WomEntrepreneurs

Though Indian women have illuminated the country’s political arena, cracked the glass ceilings of corporate boardrooms and, pushed through game- changing agendas for empowering women in society, it’s going to be a rough ride to achieve the United Nations’ sustainable goal of gender equality by 2030.

In Goa at the Santa Monica Monastery a big surprise is its superb art works. And who were the artists behind these amazing creations? Nuns who joined this Augustinian nunnery in the 17th century! Cut off from the world–and even their loved ones, they had to adhere to the rigorous disciplinary rules, which included ‘no speaking, no listening, no reading and no travelling’. Unable to live out their days under these strictures, created by men, the nuns found their voice in these stunning artworks.

Women all over the world, in particular in patriarchal societies, have struggled against the secondary role, and discriminatory attitudes, defined for them by men in all avenues of life–economic, social or political. Traditionally, since the post-Vedic and epic period, such has been the conditioning by societal rules all over India, regardless of whether it’s in rural areas or urban landscapes. It is only in the 20th century, kicked off by the National movement that changes slowly set in to tweak the balance.

All across India — in the rural landscape or urban spaces, women have been blazing the trail of entrepreneurship and revelling in the empowerment that their life and work choices bring them. Whether heading the village panchayat or steering the course of a large bank as a CEO, or wowing the world as leading surgeon, it’s a well-known fact that women are more adept at multi-tasking than men and this conditioning serves them well in efficiently discharging her professional responsibilities at the workplace. Nations across the world now recognise the importance of the contribution of women to a country’s economic growth.

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