers recalls that she faced a lot of gender stereotyping in the initial days of her business.

"I was faced with questions like can you do it? Gladly, things are changing and now, they can see me doing it," says Chahal. Chahal, a TeD speaker, co-founded Sheroes in 2012 to provide avenues for women looking for jobs.

"When I started people thought it was an NGO, perhaps, because of the nature of business we were trying to create or perhaps because a woman was heading it," says Chahal. According to the 40-year-old there is a need for special focus for policies tailor made for women entrepreneurs.

"The exquisite support for women entrepreneurs would help more women to start their businesses and help create more job opportunities and contribute to the overall growth," she adds. According to Nasscom, there was a 50 per cent increase in women joining the start-up ecosystem over last year.

Saifali Agarwal Holani, Founder and CEO, EasyFix, an online portal for home repair service shares an anecdote of gender stereotyping in the business world that exemplifies the difficulties of people accepting that women could run the show.

"Once, when I described my startup to an interviewer, his response was followed by an awkward conversation. It is a bit shocking for our male dominated society to accept a woman running the show, that too alone at the age of 25," says the Delhi-based entrepreneur.

PTI