India currently stands at around 8 million women entrepreneurs which did not happen in an easy way. There are multiple factors supporting this shift such as amendments in policies, more gender intelligent schemes, social upliftment, more women graduating and so on.
The scenario is indeed transforming with more women coming out of their boundaries to pursue something different and rather difficult. Women entrepreneurship is not a new thing in India and now more of these women are shifting to new-age startups, we see more women in EdTech, FinTech, MedTech, Film industry, business and more.
In the second part of our women’s series, we are introducing you to another remarkable woman professional who started a legaltech space – Presolv360 which is an online dispute resolution platform. Namita Shah, a gold medalist in chartered accountancy along with a degree in law, infuses technology in law to do online commercial dispute resolution via electronic arbitration and mediation. Shah is attempting to make dispute resolution cheaper, faster and better. Her work has been widely recognized through awards and accolades and she was one of the top 60 in the ‘Women Transforming India, 2018’ initiative of the Government of India.
We talked to Namita to understand her journey as an entrepreneur, and especially as a female entrepreneur focusing on our theme of women achievers. As we asked her some important questions, she poured her heart out to tell us what it really is to be a female professional in the male dominated sectors where you are hardly taken seriously, be it by your colleagues or by your clients; but also, how thrilling it is to be an exemplary professional for the generations to come regardless of their gender.
Watch her video and read her thoughts on the acceptability of women’s leadership, gender playing a role at work and during promotions, biases at the workplace, empowering women for external roles or sensitising men for domestic roles.
Namita: I work in the legal-tech space (Presolv360 is an online dispute resolution platform). Legal and tech, both, traditionally, have been male dominated, although they cater equally to all genders. However, over the past few years, this has been changing. More women are coming forward in the legal space as well as in the tech world, and even in the legal-tech industry. Only when all genders are well-represented at the leadership level, can there be powerful solutions for our societies.
Having said that, undoubtedly, it is harder for women to progress to leadership roles in organisations across sizes. There is a bias which enters the room before a woman does, about her abilities to manage the higher position along with managing domestic responsibilities. Figuratively speaking, if a man starts a race at the starting line, a woman starts it at least 100 metres before the starting line, and is still expected to compete in the same race. We hope that the next generation gets equal opportunities and talent (not gender) becomes the evaluation factor.
Another aspect of women in leadership roles is that the junior colleagues often feel uncomfortable listening to women seniors. They often react differently to a male boss vis-a-vis a female boss. Because of years of conditioning and lack of better awareness, it is often difficult for women to be accepted as leaders and bosses, and it first requires additional effort to bridge that gap (which is the default setting for a male counterpart). However, thanks to various women leaders, in India, and even globally, this is changing.
We are currently at the cusp – it is our responsibility, as a society, to pave the way for a gender-free work atmosphere. Where positions, workforce, leadership isn’t looked at all from the lens of gender, but purely from talent and grit. So that, the next generation of women can start the race at the same starting line as their male counterpart.