Entrepreneurship Meaning:-The origin of the basic word Entrepreneurship is from a French word Entreprendre, where it cradled and originally

meant to designate an organizer of certain musical or other entertainments. The Oxford English Dictionary (of 1897) defines the term Entrepreneur in similar way as the director or a manager of a public musical institution, one who gets-up entertainment arranged , especially musical performance. Initially in the early 16th century, it was applied to those who were engaged in military expeditions. In 17th century. It was extended to cover civil engineering activities such as construction and fortification. Since then, the term Entrepreneur is used in various ways and various views. These views are broadly classified into three groups namely:- Risk-Bearer Organizer Innovator Thus, a person who assumes and bears all types of risks involved in an enterprise, who organizes the various inputs or factors of production and who innovates news ideas, concepts, strategies and methodology in business from time to time is known as Entrepreneur. Women Entrepreneurship:- When we speak about the term Women Entrepreneurship we mean, an act of business ownership and business creation that empowers women economically, increases their economic strength as well as position in society. Hence women-entrepreneurs have been making a considerable impact in all most all the segments of the economy which is more than 25% of all kinds of business. In India Entrepreneurship is very limited amongst women especially in the formal sector, which is less than 5% of all the business. Objectives/ Purpose of Study:- The main purpose or objective of study of women entrepreneurship is as follows: a) To exhibit the encouraging and discouraging factors in an enterprise. b) Identification and analysis of all the shortcomings encountered by women in setting and establishing an industrial enterprise. c) To provide solutions to the various problems faced by the women entrepreneur group. Methodology of Study:- For methodology an extensive literature review of secondary data from various sources hasbeen held as related to the stated objectives of the study as well as research study on internet survey basis. Women Entrepreneurship Role in Todays Society :The emergence of entrepreneurs in a society depends to a great extent on economic, social, religious, cultural and psychological factors prevailing in the society. In many of the advanced countries of the world there is a phenomenal increase in the number of self-employed women after the world war. In U.S women own 25% of all business, even though there sales on an average are less than 2/5th of those

of other small business groups. In Canada, 1/3rd of small business are owned by women and in France, it is 1/5th. In U.K., since 1980, the number of self-employed women has increased 3 times as fast as the number of self employed men. They have made their mark in business for the following reasons highlighted below:- 1) They want to assume new and fresh challenges and opportunities for self-fulfillment. 2) They want to prove their personalities in an innovative, daring and competitive jobs. 3) They want to undertake changes to control the balance between their families responsibly and business obligations. Women Entrepreneurs in India:- Two main stream of thoughts have influenced the promotion of women entrepreneurship in India by the government as well as by various other agencies. The first stream is employment centered. It has been argued that considering their weaker bargaining power in the market as well as society, women should be given higher priority in various entrepreneurial schemes. The second most stream of thought relates to the argument for autonomy of women. There are three broad stages for this- I. Conceptualization II. Analysis of internal aspects III. Analysis of external aspectsInternal Aspects:- The motion of women industry itself has to be defined and further sub-divided. It is not functionally enough to state that it means all enterprises, run by women and are having more than 80% women employees. More important aspects are the background of the entrepreneur as well as the question, who the entrepreneur and his workers are. External Aspects:- Such group of factors are important for planning of women industry features, forward and backward linkages as well as the government policies and regulations that play an important role in determining the position of these enterprises in the economic structure. It takes care of development policy in relation for up-liftment of womens development and takes care for providing an economic secured environment for all women entrepreneur group. Position Status of Women Entrepreneurs:- Out of the total 940.48 million people in India, in the 1990s female comprise of 437.10 million representing 46.5 % of the total population. There are 126.48 million women work-force( representing 28.9% of the female population ) but as per the 1991 census only 185900 women accounting for only 4.5% of total self-employed persons in the country were recorded. Majority of them are engaged in the un-organized sector like agriculture , agro-based industries, handicrafts, handloom and cottage based industries.

Participation of women as industrial entrepreneurs, however is comparatively a recent phenomenon commencing from 70s era onwards. There were more than 2,95,680 women entrepreneurs claiming 11.2 % of total 2.64 million entrepreneurs in India, during 1995-96. This is almost double the percentage of women (5.2%) among the total population of self employed during 1981. On this, a majority were concentrated in low-paid, low-skilled, low-technology and low-productivity jobs in the rural and un-organized sector. Almost 79.4 million women workers were in the rural areas as against only 10% (86 million) in the urban areas. Only 2.5 million women workers were in the organized sector and a small percentage of 12.4 % were totalemployed. During the 8th, 5 year planning period the number of SSIs expected to rise from 1.7 million to 2.5 million adding 0.8 million in the 5 year period or 1.60 lakh every year. The rough estimate showed that amongst the SSI entrepreneurs approx 9 % were women entrepreneurs. Their participation, however is increasing. Thus considering the trend women participation in another 5 years was more 20% more, raising the number of women entrepreneurs to about 5,00,000. Therefore one could aim at developing atleast 3,50,000 women entrepreneurs during the 8th , 5 year planning period .through training and other developmental efforts. The present rate of 30% success in EDP training was likely to go up-to 45% with growing experience and improvedtechniques of training and followup. Based on this assumption for getting 3.5 lakh women entrepreneurs it was necessary to train and support about 7.78 lakh entrepreneurs, during the aforesaid period. As per the 2001 census report, there are 22.73% of women workers of the total working population including formal as well as informal sector. In the era of L.P.G (Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization) the Indian women entrepreneurs are very fast entering the non-traditional sectors, which indeed is in response to their grater awareness. Work participation of Indian women is 22% as per 1991 census and triple in rural areas around 27% and in urban areas 9%, thus the role and involvement of women entrepreneurs in rural sector is tremendously enhancing, the literacy levels increased ratio is also a significant factor of this positive trend in the field of entrepreneurship. To understand more specifically following figures are indicated ( taken from various internet sources) which indicate some facts and figure. For example Figure 1, indicates

the level of men and women participating in the field of entrepreneurship. As it can be clearly noticed from the graph that the number of male participation per thousand count in population is significantly more globally than the female group, starting from year 1996-97 till year 2007-08. Likewise when we see the participation of women at the various occupational positions we can notice that women have a higher percentage from 75-78.5% in administrative role /positions, second highest in service sector ranging from 59.9-61.1% and similarly in the various sectors of the economy which can be seen from Figure 2. Also, Figure 3 indicates women participation in the various sectors of industries such as information sector, ship-building, painting and glass making, manufacture of organic and in-organic compounds, smelting, alloying, refining, metallic and lead battery industry etc. As we can see further, Figure 4 indicates the level of literacy rates of females in overall India as well as in the state of Kerala, right from the year 1951-2001 and there is a rising trend from 7.93% in the initial year 1951 to 54.16 % in the year 2001 in the state of Kerala and when we notice all India level again a growing trend from 36.43% in the initial year 1951 to as high as 87.86% in the year 2001. So with the spread of more and more knowledge there is a general awareness been generated amongst people to encourage the policy of Female-Literacy. Finally moving on to next Figure 5, it shows the amount of compensation given to men and women designated as Product Managers at the various enterprise at the global level. Noticing the graph it clearly depicts that men are been paid more for their innovation, ideation, creative skills, enterprising attitude as compared to women which clearly need to be analyzed and strictly needs to be looked upon. Total Compensation to men and women Problems Associated With Women Entrepreneurs :- Basically all women entrepreneurs almost suffer from two main category of problems, such problems can be designated as follows:- 1) Specific Problems 2) General Problems. The first category of problems affect women specifically in their smooth operations of enterprise ,while the other category of problems have a general or over-all affect on the enterprises owned by such group pf women entrepreneurs. Over-all these problems can be summed up as under: Problem of Finances arrangement:- Finance is said to be the life blood of every business undertaking, be it

large or medium or small scale enterprise. Usually women entrepreneurs face the problems of shortage of finance on two important grounds. Firstly, women do not generally have property on their own names to use that as collateral securities for obtaining loans/funds from banks and other financial institutions. Thus their access to external sources is very limited .Secondly, the banks also consider women less credit worthy and discourage women borrowers on the belief that they cannot repay back the amount of loans taken by them. Scarcity of raw materials required for productive capacities:- They have to even face the problems of scarcity of raw-materials and necessary inputs. On the top of this, is the high prices of raw materials, on one hand and getting raw materials at minimum discount rates is the other. Cut-throat competition with other group of men and established self-sufficient entrepreneurs:- Women entrepreneurs do not have a proper organizational set-up to pump in a lot of money for canvassing and advertisements. Thus they have to face a stiff competition with the men entrepreneurs who easily involve in the promotion and development area and carry out easy marketing of their products with both the organized sector and their male counterparts. Such a competition ultimately results in the liquidation of women entrepreneurs. Limited mobility factor in case of women entrepreneurs:- Unlike men, women mobility in India is highly limited due to many factors/reasons. A single women asking for room is still looked with suspicion. Cumbersome exercise involved in starting with an enterprise coupled with officials humiliating attitude towards women compels them to give up their spirit of surviving in enterprise altogether. Family responsibilities, ties as well as commitments:In India, mainly a womans duty is to look after her children and manage the other members of the family. Man plays a secondary role only. Incase of married women she has to strike a fine balance between her business and family. Her total involvement in family leaves little or almost no time or energy to be diverted for the business activities. Support and approval of husbands seems to be necessary condition for women entry into business. Accordingly, the educational level and family background of husbands also influences women participation in the field of enterprise. Lack of education and prevalent levels of illiteracy amongst women:- In India, around 3/5th (60%) of women are still illiterate. Illiteracy is the root cause of socio-economic

barriers or hurdles. Due to lack of education and that to qualitative education, women are not aware of business, technology and market knowledge. Also lack of education causes low achievement motivation amongst women. Thus lack of education creates problems before women to set up competitive enterprises. Domination by male and ideology of male dominated society:- Male chauvinism is still prevalent in many parts of the country yet. The constitution of India speaks about the equality between both the sexes, i.e. men and women. But in practice, women are looked upon as abla i.e. weak in all respects. Thus women suffer from a number of problems , in a nutshell in a male dominated society, women are not treated equal to men. This in turn, serves as a barrier to womans entry into business. Lesser risk and uncertainty bearing attitude:Women in India lead a protected life. They are even less educated and economically not stable neither self-depended. All these factors reduce their ability to bear risks and uncertainties involved in a business unit, which is the most important criteria of every business activity. Lack of self-confidence and optimistic attitude amongst women :- Today all the women are suffering from one major problem of lack of self-confidence, will-power, strong mental outlook, optimism etc. They always fear from committing mistakes while doing their piece of work, more over there is limited initiative of taking risk and bearing uncertainty in them. Thus all these psychological factors often obstructs their path of achieving success in the area of enterprise. Old and outdated social outlook to stop womenfrom entering in the field of entrepreneurship:- Also one of the dominant reason for their failure is the attitude of society people towards their modern business prospects and developing attitude. Women nowadays have low risk taking ability because of the number of questions put forward by the conservative society people. Thus they are under a social pressure which restrains them to prosper and achieve success in the field of entrepreneurship. Absence of proper support and back-up for women by their own family members and the outside world people:- Many a times their own family members are not supporting and cooperating as well as having encouraging attitude to dare to enter into the entrepreneurship field. They are always making many pessimistic feelings to be aroused in their minds and making them feel that family and

not business is a place meant for them. Due to such limited scope of help and cooperation from family and other people, they drop the idea of excelling in the enterprise field. Apart from the above discussed problems there may occur other series of serious problems faced by women entrepreneurs are improper infrastructural facilities, high cost of production, attitude of people of society towards the women modern business outlook, low needs of achievement and socio-economic constraints often puts women behind in the field of enterprise. Solutions for solving the above discussed problems:On the basis of the above mentioned problems faced by women entrepreneurs and various other problems too, there is a provision of a number of solution measures to overcome the aforesaid problems. Such solutions or remedies can be well understood as under:- There should be a continuous attempt to inspire, encourage, motivate and cooperate women entrepreneurs. Attempts should be there to enhance the standards of education of women in general as well making effective provisions for their training, practical experience and personality development programmes, to improvise their over-all personality standards. Attempts to establish for them proper training institutes for enhancing their level of work-knowledge, skills, risk-taking abilities, enhancing their capabilities. Attempts to bring about a society attitude change, generation of awareness and consciousness on the policy of self-development of women entrepreneurs. Attempts by various NGOs and government organizations to spread information about policies, plans and strategies on the development of women in the field of industry, trade and commerce. Establishing various policies to offer easy finance schemes for economically strengthening the position of women. Forming a cooperative association of women entrepreneurs to mobilize resources and pooling capital funds, in order to help the women in the field of industry, trade and commerce. Offering seed capital, up-liftment schemes, women entrepreneursfund etc. to encourage them economically. To extend confessional rates facilities and schemes for women entrepreneurs to prosper in the field of enterprise. To establish all India forum to discuss the problems, grievances, issues, and filing complaints against constraints or shortcomings towards the economic progress path of women entrepreneurs and giving suitable decisions in the favour of women entrepreneurs and taking strict stand against the policies or strategies that obstruct the path of

economic development of such group of women entrepreneurs. Thus by adopting the following aforesaid measures in letter and spirit the problems associated with women can be solved. Future Prospects of Development of Women Entrepreneurs:If we see the present business and entrepreneurship trend throughout the world, we can notice that the percentage or ratio of women entrepreneurs is growing tremendously. This is a good indicator as if the aforesaid condition prevails through a long period of time the number of women entrepreneurs will just double and even in certain sectors of economy it may triple in the coming 5-7 years. The emergence as well as development of women entrepreneurs is quite visible in India and their over-all contribution to Indian economy is also very significant. The occupational structure and the enterprises are undergoing a drastic change. IT and the Internet revolutionize the very method of doing business. New types of enterprises are created, and there are new requirements as regards the organization of work, qualifications and management. For example in Denmark, Entrepreneurial culture is undergoing a positive development. The Government wants this trend to continue. Therefore the Governments industrial policy strategy .dk 21 contains a series of political initiatives to foster the entrepreneurial culture and to improve the framework of provisions for all entrepreneurs, especially the women group of entrepreneurs. Several of the initiatives are especially useful for women entrepreneurs improvement of the entrepreneurial culture, regional contact points and entrepreneur networks as well as more ready access to financing, especially to small loans. These initiatives are to be further adjusted to appeal to women entrepreneurs. All this is providing immense confidence in the women entrepreneurs and enabling them to exercise their skills, risk taking abilities, uncertainty bearing attitude while working in an enterprise. To inspire confidence and to sell ones idea is the policynowadays being adopted by women entrepreneurs. Above all, women want competent counseling in various fields: such as namely: financing, liquidity, budgeting, etc. Women entrepreneurs also want more appreciation of their idea on the part of the banks. Many say, however, that they themselves must also be better at selling their idea. More-over with increasing government and non-government and other financial institutions assistance for various women entrepreneurs within the economy there can be significant increase brought about in the growth of women entrepreneurship

process. Still efforts are being made to coordinate with the enterprise activities of women and providing them utmost financial, morale, psychological support by various institutions working within the economy and world-wide. Conclusion :- It can be said that today we are in a better position wherein women participation in the field of entrepreneurship is increasing at a considerable rate, efforts are being taken at the economy as well as global level to enhance womans involvement in the enterprise sector. This is mainly because of attitude change, diverted conservative mindset of society to modern one, daring and risk-taking abilities of women, support and cooperation by society members, changes and relaxations in government policies, granting various up-liftment schemes to women entrepreneurs etc. Thus, what else is required is to continue with the above changed trend, emphasizing on educating women strata of population, spreading awareness and consciousness amongst women to outshine in the enterprise field, making them realize their strengths, and important position in the society and the great contribution they can make for their industry as well as the entire economy. For this many NGOs should also come forward to extend their support services in the form of pooling financial resources for helping them and spreading education amongst various category of people of the society to encourage womans in their families to represent themselves in the entrepreneurship sector and earn a good name, reputation, financial status, and goodwill in the field of industry, trade and commerce. If every citizen works with such an attitude towards respecting the important position occupied by women in society and understanding their vital role in the modern business field too, then very soon we can pre-estimate our chances of out beating our own conservative and rigid thought process which is the biggest barrier in our countrys development process. We can promise ourselves and make a sincere commitment of contributing to the field of women entrepreneurship at individual level which un-doubtedly bring drastic positive change in growth and development of women entrepreneurship at country and even at a global level. Concept of Women as an entrepreneur in India: Entrepreneurship has gained currency across the sphere and female- entrepreneurship has become an important module. India is one of the fastest emerging economies and the importance of entrepreneurship is realized across the gamut. Women Entrepreneurship means an act of business ownership and business creation that empowers women economically increases their economic strength as well as

position in society. Women-entrepreneurs have been making a considerable impact in all most all the segments of the economy.Women Entrepreneur is a person who denies the role of their personal needs to participate and be accepted economically independent. Strong desire to do something positive is a high-quality women entrepreneur who contributes to the position values of family and social life. An enterprise owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of 51% of capital and giving at least 51% of the employment generated by the enterprise to women.

Introduction Women Entrepreneurs may be defined as the women or a group of women who initiate, organize and operate a business enterprise. Government of India has defined women entrepreneurs as an enterprise owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of 51% of the capital and giving at least 51% of employment generated in the enterprise to women. Like a male entrepreneurs a women entrepreneur has many functions. They should explore the prospects of starting new enterprise; undertake risks, introduction of new innovations, coordination administration and control of business and providing effective leadership in all aspects of business. Push-Pull factors and Women in business Women in business are a recent phenomenon in India. By and large they had confide themselves to petty business and tiny cottage industries. Women entrepreneurs engaged in business due to push and pull factors. Which encourage women to have an independent occupation and stands on their on legs. A sense towards independent decision-making on their life and career is the motivational factor behind this urge. Saddled with household chores and domestic responsibilities women want to get independence Under the influence of these factors the women entrepreneurs choose a profession as a challenge and as an urge to do some thing new. Such situation is described as pull factors. While in push factors women engaged in business activities due to family compulsion and the responsibility is thrust upon them. Problems of Women Entrepreneurs in India Women in India are faced many problems to get ahead their life in business. A few problems cane be detailed as; 1. The greatest deterrent to women entrepreneurs is that they are women. A kind of patriarchal male dominant social order is the building block to them in their way towards business success. Male members think it a big risk financing the ventures run by women. 2. The financial institutions are skeptical about the entrepreneurial abilities of women. The bankers consider women loonies as higher risk than men loonies. The bankers put unrealistic and unreasonable securities to get loan to women entrepreneurs. According to a report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), "despite evidence that women's loan repayment rates are higher than men's, women still face more difficulties in obtaining credit," often due to discriminatory attitudes of banks and informal lending groups (UNIDO, 1995b).

3. Entrepreneurs usually require financial assistance of some kind to launch their ventures be it a formal bank loan or money from a savings account. Women in developing nations have little access to funds, due to the fact that they are concentrated in poor rural communities with few opportunities to borrow money (Starcher, 1996; UNIDO, 1995a). The women entrepreneurs are suffering from inadequate financial resources and working capital. The women entrepreneurs lack access to external funds due to their inability to provide tangible security. Very few women have the tangible property in hand. 4. Women's family obligations also bar them from becoming successful entrepreneurs in both developed and developing nations. "Having primary responsibility for children, home and older dependent family members, few women can devote all their time and energies to their business" (Starcher, 1996, p. 8).The financial institutions discourage women entrepreneurs on the belief that they can at any time leave their business and become housewives again. The result is that they are forced to rely on their own savings, and loan from relatives and family friends. 5. Indian women give more emphasis to family ties and relationships. Married women have to make a fine balance between business and home. More over the business success is depends on the support the family members extended to women in the business process and management. The interest of the family members is a determinant factor in the realization of women folk business aspirations. 6. Another argument is that women entrepreneurs have low-level management skills. They have to depend on office staffs and intermediaries, to get things done, especially, the marketing and sales side of business. Here there is more probability for business fallacies like the intermediaries take major part of the surplus or profit. Marketing means mobility and confidence in dealing with the external world, both of which women have been discouraged from developing by social conditioning. Even when they are otherwise in control of an enterprise, they often depend on males of the family in this area. 7. The male - female competition is another factor, which develop hurdles to women entrepreneurs in the business management process. Despite the fact that women entrepreneurs are good in keeping their service prompt and delivery in time, due to lack of organisational skills compared to male entrepreneurs women have to face constraints from competition. The confidence to travel across day and night and even different regions and states are less found in women compared to male entrepreneurs. This shows the low level freedom of expression and freedom of mobility of the women entrepreneurs. 8. Knowledge of alternative source of raw materials availability and high negotiation skills are the basic requirement to run a business. Getting the raw materials from different souse with discount prices is the factor that determines the profit margin. Lack of knowledge of availability of the raw materials and low-level negotiation and bargaining skills are the factors, which affect women entrepreneur's business adventures. 9. Knowledge of latest technological changes, know how, and education level of the person are significant factor that affect business. The literacy rate of women in India is found at low level compared to male population. Many women in developing nations lack the education needed to spur successful entrepreneurship. They are ignorant of new technologies or unskilled in their use, and often unable to do research and gain the necessary training (UNIDO, 1995b, p.1). Although great advances are being made in technology, many women's illiteracy, strucutural difficulties, and lack of access to technical training prevent the technology from being beneficial or even available to females ("Women Entrepreneurs in

Poorest Countries," 2001). According to The Economist, this lack of knowledge and the continuing treatment of women as second-class citizens keeps them in a pervasive cycle of poverty ("The Female Poverty Trap," 2001). The studies indicates that uneducated women donot have the knowledge of measurement and basic accounting. 10. Low-level risk taking attitude is another factor affecting women folk decision to get into business. Low-level education provides low-level self-confidence and self-reliance to the women folk to engage in business, which is continuous risk taking and strategic cession making profession. Investing money, maintaining the operations and ploughing back money for surplus generation requires high risk taking attitude, courage and confidence. Though the risk tolerance ability of the women folk in day-to-day life is high compared to male members, while in business it is found opposite to that. 11. Achievement motivation of the women folk found less compared to male members. The low level of education and confidence leads to low level achievement and advancement motivation among women folk to engage in business operations and running a business concern. 12. Finally high production cost of some business operations adversely affects the development of women entrepreneurs. The installation of new machineries during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factors dissuades the women entrepreneurs from venturing into new areas. How to Develop Women Entrepreneurs? Right efforts on from all areas are required in the development of women entrepreneurs and their greater participation in the entrepreneurial activities. Following efforts can be taken into account for effective development of women entrepreneurs. 1. Consider women as specific target group for all developmental programmes. 2. Better educational facilities and schemes should be extended to women folk from government part. 3. Adequate training programme on management skills to be provided to women community. 4. Encourage women's participation in decision-making. 5. Vocational training to be extended to women community that enables them to understand the production process and production management. 6. Skill development to be done in women's polytechnics and industrial training institutes. Skills are put to work in training-cum-production workshops. 7. Training on professional competence and leadership skill to be extended to women entrepreneurs. 8. Training and counselling on a large scale of existing women entrepreneurs to remove psychological causes like lack of self-confidence and fear of success. 9. Counselling through the aid of committed NGOs, psychologists, managerial experts and technical personnel should be provided to existing and emerging women entrepreneurs.

10. Continuous monitoring and improvement of training programmes. 11. Activities in which women are trained should focus on their marketability and profitability. 12. Making provision of marketing and sales assistance from government part. 13. To encourage more passive women entrepreneurs the Women training programme should be organised that taught to recognize her own psychological needs and express them. 14. State finance corporations and financing institutions should permit by statute to extend purely trade related finance to women entrepreneurs. 15. Women's development corporations have to gain access to open-ended financing. 16. The financial institutions should provide more working capital assistance both for small scale venture and large scale ventures. 17. Making provision of micro credit system and enterprise credit system to the women entrepreneurs at local level. 18. Repeated gender sensitisation programmes should be held to train financiers to treat women with dignity and respect as persons in their own right. 19. Infrastructure, in the form of industrial plots and sheds, to set up industries is to be provided by state run agencies. 20. Industrial estates could also provide marketing outlets for the display and sale of products made by women. 21. A Women Entrepreneur's Guidance Cell set up to handle the various problems of women entrepreneurs all over the state. 22. District Industries Centres and Single Window Agencies should make use of assisting women in their trade and business guidance. 23. Programmes for encouraging entrepreneurship among women are to be extended at local level. 24. Training in entrepreneurial attitudes should start at the high school level through welldesigned courses, which build confidence through behavioral games. 25. More governmental schemes to motivate women entrepreneurs to engage in small scale and large-scale business ventures. 26. Involvement of Non Governmental Organisations in women entrepreneurial training programmes and counselling. Conclusion

Independence brought promise of equality of opportunity in all sphere to the Indian women and laws guaranteeing for their equal rights of participation in political process and equal opportunities and rights in education and employment were enacted. But unfortunately, the government sponsored development activities have benefited only a small section of women. The large majority of them are still unaffected by change and development activities have benefited only a small section of women i.e. the urban middle class women. The large majority of them are still unaffected by change and development. The reasons are well sighted in the discussion part of this article. It is hoped that the suggestions forwarded in the article will help the entrepreneurs in particular and policy-planners in general to look into this problem and develop better schemes, developmental programmes and opportunities to the women folk to enter into more entrepreneurial ventures. This article here tries to recollect some of the successful women entrepreneurs like Ekta Kapoor, Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CEO, Biocon, Shahnaz Husain and Vimalben M Pawale, Ex President, Sri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad (SMGULP).

Women entrepreneurs face a series of problems right from the beginning till the the enterprise functions. Being a woman itself poses various problems to a woman entrepreneur, The problems of Indian women pertains to her responsibility towards family, society and lion work. The tradition, customs, socio cultural values, ethics, motherhood subordinates to ling husband and men, physically weak, hard work areas, feeling of insecurity, cannot be tough etc are some peculiar problems that the Indian women are coming across while they jump into entrepreneurship. Women in rural areas have to suffer still further. They face tough resistance from men. They are considered as helpers. The attitude of society towards her and constraints in which she has to live and work are not very conducive. Besides the above basic problems the other problems faced by women entrepreneurs are as follows: 1. Family ties: Women in India are very emotionally attached to their families. They are supposed to attend to all the domestic work, to look after the children and other members of the family. They are over burden with family responsibilities like extra attention to husband, children and in laws which take away a lots of their time and energy. In such situation, it will be very difficult to concentrate and run the enterprise successfully. 2. Male dominated society: Even though our constitution speaks of equality between sexes, male chauvinism is still the order of the day. Women are not treated equal to men. Their entry to business requires the approval of the head of the family. Entrepreneurship has traditionally been seen as a male preserve. All these puts a break in the growth of women entrepreneurs. 3. Lack of education:

Women in India are lagging far behind in the field of education. Most of the women (around sixty per cent of total women) are illiterate. Those who are educated are provided either less or inadequate education than their male counterpart partly due to early marriage, partly due to son's higher education and partly due to poverty. Due to lack of proper education, women entrepreneurs remain in dark about the development of new technology, new methods of production, marketing and other governmental support which will encourage them to flourish. 4. Social barriers: The traditions and customs prevailed in Indian societies towards women sometimes stand as an obstacle before them to grow and prosper. Castes and religions dominate with one another and hinders women entrepreneurs too. In rural areas, they face more social barriers. They are always seen with suspicious eyes. 5. Shortage of raw materials: The scarcity of raw materials, sometimes nor, availability of proper and adequate raw materials sounds the death-knell of the enterprises run by women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs really face a tough task in getting the required raw material and other necessary inputs for the enterprises when the prices are very high. 6. Problem of finance: Women entrepreneurs stiffer a lot in raising and meeting the financial needs of the business. Bankers, creditors and financial institutes are not coming forward to provide financial assistance to women borrowers on the ground of their less credit worthiness and more chances of business failure. They also face financial problem due to blockage of funds in raw materials, work-inprogress finished goods and non-receipt of payment from customers in time. 7. Tough competition: Usually women entrepreneurs employ low technology in the process of production. In a market where the competition is too high, they have to fight hard to survive in the market against the organised sector and their male counterpart who have vast experience and capacity to adopt advanced technology in managing enterprises 8. High cost of production: Several factors including inefficient management contribute to the high cost of production which stands as a stumbling block before women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs face technology obsolescence due to non-adoption or slow adoption to changing technology which is a major factor of high cost of production. 9.Low risk-bearing capacity:

Women in India are by nature weak, shy and mild. They cannot bear the amount risk which is essential for running an enterprise. Lack of education, training and financial support from outsides also reduce their ability to bear the risk involved in an enterprises. 10 Limited mobility: Women mobility in India is highly limited and has become a problem due to traditional values and inability to drive vehicles. Moving alone and asking for a room to stay out in the night for business purposes are still looked upon with suspicious eyes. Sometimes, younger women feel uncomfortable in dealing with men who show extra interest in them than work related aspects. 11. Lack of entrepreneurial aptitude: Lack of entrepreneurial aptitude is a matter of concern for women entrepreneurs. They have no entrepreneurial bent of mind. Even after attending various training programmes on entrepreneur ship women entrepreneurs fail to tide over the risks and troubles that may come up in an organisational working. 12. Limited managerial ability: Management has become a specialised job which only efficient managers perform. Women entrepreneurs are not efficient in managerial functions like planning, organising, controlling, coordinating, staffing, directing, motivating etc. of an enterprise. Therefore, less and limited managerial ability of women has become a problem for them to run the enterprise successfully. 13. Legal formalities: Fulfilling the legal formalities required for running an enterprise becomes an upheaval task on the part of an women entrepreneur because of the prevalence of corrupt practices in government offices and procedural delays for various licenses, electricity, water and shed allotments. In such situations women entrepreneurs find it hard to concentrate on the smooth working of the enterprise. 14. Exploitation by middle men: Since women cannot run around for marketing, distribution and money collection, they have to depend on middle men for the above activities. Middle men tend to exploit them in the guise of helping. They add their own profit margin which result in less sales and lesser profit. 15. Lack of self confidence: Women entrepreneurs because of their inherent nature, lack of self-confidence which is essentially a motivating factor in running an enterprise successfully. They have to strive hard to strike a balance between managing a family and managing an enterprise. Sometimes she has to sacrifice her entrepreneurial urge in order to strike a balance between the two.

INTRODUCTION Entrepreneur is the key factor of entre-preneurship and now women have been recognized as successful entrepreneurs as they have qualities desirable and relevant for entrepreneurship development. In the process of entrepreneurship, women have to face various problems associated with entrepreneurship and these problems get doubled because of her dual role as a wage earner and a homemaker. According to Reddi (1991) women entrepreneurs in Goa feel frustrated at times because they need to spare their time and energy, both towards their business as well as domestic affairs. Women in India constitute a larger proportion of total unemployed population and hence it is imperative to find out the entrepreneurial constraints faced by them. Therefore, with a view to develop guidelines on the basis of problems faced by them, this study has been done with the following specific objectives: 1. to ascertain the financial, marketing and production constraints faced by women in their enterprises; 2. assessment of their health status and work place facilities; 3. to develop guidelines for becoming a successful entrepreneur.