Balancing Business And Family Is The Biggest Struggle: DWA Polls

While Digital Women Awards celebrated the achievements of female entrepreneur it also tried to keep the conversation around the issues women entrepreneurs face going. With so many female achievers under one roof, we decided to conduct a poll. We asked them everything from their entrepreneurial struggles, to need for creating a supportive environment and their risk-bearing abilities. The results give us a clear directive on what needs to be worked upon, to make entrepreneurship easier and more accessible for women in India. Take a look at the results.

On the major challenges faced by women entrepreneurs

Surprisingly, 55.13% of attendees thought that the major challenge which women entrepreneurs face in our society is their own self-limiting doubts. A 20.51% women opined that it was casual sexism, while 19.23% thought it was the biases in funding they faced due to their gender.

Roadblocks during Pitching 

A total of 44.58% women entrepreneurs said that when pitching, the primary roadblock they face is a conservative approach to pitching numbers. While 28.92% said that women needed a male partner to be taken seriously.

What do women entrepreneurs struggle most with?

According to 52% participants, it is the task of balancing business and family life which is their biggest struggle. A total of 25.33% believe it is a struggle for them to build a support network. However, for 13.33 % women present it is the struggle to be taken seriously.

Is there a difference in risk-bearing abilities of men and women entrepreneurs?

According to 45.71% of women, there is no difference in risk-bearing abilities based on gender. They believe a woman's risk-bearing abilities in business is as good or bad as that of a man. 28.57% women present said they are practical in approach when it came to risk bearing, while only 14.29 % said they were conservative in risk bearing.

On lack of support from the government

51.39% women said they felt there was a lack of adequate support from the government for female entrepreneurs. However, 33.33%  disagreed while 15.28% were unsure.

A lot needs to be done to create a supportive environment 

This was one question where the majority of women felt that women need to explore all the approaches to create a supportive environment for themselves. A majority, 46.27% of women felt they needed to ask for help, get a great support staff and also create a network of women who could pitch in.

On barriers to female leadership

Polling on the most significant barrier to female leadership gave a mixed bag of results, with one option performing a little better than others. 38.57% participants said the most significant barrier was the emotional burden of being the primary caregiver. On the other hand, not being taken seriously and innate sexism in the professional space claimed 27.14% and 25.71% votes respectively.

The need to form a strong support system for each other

Only 35.82% percent of women voted that women entrepreneurs were very supportive of each other, while 37.31%  voters said the support within a female businesswomen community was average. The results hint that women need to work more on forming a strong support network among themselves.

Talking money

41.67% women indicated that they hesitated to talk big numbers when discussing money, while 31.25% said they very totally comfortable with it. A 10.42%, however, said they were absolutely not comfortable with discussing money.

Also Read : Some Powerful Quotes From Digital Women Awards 2018