Episode 1: Women entrepreneurs in India: What is holding them back?

# Hashtag Women

Three weeks back, Fortune magazine celebrated adding a 39th woman CEO Jane Fraser , to the ranks of the Fortune 500. Jane also became the first woman in US history to lead a major US bank 39 out of 500; That’s Just 7.8 percent. Isn’t something wrong with that picture! Women constitute 50 percent of the world’s population? Those 39 women CEOs --- are among a handful of fortunate who made it to the top. According to the World Economic Forum, it will take us 108 years to close the overall gender gap and 202 years to bring parity in the workplace. Closer home in India, just 29 companies listed on the Fortune-India 500 list have women leaders with executive powers. India is known globally for its IT muscle. We also rank second among world’s top 20 countries with the highest number of female tech CEOs, according to UK based RS report. That may sound impressive . But even with 1,500 women CEOs heading tech companies in India, they just head a dismal 5 %, companies considering there are roughly 30,000-odd, tech firms in our country. There are approximately 432 million working-age women in India, of which 343 million are not paid for formal work. The women labour force participation rate is among the lowest in the world at 25%. Jordan, Iraq and Iran are the countries behind us. So even if women here got voting rights before the United States of America. What is holding our women back? PLEASE SUPPORT US on https://www.patreon.com/hashtagwomen REFERENCES https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/india-ranks-second-in-the-worlds-top-20-countries-with-highest-number-of-female-tech-ceos-even-at-a-dismal-5/articleshow/74503794.cms https://www.fortuneindia.com/people/fortune-india-500-why-are-there-so-few-women-leaders/103961 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pranab_Barman2/publication/344211713_Women_Education_and_Empowerment_in_India/links/5f5c438292851c07895fdd4b/Women-Education-and-Empowerment-in-India.pdf#page=112 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pranab_Barman2/publication/344211713_Women_Education_and_Empowerment_in_India/links/5f5c438292851c07895fdd4b/Women-Education-and-Empowerment-in-India.pdf#page=112 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Surender_Mor2/publication/343636537_Entrepreneurial_Intentions_Case_of_Indian_Women_Microentrepreneurs/links/5f4e3511458515a88ba84195/Entrepreneurial-Intentions-Case-of-Indian-Women-Microentrepreneurs.pdf WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2020.pdf ILO REPORT https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_650553.pdf RS report : https://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=did-you-know/countries-female-tech-ceos GOOGLE BAIN REPORT https://www.bain.com/contentassets/dd3604b612d84aa48a0b120f0b589532/report_powering_the_economy_with_her_-_women_entrepreneurship_in-india.pdf https://www.fortuneindia.com/people/fortune-india-500-why-are-there-so-few-women-leaders/103961 MUSIC https://www.zapsplat.com Somber SCP-x7x (6th Floor) by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/6737-scp-x7x-6th-floor- License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ SCP-x5x (Outer Thoughts) by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/6735-scp-x5x-outer-thoughts- License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Sweet Ukulele by Rafael Krux Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5948-sweet-ukulele License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CREDIT Dreamy Interlude by Alexander Nakarada Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/6669-dreamy-interlude License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/