GENDER DIFFERENCES AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A CAREER OPTION: AN ANALYSIS

MS. SHEETAL SONI Senior Research Fellow Department of Management Studies Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur House No. 10/154 Chopasani Housing Board, Jodhpur – Rajasthan (342 001) Contact No.- +91 9772664525 Email: sheetaljasmatiya@gmail.com

Dr. ABHISHEK SONI Assistant Professor Department of Management Studies JIET Group of Institutions House No. 10/154, Chopasani Housing Board Jodhpur – Rajasthan (342 001) Contact No.- +91 9828031516 Email: drabhishekmahecha@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Today Indian economy is on the edge of thriving entrepreneurial ac­tivities. India is flourishing with the ‘Demographic Dividend’ with the motivation to do best in their career. The present economy is expecting to grow with the new prospects of entrepreneurship. For that a healthy business environment is an essential requirement for entrepreneurial growth. The phenomenon of female economic activity and women's employment in each of these segments are main issues in the economy of all developing nations. The present paper tries to explore the young generation’s mindsets to entrepreneurship and their inclination to be job creators. For this purpose, responses were collected from management students consisting of male and female and their responses were analyzed using statistical method. The paper analyzes the relationship between inclination to entrepreneurship and gender.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Education, Women Empowerment, Economy, Career

INTRODUCTION

Entrepreneurship has been known as an imperative source of economic growth. Entrepreneurial spirit is required among young aspirants in order to achieve the objective of economic growth. The young generation of India need to take step to play entrepreneurial role and creating many more opportunities for the others. Women entrepreneurs are also playing an important part in generating many job opportunities for the bottom line. Social and economic development of women is necessary for overall economic development of any society or a country . Women’s entrepreneurship can make a predominantly strong input to the economic well-being of the family and communities, poverty reduction and women’s empowerment. Governing bodies and several progressive firms are vigorously undertaking encouragement of women entrepreneurs through various proposals, incentives and promotional channels.

With increase in dependency on service sector, many entrepreneurial opportunities especially for women have been created where they can excel their skills with maintaining balance in their life. Accordingly, during the last two decades, increasing numbers of Indian women have entered the field of entrepreneurship and also they are gradually changing the face of business of today, both literally and figuratively. Entrepreneurship is the way of thinking every woman has in her but has not been capitalized in India in the way in which it should be (Bhardwaj, Gurendra Nath; Parashar, Swati; Pandey, Babita; Sahu, Puspamita;, n.d.).

LITERATURE REVIEW

Development of entrepreneurship culture and qualitative business development services are the major requirements for industrial growth. Entrepreneurship comes from young generation’s individual innovative strength for long-term business ownership, job creation, capital development and economic safety. Entrepreneurial skills are indispensable for industrialisation and for mitigation of mass idleness and poverty (ShodhGanga, n.d.). India’s modern independent economy requires involvement of men and women’s entrepreneurial spirits for the growth.

The present digital and dynamic era has created numerous opportunities along with challenges for the job seekers to work as job creators. Women entrepreneurship has long been associated with con­cepts such as women empowerment and emancipation. In­creasingly, it has also been marketed as crucial for increasing the quality of life of women in the developing world (Malyadri, 2014). Women are gradually increasing as an entrepreneur as designers, interior decorators, exporters, publishers, garment manufacturers and still discovering new opportunities of economic contribution.

In words of Medha Dubhashi Vinze, a woman entrepreneur is a one who is an innovative person with an eye for chance and strong vision, business sharpness, with wonderful determination and above all a person who is willing to take risks with the unidentified because of the courageous spirit she possesses. According to census 2011, the population of India consists of 48.5 percent females i.e. there are 949 females to 1000 males in rural area and 929 females to 1000 males in urban area (Central Statistics Office, 2011). A total of 20.5% women were employed in the organized sector in 2011 with 18.1% working in the public sector and 24.3% in the private (Central Statistics Office, 2011). Education is also a major factor helping women to develop and learn entrepreneurial skills. According to census report 2011, overall female literacy rate in India is much lower than that of male literacy rate. The female literacy levels according to the Literacy Rate 2011 census are 65.46% whereas the male literacy rate is over 80% (Central Statistics Office, 2011). The society needs to grow in balance for both men and women for overall sustainable development of the Nation. The empowerment of women gets jeopardized due to various crimes against them (Central Statistics Office, 2011).

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Young generation of today’s time represent tomorrow’s entrepreneurs and leaders, yet little is identified about this generation’s attitudes towards careers in business and entrepreneurship or searching for jobs. The present research paper tries to explore the interest of the young generation to be job seekers or to be job creators. The objective is to identify the differences between the choices of male and female students towards entrepreneurship and to explore whether the choice towards entrepreneurship is affected by gender or not.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The present research study is a descriptive in nature. Responses were collected from management students of Jodhpur city with the help of random sampling. The sampling quota was decided for male and female. In order to find accuracy in terms of numbers, sampling size was divided equally between male and female. The present study was based on primary data collection and responses were collected using structured questionnaire. The questions consisting of dichotomous questions for ease of responses. The respondents were asked about their reasons to choose management education and their inclination towards entrepreneurship.

DATA ANALYSIS

To analyze students’ inclination towards entrepreneurship, questions were framed asking, “Why you have joined management education?” “What will be your career choice after completing management degree?” and “if provided, would you like to start your own venture”, Reponses were collected in dichotomous form from hundred respondents consisting of fifty males and fifty females. The collected responses have been shown with the help of bar charts and cross-tab and responses was also analyzed using Pearson Chi-Square test.

Figure 1: Aim to Join Management Education

The above figure states that 49 percent students would like to do job after completing their management degree, whereas, 37 percent students joined management education just to obtain management degree only. 12 percent students state their reason to doing management education to run and expand their existing business.

To analyze students’ inclination towards entrepreneurship statistical package SPSS version 20.0 was used. It was analyzed by using sample descriptive statistics, the Pearson Chi-Square and Cross-tab. To facilitate this analysis, dichotomous question was used. The analysis is shown below.

The Pearson chi-square test essentially tells us whether the results of a crosstab are statistically significant. That is, the two categorical variables independent (unrelated) of one another. So basically, the chi square test is a correlation test for categorical variables.

Table 1 Cross-Tab Output

The table 1 shows relationship between gender and inclination towards entrepreneurship. This table allows us to understand that both males and females approximately evenly attracts towards entrepreneurship. Total 73 percent respondents state their inclination to start their own venture, and out of this percent 39 percent were male and 34 percent were female. Only 27 percent states their rejection towards entrepreneurship out of which 11 percent were male and 16 percent were female. Thus, from the above data presentation, it can be concluded that male are more attracted as compared to female.

The data is further analyzed using Pearson Chi-Square Test in order to test significance of the findings. The analysis was conducted using the hypothesis to test the dependency between two variables i.e. entrepreneurship and gender.

Hypothesis: Inclination towards entrepreneurship and gender are independent.

H₀: Inclination towards entrepreneurship is not dependent on gender.

H_a: Inclination towards entrepreneurship is dependent on gender.

Table 2: Chi-Square Test Tables

The above table (Table 2) presents Pearson Chi-Square test statistics. The statistics result shows the confirmation to the assumption that 0 cells have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 13.50, and it also matches another assumption that the table is 2x2 table consisting of categorical variables. In reading this table, Pearson Chi-Square value is more important to analyze the significance in the relationship between the variables.

The column labelled "Asymptotic Significance (2-sided) " is the level of significance for the chi-square value (1.268) with the corresponding degree of freedom (DF=1). The significance shows p =.260. In sociological research, typical level of significance adopted to reject the null hypothesis is p at 0.05, for the present data the p value is .260 i.e. is greater than 0.05. Thus from above statistical analysis, we are much confident in accepting the null hypothesis. Hence, we may conclude that inclination towards entrepreneurship is not dependent on gender. Both male and female students equally attracts towards entrepreneurship.

FINDINGS

From the above analysis inferences can be drawn that, in today’s era females are equally attracted towards entrepreneurship. Female respondents have shown equal preference towards starting a new venture. Education has played an important function in developing the entrepreneurial mindsets among youngsters. Equality in education to male and female has removed the discrimination and domination of men over commercial business activities. Women has penetrated into different areas of commercial activities such as services industry relating to hospitality, educational services, catering, public relations or consultation, beauty clinics, etc (Sharma, 2013). There are various other factors that is affecting or narrowing role of women to exhibit their entrepreneurial skills. In order to promote role of women in entrepreneurship, an agreeable environment is required to be shaped to allow women to contribute enthusiastically in the entrepreneurial conducts. There is a need of Government, non-Government, promotional and regulatory agencies to come forward and play the encouraging task in upholding the women entrepreneur in India (Sharma, 2013).

CONCLUSION

In the new age of the developing nation, women entrepreneurs are playing an indispensible role for the economy’s growth while embracing their gender differences by creating female-inspired products and services. Education can only create an entrepreneurially supportive environment to promote entrepreneurial activity in turn would help to develop an enterprise culture among university students who are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs (Roffe 1999). Therefore it is imperative to portray a constructive picture of entrepreneurship as career option to draw students’ attentions within the university atmosphere by facilitating the resources to venture into the field.

REFERENCES

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