Women's participation in business could mean less chances of failure

Any business venture, well-established or new, involves taking risks. As uncertain as it gets, it still is an essential part of succeeding in any business endeavor. The question then remains: how do we minimize our chances of failure? HR Khan, RBI’s deputy governor, has a solution to this problem.

Khan, while addressing the national risk summit of CII in Mumbai, said, one of the best ways to mitigate risks in the corporate world is to increase women's involvement in the decision making process. The reason he explained was that women are not as risk-taking as their male counterparts, adding that research proves this.

According to a report by FirstPost, he said, “We can even think of gender balance in decision making, the mostly ignored aspect of the “inclusiveness” discussions,” adding what IMF chief Christine Lagarde, once said “had Lehman Brothers been Lehman Sisters today’s economic crisis would look quite different”. He then recalled the success of Mohammed Younus who turned to women to make ‘micro finance’ what it is today.

Khan is not the first leader to point this out; women and men in important positions all across the world have talked about the ways in which businesses can benefit with better participation from women. Yet, majority of countries around the world, including India have failed to initiate any concrete programmes that could change this.

According to the 2011 census, reports FirstPost, the workforce participation rate for females is 25.51 percent whereas for males it is 53.26 percent. The figures also revealed that compared to urban areas, rural areas have better female workforce participation: 30.02 percent females and 53.03 percent for males. In urban areas, the participation rate of females is 15.44 percent against 53.76 percent of males.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: FirstPost

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