A study reveals that only about two percent of startups are initiatives by women, and an even miniscule women population serves as a Chief executive of a company. So it is a common malady across the country, I guess. That not just the Lok Sabha, women are absent from the startup arena too. At the recent passing of women’s day, Startup Buzz decides to elucidate upon problems that our women entrepreneurs face. We examine women who have built their companies from scratch, what are the difficulties that the process entails for them, and whether or not being a woman adds to it, or takes away from it.

One of the first challenges of a woman as an entrepreneur is breaking the traditional mould. No matter how much we have developed as a society, a man is still considered the bread winner in reality. It isn’t an infirmity, it is something that has been passed down to us since ages, and a process of bringing about a change, altering roles, does take time. So we do not see women venturing into the work field as much as men, yes, not even now. They continue to be denied optimum potential merely on the basis of their gender.

Women may sometimes have to suffer a setback in entrepreneurship merely by virtue of being their own emotional, nurturing selves which serves as a hindrance in this profession. A number of women CEO’s admit to getting emotionally connected with the idea which inadvertently prevents them from taking tough decisions. Women tend to falter when it comes to lending a third person’s outlook to their businesses.

A major problem rises, when these female entrepreneurs look for mentors. The importance of mentorship in an entrepreneur’s life is indispensible. With the scarce women that venture into this field, most new women entrepreneurs often have nobody’s life and struggle to look up to, very few women’s lives of struggling with their businesses, families and other roles that society assigns to them. So they lack the support and strength to draw from other successful women entrepreneurs’ lives.

Most women also do not venture into it because it is an extremely demanding line of work, which would require definite sacrifices in almost all stages of life. Most do not want to devote themselves completely to a cause, for fear of missing out on the rest. And the few who do manage to establish both, have t continue to strive hard to maintain the work and life balance, which is a daunting task.