India has moderate female entrepreneurship environment: Study

Australia has been named one of three best places for female entrepreneurship, together with the United States and Sweden, while India increased its ranking in 2014, compared to last year.

Announcing the results of the second annual Gender-Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI), Dell revealed that more than 75 per cent of the countries surveyed were not meeting the most fundamental conditions required for female entrepreneurs to prosper.

Among the 17 countries included in both the 2013 and 2014 Gender-GEDI reports, four increased their rankings, including India and Japan, while four showed a decline (Malaysia, Egypt, Mexico and Morocco), and the others ranked comparatively both years.

According to the study, India has moderate female entrepreneurship environment in terms of women identifying opportunities to start businesses (60per cent), feeling they have the skills (52per cent) and do not fear failure in starting a business (57per cent).

Occupation crowding, or the existence of ‘male’ and ‘female’ jobs in a country’s economy, not only contributes to the gender wage gap but also results in the concentration of women’s entrepreneurial activity within specific sectors, which can be detrimental to fully utilizing a nation’s innovative capacities.

Despite being ranked as top performers and characterized by overall favourable business environments, opportunity perception is fairly low in the United States and Europe with less than one third of the female population measured identifying business opportunities.

“The Gender-GEDI Index provides key insights designed to help countries advance female entrepreneurship and ultimately bolster the global economy. We believe awareness of the current landscape for women entrepreneurship is the first step toward change,” said Karen Quintos, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Dell.

The index is a diagnostic tool that comprehensively measures high potential female entrepreneurship by analysing entrepreneurial ecosystems, business environments and individual aspirations across 30 developed and developing economies spanning multiple regions, providing a systematic approach that allows cross-country comparison, benchmarking, and identifies data gaps.

The goal of the research is not to provide a headcount of female entrepreneurs worldwide, rather it is future-oriented and designed to be a tool to guide leaders, policymakers and law-makers in identifying country-wide strengths and weaknesses and developing strategies to create more favourable conditions in their countries to enable businesses founded by women to thrive.