Women As Agents of Change by Kay S - Author of "Unfinished"

Women As Agents of Change

"Woman is a full circle…Within her is the power to create, nurture, and transform."

The above quote explains in a very apt manner the capability of a woman who I feel can be the epitome of a perfect agent to bring out a change in any sphere of life.  For centuries, a woman has been the main pillar, albeit an invisible and unrecognized one, behind many success stories that have been an eye opener in this world.  Many of us seem to live abysmally forgetting all those strong women who have naturally been entrepreneurial and the main cause for the birth and success of many entrepreneurs of this world.  It might indeed be a cliché when I say that every mother, grandmother, or great-grandmother in our families have been successful in their own respects.  Women by nature are good at nurturing positive attitudes, fiscal management, problem solving, teamwork, loyalty, commitment, marketing, multitasking, organization of tasks, and enhancement of honing of skills.  Consider all these attributes that you would have seen in the women in your own families and you will find that you have had the best entrepreneur and agent of change in your own household.  A woman is adept at accepting a dual-role very gracefully and efficiently and she has and always will be the most positive agent of bringing about a change in the world in whatever sphere she enters, be it trade, politics, environment, household, or innovation.

Consider all the characteristics I mentioned of a woman and apply this into the corporate world and Voila! You have an excellent, multitalented, multifaceted, loyal, brilliant, and very resourceful entrepreneur at hand.  Looking at the world the way it is today reveals how women have managed to successfully bring about a drastic and phenomenal change in development of organizations, changes in the society, transformations in environment, political changes, and positive trends in successful exports in trade on the global arena.  The foreign trade revolution where the emphasis turned from manufacturing and product-oriented economy to knowledge-based services, the advent of the wireless economy, information and communication technology (ICT), e-commerce, mobile commerce, and internet-based application service providers (ASPs) have brought in the birth of many successful women entrepreneurs who are out to prove themselves in a male-dominated world.  The likes of Ms. Kiran Mazumdar Shah, Ms. Hillary Clinton, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, and Ms. Indra Nooyi, to mention a few, are proof of that.  These women have been instrumental in the creation of employment in abundance, the development and growth of corporations, global connections and relationships, and the inflow of foreign exchange.

The government policies and support of financial institutions, microcredit, and microfinancing have helped the emergence of women entrepreneurs and helped fulfill their aspirations albeit with a lot of hurdles in the process.  The services industry vis-à-vis IT, BPO, KPO, LPO, ITES, outsource of healthcare services, and medical tourism has created opportunities galore for women who have enabled a inflow of a huge amount of foreign exchange into the country and have been instrumental in the development of enterprises that thrive on the expertise of these women to make them a phenomenal success.  These sectors are very apt for women as they use the inherent skills of a woman in the most efficient way and give her the flexibility to excel while at the same time enabling her to balance her dual responsibility of a mother, wife, or significant other.

These above-mentioned accomplishments and achievements have not come as smoothly or easily as it might seem.  They come with their own set of struggles and complications and it might be like opening Pandora's box of sorts to expose the hurdles these women have faced or the hurdles that we women still face in aspiring to achieve the success and bring about the phenomenal change in the world that we are so very capable of.  Women have very minimal capital or reserves at their disposal and they have been sometimes forced to depend on the men in the family for support, which is probably why there are many entrepreneurs who are only the decorative element of an organization where the men rule the roost and make all the important decisions.  The greatest hurdle for women has been procuring the finance required to establish and grow to the level she is so very capable of.  The policies that have been proposed are seldom implemented at grass-roots level or the local branches, as women are asked to furnish a collateral security against loans or advances, which has been one of the most difficult tasks for women.  The services industry naturally has longer billing cycles and that translates to the fact that although there are contracts, we will have to ensure the payment of salaries and other overheads on our own for that period of time and the banks have been very reluctant in helping with the working capital.  The people who have made the most money in this scenario here have been the private money lenders and financiers who have money at their disposal and give it away at astronomical lending rate of interest.  These are factors that can really be very discouraging to the women who can truly be instrumental in bringing about the changes and growth of an economy to gigantic heights.

I would like to drive a very important point across to all the banks and financial institutions today.  Women are out to prove themselves to the world in a male-dominated bastion and hence the determining factor of them being loan worthy should be the entrepreneurial spirit in them and the promising quality of women to prove herself in her endeavor to succeed is the element to be recognized and not the strength of her assets or finances.  The chances of failure are very low when one is out to prove oneself.  Women are aspiring to be liberal, independent, successful, and are very conscientious.  Records prove the high repayment rate of loans of women than men as they are diligent and are very conscious about being labeled as a failure or a fraud.  My sincere request to all the women out there who are aspiring to make a change is to firmly believe in themselves and be assertive in their approach with financial institutions.  The only thing that is a constant in this world is change and yet a human being is so averse, afraid, and insecure to accept that single truth.  I end this article by mentioning a very inspirational quote that I found and it goes like this, “The strength of a woman can carry the weight of the world.”  But the million-dollar question would be - is the world out there ready to support her in this endeavor to be an agent of change?

Written for the XII Commonwealth-India Business Meet