Women entrepreneurship in India: Challenges, enablers and policy implications

Women entrepreneurship in India: Challenges, enablers and policy implications

Author : Dr. Nisha Pillai

Open Access | Volume 2 Issue 5 | 2025 | Pages 10–23

https://doi.org/10.63665/ijemi-y2f5a002

How to Cite :

Pillai, N., "Women entrepreneurship in India: Challenges, enablers and policy implications", International Journal of Economics and Management Intellectuals [IJEMI], 2025, 2(5): pp. 10–23.
Journal Book

Abstract

Women entrepreneurship has emerged as a major driver of economic growth, employment generation, and innovation in India. Women entrepreneurs, although making considerable progress, are still faced with certain socio-cultural, financial, and institutional challenges which restrict business size and performance. There is an advanced analysis presented here of the nuance of the Indian women entrepreneurs' constraints and of the principal facilitators that are responsible for entrepreneurial achievement, including education, mentoring, technology transfer, and institutional facilitation. The study is grounded in a mixed-methods research method, involving quantitative surveys of women's businesses and qualitative interviews of business development organizations and policy makers. Research captures focal policies' core roles of financing access, network creation, and ecosystem facilitation towards inclusive gender entrepreneurship. Policy recommendations are attracted to improve financing access, raise skill training programs, leverage digital platforms, and craft facilitation networks. Research supports theory inquiry and policymaking at practitioner levels and formulates actionable recommendations towards empowering women entrepreneurs and inclusive economic growth in India.

Keywords

Keywords - Women Entrepreneurship, India, Challenges, Enablers, Policy Implications, Financial Inclusion, Skill Development, Digital Platforms, Institutional Support, Inclusive Growth.

Conclusion

Indian women entrepreneurship is at a crossroads where socio-economic change, digital empowerment, and policy architecture paradigm changes are meeting to rewrite the script of women's enterprise. The study elucidates that notwithstanding withering structural challenges either socio-cultural and financial exclusion or skill differentials Indian women entrepreneurs have shown unprecedented resilience and creativity in overcoming these obstacles. Empowerment schemes, web portals, and institutional support networks have facilitated a gradual shift away from subsistence entrepreneurship towards growth-oriented business in urban and semi-urban areas. Regional disparities and the access gap for women, however, still limit the actualization of the full entrepreneurial potential of women. This evolution needs to be pluralistic and sustainable with an interplay of tailored financial instruments, skill-upgrading schemes, mentor networks, and gender-insensitive policymaking. The research is indicative of the necessity for more than token policies of support to systemic change where women are not just participants but the force behind economic change. As India strives to become the entrepreneurial world hub, facilitating women entrepreneurship is no longer a call of social justice; it's an economic necessity that has the potential to unlock innovation, employment, and growth that is inclusive. Institutional coordination would be deepened, women business visibility would be developed, and financial and digital literacy would be encouraged as the building blocks of a strong and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem. In effect, the future of women entrepreneurship in India is found in translating opportunity into lasting empowerment and ensuring women's entrepreneurial ethos becomes a continued point of national economic development focus.

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