Aruna Rangachar, Director, Interspice Biotech Ltd., Chennai, is the winner of the "Outstanding Business woman Manager, 2003" award. This award was conferred on her by MMA on March 8th on the occasion of International Women's Day.

This is a presentation submitted by Ms Rangachar to the MMA on Enabling Entrepreneurship in Women    Strategies and Solutions

At the recently concluded National Fair on the future of bio-enterprises conducted by Women's Biotech Park, Chennai, I was asked to speak on "What it is to be a woman bio-entrepreneur". What the organisers had in fact done was coined a new phrase to describe a new species in this wide and wonderful world! Woman bio-entrepreneur    operative words being woman, biotechnology and entrepreneur. My interpretation?

• Woman    Life, Care and Food Provider.
• Biotechnology    Bio : From life, Technology : Applied Science
• Entrepreneur    Provider of products & services

..Do we see the perfect synergies? It is simple    we have been entrepreneurs for centuries    even before the word was coined, only we didn't realise and leverage this knowledge. Well, we and the rest of the world have embarked on this adventurous journey of business relationships    a process of rediscovery, which is having interesting consequences for all the travelers.

Again    operative words being adventurous, business, rediscovery and consequences.

• Adventurous    territory firmly secured by the male species over generations needs to be reconfigured. With every new woman entrepreneur that steps into this territory, unique challenges are encountered.

• Business    women have been providers of products and services since time immemorial    to their families, larger society but the concept of appropriating a value for such products and services is something alien. That learning comes at the cost of changing paradigms in relationships.

• Rediscovery    in a world dominated by left brain thinking, the advantages of the refreshing blend of left and right brain thinking as applied by women in business is being discovered. It is therefore heartening to note the talk about Emotional and Spiritual intelligence in management.

• Consequences    I think, therefore I am    the process of thinking at multi-levels combined with a sharper sensitivity has exposed women in recent times to an outside world that is changing, albeit slowly. The adaptation skills required of women and more importantly, men, to face up to these consequences is therefore critical.

Our dreams have to be bigger
Our ambitions higher
Our commitment deeper
And our efforts greater

- Dhirubhai Ambani, Founder, Reliance Group

Though Dhirubhai meant this for the Reliance team, it could well be an anthem for women in business. Entrepreneurship by definition implies being in control of one's life and activities. So going by the cause and effect principle, one need not look very far to figure out why entrepreneurship in women has been slow to manifest. How many women in India today make decisions concerning their life and activities? What are the vast majority of women brought up to be    wives and mothers? A mental conditioning that internalizes a feeling of dependence as opposed to independence. It is precisely this independence that society has denied to women all along. The past three decades have seen the evolution of women as a powerful contributing workforce    starting from the traditional moulds of teachers, secretaries, nurses, models etc. to doctors, lawyers, engineers, management professionals, film makers, even astronauts. A long and difficult road traveled    hop, skip and jumping over mindsets. Enabling entrepreneurship in women will require an even greater reversal of traditional attitudes than the mere creation of jobs for women would.

We talk of societal change    a peculiar chicken and egg situation, which comes first? Going by the past, the obstacle race run by women in the men's world of jobs, forced attitudinal changes in society, not in a sweep but in excruciating steps. Steps that involved and still involve straddling multiple roles    "hey guys, look at me    superwoman    can cook, clean, take care of the kids & in-laws, run errands etc. etc. and still bring in the money". The universe is strange    a woman's day has 25 hours, a man's only 10! With aspiration levels rising continuously and costs going up, it sure does make sense to have a dual income family. What the larger society needs to internalize is the logic that it also makes sense to have shared responsibilities between working men and women in other areas of life, without gender bias. A lot of women having aspirations to work outside their homes are also put off by the increase in workload. The working world also does not take too kindly to a woman taking a career break to devote time to bringing up her children and rejoining after a few years. So, the balancing and juggling act continues...

It would make an interesting study if the percentage of girl and boy toppers in schools and colleges were compared with the statistics of the percentage of women and men toppers in the work area. I am fairly certain that there will be a drastic dip in the later years.

Where have all the flowers gone
Long time not seen
They must have picked them, every one
Oh, when w

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