Women, Networking & Entrepreneurship
Recently, a friend of mine mentioned that she was planning to start up a Women Entrepreneur’s Group in Bangalore, and asked me if I’d like to join up. Now, I am a woman and I am self-employed, so I do fit the definition, but something held me back from giving a very enthusiastic response. I wondered whether women as entrepreneurs faced distinct and unique challenges which created the need for such a group. After all, generating funding, identifying a market, attracting customers, sustaining cash flow - these are issues that all entrepreneurs must face. I did however see one point in such a group.
Women in white collar jobs (the audience for this group) often do not have the same networking opportunities that men do. Numerically, men usually outnumber women by a large factor, in most industries. Men tend to go out together for a drink or generally hang out in informal circles, where women usually are not that comfortable (except in some fairly progressive industries such as media or advertising, where gender doesn’t seem to make such a difference). Women therefore get lesser exposure to new ideas, trends, important people who can help make deals or even just to industry gossip. A women’s networking group can then, in a sense help to introduce women entrepreneurs to others in related industries and throw open some opportunities which don’t come by so easily.
There could also be some subjects that appeal mainly to women. Balancing a business with a family, for instance is not a topic that most Indian men are likely to be concerned with, at the moment. A networking group may not really “help” in such an area, but women entrepreneurs may find it useful to talk to others in a similiar situation.
My friend also told me that one reason she was starting a women-specific group was that other existing networking groups in the city, often met at times inconvenient for women with families. And this is where I started thinking whether a networking group would really make much of a difference. While not denying that women have fewer opportunities to network, I wonder if women’s progress in a workplace or at their own businesses is held back not so much by lack of networking, as by the fact that women are usually the sole care-givers for children. As long as women see themselves as the sole (or primary) care-giver of children, and familial as well as societal expectations also support this, will it matter much even if convenient timings are found?
Even those women who come back to full-time jobs or run their own businesses may find themselves holding back due to home commitments. Socialising with colleagues or meeting a potential new client in the evening may take a backseat if the children are waiting at home. Any time can be a bad time for networking, simply because childcare often is a full-time job. And this really is the key difference between men’s and women’s career paths : It’s not just that men are better at networking (perhaps because there are more men around) or that they get more opportunities at it; it’s simply that men can more easily afford the time to do it. As Deb over at In a Strange Land puts it, women need wives too!
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I guess , we all need to acknowledge that , biologically and socially , women are different than men ….ChildCare i think is a woman centric job …. were we in our chilhoods ..not more comfortable in our mom’s company than our dad’s ? ( ofcourse exceptions are there ..) …
Cyan_sky - biologically, yes, which is part of the reason why women need more time off, but otherwise, some of it is definitely constructed roles. I don’t think kids are naturally more comfortable in one parent’s company or that childcare is a woman centric role - breastfeeding yes, childcare no.
I think the fact that men seem to believe that their wives will/preferred if they do what their mother’s did for them. Men whose mothers were there all through their school days at home, mostly end up feeling any women should do it. I think that is where the issue is.
Maybe if men accept what the woman wants to do, that will ensure a happier home for the children to grow in.
Aathira - I think it is a little more complex than that; while some men may prefer that their wives confine themselves to traditional roles, many men today no doubt are more liberal. Child care however is one area which is so closely linked with motherhood that both women and men may not be able to delink it easily. We could say, then, what is the harm, if most women accept it as their role? The conflict occurs because today many women want to do other things as well, and we don’t yet have a solution - until both women and men accept that it is possible for men to participate equally in most areas of child care.
Apu, I agree that a lot of the roles that we take on today are driven by the definitions society has impressed upon us - starting from early childhood. An example that I have been seeing over the last 5 years is that boys, my sons and their friends love the color pink, they love to “dress up” like their sisters or their mothers, I believe that in doing so, they are satisfying primal urges in human beings to beautify and decorate themselves. I know some families that dissuaded their boys and some that didn’t - and I have to say that for the boys on whom it was impressed that dressing up is a girly thing to do, they caught on failry quickly and started mocking the boys that were yet to get this idea. Drawing from this, I believe that we are all nurturing to a huge extent - however society by defining so, makes women proud to be nurturers and men ashamed to take on that role, nurses are largely women as are day care providers. That said, I do know that when I stay late at work and miss my children’s bedtime or dinnertime, I am usually wringing myself dry with guilt, my husband though feels none of that when the roles are reversed and I cannot for the life of me figure out whether that is because of society or some deep rooted feeling only moms are blessed with.
Laksh - this question of where biological impulses end and where socialisation begins, is something scientists have been trying to answer, without complete success. Whatever the findings, and I don’t deny that biology can have any role - still, it is used to account for things excessively, is my belief. As your examples show, things are not that black-and-white-ly divided between the genders.
Hi,
I think you (and a few from your network) might be interested in this initiative: http://TiEStreeShakti.org
hey !
The networking group we spoke about is up on Linkedin. Do join in when u have the time. We’ll also be having our first meet in the first week of April , Keep yourself free.